Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 2018 Backpack Hunting Trip

As stated, keep driving rounds into an animal until down. But, NOT wildly throwing rounds. If you’re alone and behind a large magnum, depending on the yardage, you may or may not recover to see actual impact. You might hear a “smack” indicating a hit. Rely on what you’re seeing the animal doing in your scope after the first shot if you can’t tell impacts.

A lurch, humped up with head down, stationary but wobbling, or down with head up moving about...These are all a good situation to send another one into him...Don’t get rattled and start changing your POA. You likely made a good hit with your first shot. Otherwise you wouldn’t see these behaviors...😎

One of my pards had this setup for elk hunting. It’s on my Christmas list for the wife...😎

Dang, that's some steep country......

After about 30 minutes the snow slowed a bit and we rucked up, and started picking out way down the ridge across from the bull. It was quite steep, and some of it was done sliding on out butts, and some reverse climbing.


The least steep portion








Once at the bottom we paused to refill water in a small stream and find a place to climb up.













It was a virtual cliff up the other side for several hundred feet. After filling up water, they waited while I moved up and down the gorge trying to see if there was a way up. I finally found what I though would be a route up it, but it would be climbing... not hiking. Everyone got their packs on and up we started. There was enough snow on the rock face that you could kick in foot holds and climb up. It was hands and feet the whole way, with several questionable spots even by our standards.






No one said a word until we got out of the cliff 30-40 minutes later. At the top only OC said “that was sporty.... let’s not do it agin”. I asked Yo how he was and he only replied with “fugg that”. TJ said his ankle was holding up ok.


The general consensus-





Once we got above the rocks, we got the trees and above that the snow started again, though not super heavy this time. We initially came up with TJ and Yo saying they thought the bull was to the right, and OC and myself thinking it’s to the left. So TJ and Yo went to the right, OC to the left, and I went up the middle. From left to right we were only 100-150 yards apart in the open, but the hill curved around so tight and it was so steep that we could see each other without someone in the middle. After 3-4 minutes of climbing and looking I spotted the bull above OC and called the others over.

Walking up to him you could see two exit holes in the chest, one being the aforementioned first shot through the off leg. The second being the broadside second shot.




This was the first elk TJ and Yo had even seen up close, let alone killed. Both were pretty darn excited but it didn’t taken long for Yo to notice that elk are big suckers. After a minute of checking him out he goes- “bro, this things coming out on our backs....”. Haha. Yes, yes it is.




To be cont.....

I think your talking me out of using magnums......

Bro, I always scream out first; “300 RUM coming at yah bitches”, and all my furs just fall over...Grin
Sweet hunt you took “YO” on. He’s hooked deep on slaying the Wapiti forever. Cont...😎

Form's hunting "stories" always involve feats of physical endurance that mere mortals could not accomplish, a rifle that should have been annihilated (but miraculously survived), and ingenious tactics that reinvent the wheel.


This one is much less suspenseful than the one where he dropped his rifle off a cliff and was running up ridges to kill elk, but its interesting none the less. I'm not sure how many times you would have to drop a rifle on frozen ground to get a big glob of dirt stuck to it for the photo op, but I image its not easy.

Yep. That’s it. 👍🏻

Glad you have a sense of humor about it Form. I greatly appreciate all of your R&D on scopes/mounting systems.

I'm always impressed by the number of pictures and words. I seem to have a good adventure or two on the regular, but to document it all in this level of detail is astounding if nothing else. I like a guy who looks at the same thing I've been looking at from a different perspective, it's a net positive for general savvy.

Well as I said it’s not just “hunting”. Can’t go back to work and say “we climbed a mountain, it was hard”. “I carried this pack, it was great”. The pictures and most of the details have to be written down anyways, so adding a bit to make it a story versus a clinical report isn’t that much work.

I like it! Good content is sparse around here...

Of the hunting variety, I agree!!

A lot of us have been doing this for years. Post in the backpack forum.

I was thinking the elk forum. But, they did use a rifle, so the rifle forum would work too. Oh wait, the truck forum, as I do recall a truck being used for transportation. But posting a big game hunt in the General Big Game forum? Crazy.

Agreed, enjoyable read and unbelievable that they did it all while wearing those black blindfolds!!

Anyone too good to learn is a goon. Someone who shares what he knows is a teammate. Cool report Formi, thank you.


mike r

I love reading about anybody's adventures, Form's included. Can't wait for the rest of the story on this one.

Maybe when Form retires, he'll tell us where he actually works so we can put his knowledge in context. There's no doubt he knows his [bleep] and the knowledge is hard won. I for one am glad he shares it.

Well don’t leave us hanging, would like to hear the rest of the story too.

Hmmm written in a report. So you're testing gear? In montana...hmmm. Not that you'll answer (or could), but I get the feeling you're apart a of Cool Application Group.....if you get my drift