Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Gumby in Colo. and first elk

Gumby, enjoying the view


pretty scenery




272 yds. .280 Rem 140gr TTSX

Congrats on your elk!!!! I fully appreciate your sig line. Yea.

That cow has what appears to be an enlarged eye..... nice.

Congrats David. I was kinda hoping to see a certain 30-06 Mountain Rifle draped across an elk when I opened this thread, but I reckon a .280 will work too.

Congratulations! One more Tennesseean contributing to the Western economy.

I thought about taking the '06 (it has proven to be a super shooter with 168gr TTSX'x and R-15) but this rifle has earned the trip. I think it is going to South Dakota however...

I'm glad it's shooting well for you. What's on the menu in SD?

where in the heck did you find a beach in colorado?

San Luis Valley farm tag?

Very cool! Congrats on what should be some awesome eating seeing as it looks to have had a pretty good alfalfa diet!

It was a San Luis Valley depredation tag. The sand with all the elk prints used to be alfalfa, hence the tags. The Colorado DOW wants the elk population in the valley to be zero (the herd is about 3000 strong now) since they have to compensate the farmers for crop loss. These elk live in the tall sage and chico brush and don't really go back and forth from the mountains as you'd think. A lot of spot and stalk-watching them bed down, letting them settle in then work a stalk. I boned this cow and there was a suprising amount of meat and it is very good. So, I got to shoot an elk, got some ivory and great meat, and spent time in a very pretty place. I'd go again.

good deal ! and nice elk and shooting.
how'd the 140 ttsx work on her... yeah, i know it turned out dead, but where'd ya hit her and what did the entrance and exit look like ?
i shot a cow 2 winters ago with a 140 ttsx outta my 280ai at just under 300 yards and the double lung hit was a perfect hole in and out with wrecked lungs.
awesome bullets.

The shot was in the base of the neck foward of the shoulder-it shttered the spine and left a fist sized hole on the entrance (right) side. I found no remnant of the bullet and there was not an exit wound-I don't know if the bullet skipped out or up through the entrance wound, enlarging it. I didn't get into a full blown exam, we had four elk down (one 5x5 bull, two cows and a calf), it was warm and there was a lot to do. Two of us gutted, skinned and quartered the four elk and then I boned my cow. I did cut that section of the neck out and look at the damage to the area trying to salvage what meat I could.

Congrats! Nice freezer filler for sure. This sounds interesting to me. So are tags over the counter? Is there public land there to be hunted? Looking for an opportunity to do my first Elk hunt and have no worry about shooting some trophy bull... I am pretty much a meat hunter anyways.

Thanks for sharing.

The depradation tags are not over the counter. You still need the regular tag (that is OTC) to use the depadation tag. There is public land around the valley, but most of the San Luis valley is privately owned.

Nice hunt.
And it's good to know that Gumby is pro-hunting

Gumby likes South Dakota also..

Looks like Gumby is quite the good luck charm!

After seeing this buck, I might go out and buy a Gumby to take with..

Gumby needs to score on some camo. Don't see how he could possible get within range dressed the way he is.