Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Nice Bull Elk...with an AR-15

Not sure how to post pics, but I harvested a pretty nice bull yesterday with my AR-15.

If I could email a pic to someone who could post it I'd appreciate it.

RR

you may not know how to do pics, but you already proved you can type. Let's have the story and details.

Ok, ok...I was kind of waiting for someone to flame me for using an AR-15.

Out here in West Texas it's deer country. I got a call from a friend/outfitter who had an elk problem. A few years ago a neighbor had imported some private elk from Colorado, I think. Anyway, somehow this one winds up on his place and is running off his deer. He's got hunters coming in and it's causing him problems.

He called me the other night and asked me if I'd like to solve his problem. I didn't have anything loaded for my .300 Win Mag and I'd just changed the sights on my 1886 45/70 and hadn't sighted it in. Well, I know my AR-15 is on so I decided to go with it.

Of course, I switched out to my .458 Socom upper...I'm not stupid, lol. It put a 405gr Remington right through his heart. I don't know how to judge the size of an elk, but he was big. It took 4 of us to get him on a trailer.

RR

Oh, it was an 8 X 7. Don't know the score, though.

RR

Well email me with the pictures, and I'll do the posting.

Tim

Sent from my iPhone to the email in your profile. Hope you got them.

RR

Lance states in his email to me with the last picture. "The most remarkable thing is that David, here field dressed, skinned, and quartered the elk with that little $2 Victorinox kitchen knife in his hand. I've never seen anything like that ... he was amazing."



The AR wouldn't be my first choice, but you can't argue with success.

Tim

Pretty cool deal. Nice to have friends like that.

Tim, you're right. It wasn't my first choice, but the Leupold on my .300 Win Mag wasn't holding a zero. My .260 Rem and .308 were too small. One of my 45/70s wasn't sighted in and the other...well, I just didn't want to shoot him with the Marlin.

But, that AR-15 will put rapid fire 405gr bullets on target faster than you would believe. The EoTech sight is fast and simple. Place the dot and the game drops. I knew where he roamed and was sure I could get a shot of less than 200 yards. He turned right toward me and I dropped him at 70-80.

First choice...not mine either. But I didn't know if it had ever been done before so I wanted to try. I've gained a lot of confidence in that AR from hunting big hogs. I actually put 3 shots behind his shoulder. The first took lungs. I waited to see what he would do. Kept expecting him to drop, but he just stood there with his legs shaking and moving his head back and forth. When he finally turned to take off, the second took out his heart and the third caught his lungs again. Those last two shots were fired within about a half second of each other. At that point I didn't want to screw around with him.

You did well and now have some fine table fare. I had some elk tenderloin tonight. You just can't beat it as far as I'm concerned.
Tim

bullshit.... my 260 has dropped a couple bulls. and it didn't take a handful of cartridges and a half pound of lead to get 'er done, either......Both fell where they stood.

I've heard about folks in texas that believe even a 270 is too small for deer.

That's for dinner tomorrow. Can't wait. Thanks for your help with the pics.

HM, I've killed probably 20 or so deer with my 22-250. No arguments with me about using smaller calibers if you can place your bullet well and it's properly constructed. The .260 cartridge probably would have done the trick, but I was loaded up with 123gr Sierra Match Kings, and I wouldn't consider trying to use them on an elk.

I decided to go with a little more gun. Didn't mean to offend you.

You didn't. Nothing the matter with your choice of gun, either. In fact, I kinda like it. And liked the tale of the hunt, too. I just kinda figured that all the elk killed every year with 260's and 308's should be brought back for a second death, with something not "too small"....

And do you know what those match kings do on a lung shot? Yeah, I can applaud you for not wanting to use them on shoulders and maybe tuff angles, but I'm kinda thinking he wouldn't of stood there, all wobblety like, as happened with the 405's. I've seen the jello that bk's and mk's do, when put into lungs. And most stuff falls right down, when that happens.....

have you got a dummy round for that 458 socom you might part with River Runner?

Nice bull!

Congratulations on a fine hunt.

That is a fine looking Bull. Good job. I think its pretty cool you got him with an AR.

Thanks for all the kind words.

IronEagle - if it's important to you I could put one together. Let me know.

HM, I've been wanting to put one of those SMKs through a whitetail's neck to see how they perform. I'll have to pick a doe, cause I'm expecting a large exit wound. What bullet are you using on bigger game?