So I wanted to get away from people and headed for locked gates. There were a few trucks there so in the early morning darkness I hiked for about 70 minutes, got a few miles back, a bit of elevation, and waited for sunrise.
It came and nothing was to be seen. Watched, waited, nothing. Walked about another two miles, or so, and found a herd about 1000 yards out and it had a legal bull! So I devised a strategy to get within range of him while watching what they were doing. Weren't in any hurry, just feeding and taking their time.
Figured my best bet was to circle around to keep the wind in my favor which meant I had to completely lose sight of them, go around a patch of trees, come out to roughly 600 yards, and take another look. Did that in a few minutes, took a peek when I had a vantage point, and they hadn't moved much at all. Now there was no cover, just me and the elk and a lot of fairly open ground. I was able to get about 50 yards with the dip in the terrain blocking their view of me. I don't currently have a rangefinder, and my rifle hasn't proven itself at long ranges yet, so a long shot was out of the question. This had to be 300 yards or less. For the next 20 minutes, I actually crawled on my hands and knees closing the distance. Closer, looking good, closer, looking better, ok this looks about right.
Finally, am about 300 yards out, see the elk, but have no shot at the bull. What little cover is there, is right in front of him. Have to wait, and wait, and wait. After a few minutes, he was clear of it, but there was a cow behind him and couldn't take the shot again. After a few moments, she cleared him, I had the shot, and took it!
Small 5x5 (with one point almost being gone from him breaking it early on). The 140 Accubond performed well. Through the left shoulder, ribs, spine, and ribs on other side.
BTW, that story is a bunch of crap. What really happened was we (neighbor and I) were driving from one area to a clearcut that had some good trees next to it that we were going to walk through and try to find elk in. As soon as we came up to that clearcut, there they were, in plain sight. Stopped, jumped out, went off the side of the road, got a rest... the part about a cow being behind him was true so I had to wait. Bullet performace is true as well. End result is the same.
About 3 or 4 minutes after I got him two people came walking out of the woods we were going to go into. They found him and the herd he was with, saw him a few times, never got a shot off. They pushed them out into the clearing, we saw him and thats that. Right place at the right time. Was about 150 yards.
