Community > Photo & Video
My pics from over the years
Boss .300 winmag:
Nice bulls, like your stories.👍
Kingofthemountain83:
--- Quote from: Boss .300 winmag on February 10, 2026, 05:59:14 PM ---Nice bulls, live your stories.👍
--- End quote ---
Thank you! Appreciate that...
Kingofthemountain83:
2023 we got lucky and had the spike only tags... Opening Morning found us 5 1/2 miles in positioned on this ridge we were all to familiar with... Sunrise came and here comes a cow followed by a spike... Perfect! I chose to use the Hawkin this year for some reason... My dad always cursed it... I'm the least familiar with it of all the muzzys we have... I cock back and settle my sights they stop at the sound of the hammer locking... Perfect broadside shot... 51 yards... I squeeze the trigger and click! I squeezed the set trigger... I think the cow heard the click and she started to move... The spike follows I stand start to get the sights settled on the and boom! as soon as my finger puts an ounce of pressure on the trigger... I knew I shot over him... Cow runs off... Spike could care less with his nose up her butt... They run right by my dad down ridge a few hundred yards totally unscathed... Clean miss... My dad was laughing... Said he did that when he first got it on a doe in the 80's... Among other happenings...
We regroup and still hunt the day away having several more close calls and spike encounters that just don't work out one way or the other and was an action packed day of elk hunting... We're walking back out about 2 miles from the truck 30 minutes before dark and a herd crosses in front of us with two spikes in it a couple hundred yards down... We jumped up ridge in the pines and started sweet talking... A really whistle bugle responds and you can hear him running towards us... I cock back and am holding steady he pops out in the opening at 20 feet I pick up the slack in the trigger and click again! The spike keeps coming I hastily regroup and get my finger on the correct trigger but now the spike it behind some pine but less then 12 steps and coming in hot... I try to adjust for a head shot and I honestly don't know what happened but that trigger goes off on a touch after the set is trigger is pulled... Think the spike may be hard of hearing after that though... You could see him blow out some smoke as he ran away... My dad couldn't believe it... Neither could I... We saw 7 spikes opening day and I missed two of them... If I pulled the right trigger the first time... Couldn't of had a better day hunting with my dad... I ran into a lady friend I hadn't seen in a while that night on the way out and made some questionable life choices so I didn't make it back to camp till 9am the next day...
But by 1030 I was ready to go and hunting out of camp... I hiked up the road about a 1/4 mile got to where i was going and cut down off and was stand on this dead fall looking and listening, about 50 yards below the road and I heard a real whislty bugle... I just stood there... Then I catch movement... It's an elk... Moving towards me... It looks like a little bull... He ducks under a burnt hanger and starts feeding... Looks like a spike... I get my binocs on him... It's a spike... I range him at 53 yards quartering towards head dowin hill... I step off the dead fall to get more stable and I can't see him... I get back on the dead fall... Kneel down and take a brace on my knee and elbow... Cock back and make sure my finger goes on the forward trigger... Pick up the slack as I hold for the base of his neck and aim for opposite lung and the smoke rolls... I know I hit him... He stand up... Whirls around... I jump off the log... Get my reload out of my pocket and reload... I get back up on the log and he's laying down head up... Same spot face opposite direction though... I'm the type that keeps shooting elk till they're dead from prior experiences... So I take a knee,cock back, settle my sights and aim for lungs... Boom! He lurches up... Now he gets up... He's trying to walk but he can't... So he lays back down... All my other reloads are in my pack so I gotta take it off and get to it while keeping an eye on the bull... He keeps trying to stand but can't... I reload... Get back on the dead fall and put another one through his lungs... He finally drops his head about 30 seconds after the last shot... I heard a vehicle coming up the road and look up... It's my dad... I run up and flag him down let him know I got one... He couldn't believe it... Pretty much 150 yards from the road... We boned him out and put him in garbage bags then the creek over night cause it was rather warm... So the 8th spike we saw and 3rd one I shot at was the charm... Unbelievable season... And he even had a little kicker... May consider it my drop tine spike... :chuckle:
Kingofthemountain83:
Got my boy Phoenix for 8 days while his mom has some military trainings out of state... He's a 4 year old Clumber Spaniel... Supposed to be good hunters but he's never been... He acts like he could be... Sure uses his nose outside... May take him this year and find out... Listens great... Even knows hand signals... Very well mannered guy... Gets hair everywhere... Drools a lot... And sleeps with me... Just like his moms house! He sure is a good looking dog though...
Kingofthemountain83:
Here's a Mason blackie I got about 12 years ago... We always go hunt eastern side for modern deer so I am a little selective on mule deer when I have time to hunt the whole season and come back home for blacktail... Well I saw this guy a handful of times over two years in a couple mile area never getting a shot... Finally one day I was watching this 6 year old reprod like a hawk... About 1030 am on October 30th and there he was at 88 yards standing there feeding... I put the crosshair on his lungs, squeezed the trigger on the 243, and he dropped while the 80 gr GMX scooted through him... No clue how he got there... I had been at my elevated stop tucked in before daylight watching, glassing, not sleeping... I figured he was bedded right in there and had just stood up and started feeding... After gutting him I snooped around followed his tracks back... The guy fed his way through the whole reprod cut I was watching... Over a 1/4 from the tree line in the flat... Crossed the lower road and landing... Up the ridge right to me till he got to 88 yards till I saw and shot him... Who know's how long that route took him... But he was obviously feeding his way through... No bed in the reprod... I should've seen him sooner in my opinion but it worked out... I don't know how I didn't... My family and I have shot several deer and a couple bear out of this spot... It's all grown up now...
One of the battles of hunting the west side... A cut can hold animals for 15+ years in perfect conditions for feed... But after that reprod gets 8+ years old you have to be at the perfect angle to see something that blends in so well...