Last weekend was the opening of Elk season in my sons region of British Columbia Canada. This year Deereman ( son) was holding out for a freezer full of elk meat for the winter.
Having left the ranch he worked on for twenty years he is lucky enough to to still be able to hunt there. This year he took one of his new bosses along as he had never hunted elk only mule deer.
Four days were booked in for leave and they headed up to Princton on the Friday ready an early start. Prior to my son leaving the property he and his then workmate Bob had made a blind up on one of the elks favourite fields which sheltered them from the weather and lots of elk eyes that are forever search for danger.
They had to carefully and quietly sneak into position before sunup and be ready for the elk to move across the fields as day light came on. As the light gathered elk were spread out in front of them , mostly cows and a few young bulls and rag horns. One bull stood out but at first glance didn't look to have 6 points on one side which is the minimum for a legal bull.
When the bull turned side on Deereman thought hell that bull has a bit of length so he decided to get in behind is rifle and start counting points. At 295 yards in dull light that ain't that easy but after several counts he was sure it was legal .
The bull was walking slowly across to the cows so my son took the shot as it walked, the bullet a 190 gr LRAB out of his new 300 Rum hit him just behind the shoulder taking out both lungs. The bull trotted off a bit so a second shot was fired and he was down for keeps.
All this happened in 15 minutes and his elk season is over. As the hunting takes place on private land retrieval is easy as they drove a tractor down and loaded it into the bucket and took it back up to the sheds and skinned, quartered it and into the chiller.
The bull was in top condition as rutting was just starting and he still had a couple of inches of fat over his rump.
Hopefully when the weather cools a bit my grandson may have a chance at a bull as he has a tag also.
Both my grandsons hunt with their dad so hopefully I will have some more stories to add to this one.
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