My 14 yr old boy's first bull elk at 940 yards.....I spent most of last summer getting my boy confident at 1,000 yards in varing wind conditions. With me spotting and doping the wind for him, he got pretty good at it, in fact he may even have a better eye than dear old dad.
Anyhow, my brother and I had already dropped our elk at 800 and 830 yards while he was in school and now it was time for Hunter to get his elk.
The night before was one of the worst wind storms I had ever been in with our wall tent. Many times that night, I was up trying to keep the smoke from back drafting in the tent, by about 3 am, I just put out the fire in the stove and went to bed.
By 5 am it was still blowing, and at about 9 am it all stopped. At that point we all said, crap, we got to go. We got to our ambush point way tooo late.
When we got there, a rag horn was walking at about 850 and there just was not enough time to get on him. So we just let him go and started to glass. A bit later, we spot several bedded and a spike by a tree at 940 yards, but my boy was not comfortable with the shot. A bit later, the bull bedded just behind a tree.
I told my boy to stay in the scope and watch for the bull to get up and be ready on the left side of the tree. My boy said, how do you know he's gonna walk left?? I said, look at the body, you see the dark brown head and chest, it's pointed left and ten bucks says he's gonna walk left when he gets up, so hold your cross hairs left of the tree and watch.
About 30 minutes later the bull stands up and kind of streatches. My boy is on the gun and the wind is light and variable and I dope it left, then dope it right, then finally go back to zero and say just hold for the wind to settle. Finally the wind settles and I say..."you on it",,,he says yea im on it...I say..."send it" and wham!!
The bull staggers like he's drunk....and I said put another in and tell me when you're on it...He said im on it...I see the wind is just about nill at this point and say..."send it" and wham,,,he drops like a ton of bricks.
When we recovered the bull, we see the first shot was dead center heart and lung and the second shot was a bit higher and broke his shoulder and neck. Had we of waited another minute and not shot, the bull would have dropped in his tracks.
Needless to say, my boy is now addicted to long range shooting and hunting. Foto below......
zman
Anyhow, my brother and I had already dropped our elk at 800 and 830 yards while he was in school and now it was time for Hunter to get his elk.
The night before was one of the worst wind storms I had ever been in with our wall tent. Many times that night, I was up trying to keep the smoke from back drafting in the tent, by about 3 am, I just put out the fire in the stove and went to bed.
By 5 am it was still blowing, and at about 9 am it all stopped. At that point we all said, crap, we got to go. We got to our ambush point way tooo late.
When we got there, a rag horn was walking at about 850 and there just was not enough time to get on him. So we just let him go and started to glass. A bit later, we spot several bedded and a spike by a tree at 940 yards, but my boy was not comfortable with the shot. A bit later, the bull bedded just behind a tree.
I told my boy to stay in the scope and watch for the bull to get up and be ready on the left side of the tree. My boy said, how do you know he's gonna walk left?? I said, look at the body, you see the dark brown head and chest, it's pointed left and ten bucks says he's gonna walk left when he gets up, so hold your cross hairs left of the tree and watch.
About 30 minutes later the bull stands up and kind of streatches. My boy is on the gun and the wind is light and variable and I dope it left, then dope it right, then finally go back to zero and say just hold for the wind to settle. Finally the wind settles and I say..."you on it",,,he says yea im on it...I say..."send it" and wham!!
The bull staggers like he's drunk....and I said put another in and tell me when you're on it...He said im on it...I see the wind is just about nill at this point and say..."send it" and wham,,,he drops like a ton of bricks.
When we recovered the bull, we see the first shot was dead center heart and lung and the second shot was a bit higher and broke his shoulder and neck. Had we of waited another minute and not shot, the bull would have dropped in his tracks.
Needless to say, my boy is now addicted to long range shooting and hunting. Foto below......
zman
