Guided my friend on his hunt in Unit 21A in New Mexico a few weeks ago. We scouted the area the week before and located a small herd of cows and a few bulls. The evening before the hunt we located them again being careful not to booger them. On opening morning we set up on a ridge before daylight and waited patiently glassing the ridges. A few bulls were bugling but never could get a visual on them. We moved to another ridge and by chance I spotted a bull bedded under a Pinon on an opposing ridge. It took my friend about 10 minutes for him to see him but finally located him. I ranged the bull at 521 yards with my LRF and plugged the distance into a Kestrel 4500AB. I set my friend up on a tripod with a saddle and dialed in the solution into the scope. I was watching through my spotting scope as he sent the round and saw it impact right behind the shoulder. The bull stood up staggered a few yards then went tits up in a cloud of dust. We had him quartered and back at camp by 12:30 in the afternoon.
He was shooting a Tikka T3 in 270 shooting Berger 150 gr. VLD's clocking at 2860 fps. I had mounted a NF 3.5-15x50 on his rifle and we spent a fair amount of time at the range dialing him in and practicing long shots. We never would have attempted the shot without all the range time as well as having the right tools.
