Zeus
Blackhawk
As Sixshot mentioned, this was a cull hunt in Idaho for a cow elk on a high fence ranch. Really neat piece of property, beautiful scenery and they had some really large elk on this ranch. I was obviously the slowest of the group to locate an elk, guess I'm a little special or something. That will be clarified later for sure 
Sixshot wasted no time and struck early on Sunday afternoon. Jeff and Contender harvested two large cows on Monday morning pretty early. I was a little slow getting started even. I was in Boise Sunday morning so I didn't get back into town until later in the day on Sunday, just in time to hear Sixshot shoot. Sixshot was also kind enough to cast some softnose cast bullets for testing in the 44 magnums that I brought along on the trip. They consisted of about 100 grains of pure lead on the nose of the Lyman 429421 mold. He sized these at .429 to fit the tight chambers of the TLA and the FA. We loaded these over 21 grains of the old 2400.
I wasn't able to shoot them to make sure they were hitting to point of aim until Monday morning and then proceeded to try and find a cow. No luck on Monday. Went back on Tuesday and scoured the property again, no cow on Tuesday.
Wednesday started out in the usual way with me forgetting my camera. Jeff quickly informed me that this was probably a good thing and we started walking and glassing the sides of the mountain trying to locate a cow. We were fortunate enough to spot a wild bull moose on the outside of the ranch. This was really neat as I've never seen a moose in the wild. Shortly after, we spotted a few elk so I abandoned Jeff on accident because after I scaled the side, I didn't want to attempt to go back down it, there were no cows to be found. Things didn't get much better until about lunch time. The ranch owner, Contender and I were looking at a couple of bulls on the back of the property when we incidentally jumped a cow. She was not dumb and proceeded to get out of dodge. She was located again by Sixshot and Jeff and I wasn't far away so I slipped as close as I could through the quakies and tried to locate her before she located me. I finally got a visual on her a little while later and was able to close the distance to just under a hundred yards. I had decided to leave the scoped Freedom Arms 10" gun in the case on Tuesday and Wednesday and only take the 5.5" TLA #5 in 44 magnum. When I was able to get a shot at her, she was roughly 90 yards away slightly quartered. I drew a bead on the front of the right shoulder angling through the vitals. At the shot, I saw the bullet kick up dust well beyond where it should have hit the ground in the event of a pass through and off slightly to the right. All sorts of things immediately flew through my head. My left thumb instantly cocked the hammer again and I sent the next 250 Keith on its way. This one was aimed at about midway up between the neck and the right shoulder. At the shot, she turned and headed to the right. The next two shots were on the shoulder. I've yet to see any signs of her being hit other than the awkward movements of her head during the first two shots. She didn't even break stride on the other two. At this point, she is on one side of the quakies and I'm in them running to try and flank her before she gets out of sight. I'm also still trying to figure out what in the world was going wrong as I'm reloading while jumping over the blow down in the quakies. I was able to get two shots off at her as I ran through the trees and then one last shot as she entered the treeline about 70 yards away. I saw her collapse but then act like she was going to get back up so I sent the last shot to the back of her head to make sure this was over. When the noise and smoke finally settled, I was out of breath, about 200 yards from where I started, my gun was smoking, and I was out of ammo. It was terribly embarrassing to shoot that many times but I was not going to let her get out of sight. I just couldn't figure out what happened from the beginning.
Today we were able to really look at the elk after I skinned it and was quartering it to put in the coolers. Of the seven initial shots, they fell in like this.....The first shot did hit home in the point of the front right shoulder exiting out about midway back on the left ribcage. The second shot entered the brisket about 4 inches from the first shot and traversed through the body lengthwise. This bullet may have exited after I've looked back through the pictures but I'm not entirely sure. Two other shots exited the right shoulder about 3 inches apart. These exits were pretty impressive. The exit holes measured approximately 1.4 and 1.3" each. Another shot busted the rear leg bone about halfway down. Two were unaccounted for during the fiasco. I don't know how the one could have hit the rear leg. After looking back through the pictures, there was blood high on the hams above the affected section. Due to the angle, I'm thinking that 3 of the shots were unaccounted for and the second shot that traversed the body exited the body near the hams and hit this leg bone. Because the direction of the exit hole, this actually is the only shot that could have exited from that side. The other shots were in the opposite direction. The first few shots before we started on the leg race were in the boiler room but she didn't know she was supposed to fall down I guess. Maybe next time someone will tell them.....Evidently, word traveled to town quickly that I was in need of supplies. Callshot answered the call and brought a handful of ammo just in case
I was very impressed with the expansion of the soft nose cast that Sixshot made for me to try. They all made an immediate "splash" and then proceeded to exit. As usual, Sixshot was right and I got the best of both worlds regarding the jacketed vs cast debate for hunting. All of the bullets exited this cow. The ranch owner said that she weighed about 800 pounds which is a large cow it seems. This cow definitely made us work for it. This was solely the result of a group effort to keep my marriage intact, I'm convinced. I was pretty much talking myself into the large bison they had on the ranch until we spooked the cow out of hiding I'm sure the other guys can add some to what I've written here but just take those comments with a grain of....nope, a bottle of salt It was a trip of a lifetime for me. No the elk were not wild but the hunt was exciting to be honest, I didn't really care if I found one or not. I was able to spend time with Sixshot and his wonderful wife which was WAY more than enough reason to make the trip. You will not find a finer couple! The food that Mrs. Thompson cooked was unbelievable!!! I was one hole bigger on the belt when I got ready to leave today, that's not good Getting to know the other guys was an absolute blast. We all made the pilgrimage to the Elmer Keith museum in Boise last Saturday which has been on my "to do" list since it was opened. I was also able to meet a few other folks along the way that I've wanted to meet in person for years. Overall, just an incredible experience. Thanks again Sixshot!! I can't wait to see you two again!!
Here are a few pictures of Jeff, Sixshot, and myself with the Robo Elk. The others are necropsy pictures showing the exits of the cast bullets and the shear size of the exit holes. The first two shots can be seen in the bottom right side of the picture just in front of the shoulder shots. The fact that I was able to use the TLA with a classic Keith bullet made it even better for me. I'd like to think that Mr. Grover and the Grand Ol' Man looked down and smiled seeing their creations being used. I'm sure they both got a chuckle seeing this fat boy run through the trees jumping over logs and shooting an elk.
TLA and Sixshots 41 Bisley both residing in Barranti Leather
Northwest Hunter #s 1 and 2 were united for this trip
The 10" FA 44 on top of the mountain and then a couple of shots of the area.....
Sixshot wasted no time and struck early on Sunday afternoon. Jeff and Contender harvested two large cows on Monday morning pretty early. I was a little slow getting started even. I was in Boise Sunday morning so I didn't get back into town until later in the day on Sunday, just in time to hear Sixshot shoot. Sixshot was also kind enough to cast some softnose cast bullets for testing in the 44 magnums that I brought along on the trip. They consisted of about 100 grains of pure lead on the nose of the Lyman 429421 mold. He sized these at .429 to fit the tight chambers of the TLA and the FA. We loaded these over 21 grains of the old 2400. I wasn't able to shoot them to make sure they were hitting to point of aim until Monday morning and then proceeded to try and find a cow. No luck on Monday. Went back on Tuesday and scoured the property again, no cow on Tuesday.
Wednesday started out in the usual way with me forgetting my camera. Jeff quickly informed me that this was probably a good thing and we started walking and glassing the sides of the mountain trying to locate a cow. We were fortunate enough to spot a wild bull moose on the outside of the ranch. This was really neat as I've never seen a moose in the wild. Shortly after, we spotted a few elk so I abandoned Jeff on accident because after I scaled the side, I didn't want to attempt to go back down it, there were no cows to be found. Things didn't get much better until about lunch time. The ranch owner, Contender and I were looking at a couple of bulls on the back of the property when we incidentally jumped a cow. She was not dumb and proceeded to get out of dodge. She was located again by Sixshot and Jeff and I wasn't far away so I slipped as close as I could through the quakies and tried to locate her before she located me. I finally got a visual on her a little while later and was able to close the distance to just under a hundred yards. I had decided to leave the scoped Freedom Arms 10" gun in the case on Tuesday and Wednesday and only take the 5.5" TLA #5 in 44 magnum. When I was able to get a shot at her, she was roughly 90 yards away slightly quartered. I drew a bead on the front of the right shoulder angling through the vitals. At the shot, I saw the bullet kick up dust well beyond where it should have hit the ground in the event of a pass through and off slightly to the right. All sorts of things immediately flew through my head. My left thumb instantly cocked the hammer again and I sent the next 250 Keith on its way. This one was aimed at about midway up between the neck and the right shoulder. At the shot, she turned and headed to the right. The next two shots were on the shoulder. I've yet to see any signs of her being hit other than the awkward movements of her head during the first two shots. She didn't even break stride on the other two. At this point, she is on one side of the quakies and I'm in them running to try and flank her before she gets out of sight. I'm also still trying to figure out what in the world was going wrong as I'm reloading while jumping over the blow down in the quakies. I was able to get two shots off at her as I ran through the trees and then one last shot as she entered the treeline about 70 yards away. I saw her collapse but then act like she was going to get back up so I sent the last shot to the back of her head to make sure this was over. When the noise and smoke finally settled, I was out of breath, about 200 yards from where I started, my gun was smoking, and I was out of ammo. It was terribly embarrassing to shoot that many times but I was not going to let her get out of sight. I just couldn't figure out what happened from the beginning.
Today we were able to really look at the elk after I skinned it and was quartering it to put in the coolers. Of the seven initial shots, they fell in like this.....The first shot did hit home in the point of the front right shoulder exiting out about midway back on the left ribcage. The second shot entered the brisket about 4 inches from the first shot and traversed through the body lengthwise. This bullet may have exited after I've looked back through the pictures but I'm not entirely sure. Two other shots exited the right shoulder about 3 inches apart. These exits were pretty impressive. The exit holes measured approximately 1.4 and 1.3" each. Another shot busted the rear leg bone about halfway down. Two were unaccounted for during the fiasco. I don't know how the one could have hit the rear leg. After looking back through the pictures, there was blood high on the hams above the affected section. Due to the angle, I'm thinking that 3 of the shots were unaccounted for and the second shot that traversed the body exited the body near the hams and hit this leg bone. Because the direction of the exit hole, this actually is the only shot that could have exited from that side. The other shots were in the opposite direction. The first few shots before we started on the leg race were in the boiler room but she didn't know she was supposed to fall down I guess. Maybe next time someone will tell them.....Evidently, word traveled to town quickly that I was in need of supplies. Callshot answered the call and brought a handful of ammo just in case
I was very impressed with the expansion of the soft nose cast that Sixshot made for me to try. They all made an immediate "splash" and then proceeded to exit. As usual, Sixshot was right and I got the best of both worlds regarding the jacketed vs cast debate for hunting. All of the bullets exited this cow. The ranch owner said that she weighed about 800 pounds which is a large cow it seems. This cow definitely made us work for it. This was solely the result of a group effort to keep my marriage intact, I'm convinced. I was pretty much talking myself into the large bison they had on the ranch until we spooked the cow out of hiding
I'm sure the other guys can add some to what I've written here but just take those comments with a grain of....nope, a bottle of salt It was a trip of a lifetime for me. No the elk were not wild but the hunt was exciting to be honest, I didn't really care if I found one or not. I was able to spend time with Sixshot and his wonderful wife which was WAY more than enough reason to make the trip. You will not find a finer couple! The food that Mrs. Thompson cooked was unbelievable!!! I was one hole bigger on the belt when I got ready to leave today, that's not good Getting to know the other guys was an absolute blast. We all made the pilgrimage to the Elmer Keith museum in Boise last Saturday which has been on my "to do" list since it was opened. I was also able to meet a few other folks along the way that I've wanted to meet in person for years. Overall, just an incredible experience. Thanks again Sixshot!! I can't wait to see you two again!! Here are a few pictures of Jeff, Sixshot, and myself with the Robo Elk. The others are necropsy pictures showing the exits of the cast bullets and the shear size of the exit holes. The first two shots can be seen in the bottom right side of the picture just in front of the shoulder shots. The fact that I was able to use the TLA with a classic Keith bullet made it even better for me. I'd like to think that Mr. Grover and the Grand Ol' Man looked down and smiled seeing their creations being used. I'm sure they both got a chuckle seeing this fat boy run through the trees jumping over logs and shooting an elk.
TLA and Sixshots 41 Bisley both residing in Barranti Leather
Northwest Hunter #s 1 and 2 were united for this trip
The 10" FA 44 on top of the mountain and then a couple of shots of the area.....
