Elk Tactics 2017 - Episode #2

[WapitiTalk1]

Date/Time: End of October, 2017/9:30 AM
Location: Somewhere in the elk woods
Hunt Pressure Status: Minimal
Hunt: Solo hunt today
Tag: Modern (rifle) season

Sitting in your field made ground blind, this fine fellow came trotting right past the water point and stops a bit over 100 yards from your position and gives you the stinky eye. H = you/hunter and W = wind/thermal direction (thermals are still lightly blowing right to left). If the bull continues in the direction he's facing, he'll disappear into some pretty thick brush. Now, what's your game plan to try and bring this bull home for dinner? Is there a shot here?

If you're shooting, save the picture to your desktop and open in MS Paint, then place a spot, X, or whatever on the critter before you save it back to a jpg or png and add the marked up pic with your post.

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[Swede]

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All things considered, I will shoot. In a blind I will have a rest and should be able to place a bullet in a precise location. Even if I am off slightly, the 250 grain bullet from my 338 WM should not stray far from the mark. The wind should not be that big of a factor at just a little over 100 yards.

[CurlyTail]

I am also shooting, 1 inch forward from Swedes spot.

[Swede]

I like your spot Curly just fine, but I am curious in what you like better about that inch?

[saddlesore]

Nope .No shot. Test have proven that a small limb will deflect a bullet ,no matter how big and fast a slug you are throwing. Maybe ( I don' t know how to do all that saving and painting), a person could try a high withers shot above the brush,but too high and you screw that up too

The deflection is dependent o how far the animal is in back the limb. Even if it just tumbles the bullet and it goes inside ways the change of a superficial wound on the shoulder is great if it goes to the right, the other way,you have messy gut shot or at the most a one lung shot.

Doesn' t matter if the hunter is shooting a 270 or 338 mag, same results.

I guess I would question what the hunter was doing when the elk slippped in from the left and the shot was clear?

This is one of those situations where the elk wins.

[WapitiTalk1]

I guess I would question what the hunter was doing when the elk slippped in from the left and the shot was clear?

He was playing around with his new GPS instead of watching the approach paths going to the water point

[Swede]

I don't think I would miss and hit a leaf or limb, but Saddlesore has made me curious. If I do hit a leaf or a one of those nearby limbs, and the 250 grain bullet is deflected, will it go off coarse enough to matter? Does it matter if the 250 grain 338 bullet, traveling at 2,600-2700 FPS went into the bull sideways or backwards? I know bullets are made to go in point first, but a modern jacketed bullet with a core, should hold together better than a lead ball coming from an old muzzle loader. The old muzzle loader would be throwing a much, much slower and softer slug but it is capable of killing elk.

[>>>---WW---->]

No doubt about it, Swede's spot is a killer. But it is also a good way to mess up two good shoulder roast. For rifle shots, I prefer back behind the crease. There is nothing there (meat) that that you will hurt and you can still deflate the lungs and cause massive hemorage.

[saddlesore]

Depends on how far back from the limb the elk is. The further away the greater deflection.Test have been done to put the myth away about brush cutting bullets.Heavy soft slow movers or fast hard pointy ones didn't make much difference.

Penetration depends a lot on front a surface area of a bullet. Simple calculations of .338 show about .09 sq in. and sideways is about 4 times as much if ignoring the ogive, so maybe three times.

Just my gut feeling, but every time a bullet didn't hit where I intended or not performed as advertised bad things happened,

Say a TSX bullet twist a petal on that limb. It might not go in the animal and stay on course.It could very well turn 90 degrees after inside and go a stray.

It may very well kill the elk,but the question is where will the elk be when it dies

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

I'm 3" high at one hundred, and quite confident I can make that shot. Aiming point is the green splotch, impact at the red splotch. (also note that a 9x scope will reveal those unseen twigs we are worried about right now). A more important question...why on earth am I in a blind!?!?!?

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[lamrith]

Call me the nanny,but you guys are all forgetting hunters ed and firearms 101! backstop backstop backstop. Never shoot at a siloheutted animal, even though this is a flat terrain, we appear to be sitting so below target thus shooting up with nothing to stop the bullet if we miss, get a passthru, etc....

That said I like Trumpkin's Red dot placement given modern firearm season. Good for ensuring a double lung at min, trauma to the heart if not nick it, and maybe clip the front leg to knock him down fast..

[Swede]

WW, I think we will only lose one good roast. The other will be salvageable. Best guess, but we will have a lot of excellent meat in the freezer.