2023 Big Game Success Thread

[les]

Given the legal ramifications nothing good comes from such encounters.

Grizzlies are intelligent opportunists. Routinely taking kills from cougars, and other bears. One sub adult boar in Yellowstone was known to have killed 6 elk before being able to feed. The others being taken by bigger bears.

In at least one study with collars a grizzly followed hunters from their vehicle unobserved except for technology.

We need seasons to re establish top of the food chain. No longer (if ever) are they an endangered species.

GPS study tracks grizzlies as they follow hunters

An ongoing study that has eight Montana grizzly bears outfitted with GPS trackers could bring some unnerving news to hunters.

www.foxnews.com

The same could be said for some of the crazy laws around cougars. I have a rancher friend in Oregon that was having cougar problems. He called Fish and Game to come out at take care of the problem cats. They estimated 3 cats on his 1800 acre ranch. They found 22! Twice when I lived in Eastern Oregon, I was stalked my a cougar. I only knew because I was backtracking myself through the snow. The reintroduction of wolves have damaged our hunting as well. I ran into an old-timer 12 years ago who was just camping in the meadow near where we were elk hunting. He had many stories and pictures of elk in the meadow just bugling away! The elk have gotten smart and often only bugle a little early in the morning. The nightly concerts from coyotes (song dogs) has all but disappeared. When my hunting partner shot a wolf with his bow, we took it in as instructed and the gal at fish and game knew the pack that it came from! We are living in crazy times! The reality, if you check history, even the native Americans managed the forests and game to promote the animals that were desirable for table fare. It is a bit disturbing when you are calling elk and a pack of wolves comes to your calls!

 

[les]

I see I took this thread sideways. Sorry. Way to go LightTheTower! Sounds like you had a good opener!

 

[LightTheTower]

I see I took this thread sideways. Sorry. Way to go LightTheTower! Sounds like you had a good opener!

Thanks! Good day. Good bullet performance. No bang flops, but 2750-3000 fps impact is pedestrian!

 

[MeatBuck]

Moving individual post to different thread, haven’t been able to do that. At least yet.

Hit button circled in pic.
Find and hit Copy
Then go to terminal thread.
Hit reply.
Paste.
Post.

That’ll get a link to the post here in the terminal thread.

 

[riceman]

Hit button circled in pic.
Find and hit Copy
Then go to terminal thread.
Hit reply.
Paste.
Post.

That’ll get a link to the post here in the terminal thread.
View attachment 3843

Thats alot of information for this knucklehead to wade through
I'll try when time permits. A bit short on that..

 

[MeatBuck]

Thats alot of information for this knucklehead to wade through
I'll try when time permits. A bit short on that..

I’ll do it.
@LightTheTower im linking your pics to the terminal thread

 

[LightTheTower]

I’ll do it.
@LightTheTower im linking your pics to the terminal thread

Thanks MB

 

[jrebel]

Leave in 5 days for my sons cow elk hunt. Kind of hoping he decides to use one of the two rifles I have loaded with hammers (well that are going on this trip) . His rifle shoots accubonds so well, that I’m afraid to change his load. He is so comfortable with his rifle it is ridiculous!!! He has killed deer, moose and bear with it and is a crack shot. With that said….if it’s past 500 yards he will use the lapua….and that is throwing 260 grain HH. He is also a crack shot with that rifle and has killed his biggest bear to date with it.

I’ll update when we return regardless…..but if he uses the HH’s I’ll take lots of pictures.

Well.....he didn't use a rifle shooting hammers. He used his rifle that shoots accubonds......but I said I would update regardless.

He had a cow tag in his pocket but ended up shooting a legal spike on the last day of the general season. Here in Washington, you can only shoot spike elk (in most GMU's), unless you draw a cow or branched antler bull tag. In my opinion, a spike has become the true trophy for elk hunters as you are hunting for a unicorn amongst all other elk. My son is on cloud nine!! His first elk was a bull elk and a unicorn at that.

One shot and he anchored the bull in his tracks.

 

[Farleg]

Gday jrebel
I really like the picture of him punching his tag
That’s what it’s all about imo

Thanks so much for sharing
Cheers

 

[cbjr]

First "out-west" hunting trip - bad beginning, but successful in the end.



Day 1, Four of us hit the road @ 5am. Got to our halfway point motel around 7pm.



Day 2 The Bad: I got a message from my wife at 4am saying to call her(totally unusual for her to be awake). Dog is sick again and is worse than last time. She has to wait for vet to open, will call back. We hit the road. She gets in an since this isn't the first time he's sick, has now gotten worse, and is a senior, the tough decision was made. Really sucked being 1000 miles away and not being able to consol the wife or say goodbye. Got to 2nd motel around 7pm again.



Day 3, 6am hit the road but almost to our destination. Stopped at a place to check sight-in. Got to destination and got camp setup by noon. Did a short walk out from tent to hunt for remainder of the day.


Day 4, wake up before dawn. Started another walkout. 2 of the others met up about 2 miles from camp and went after a buck they spotted. Only one of them had a range finder but it only went to 250yds(will come up again). They weren't able to get a shot off. We all saw some doe and yotes as well. Got really warm and melted all the snow. We had 2 trucks, mine and another. The other tried to get out and was just stuck. Decision was made to move the trucks and camp first thing in the morning while ground was still a bit frozen. OH, THE MUD!!

Day 5, Got camp moved and trucks moved all to higher/drier ground. Drove to check out a few other areas. 2 guys in each truck and went ti different areas. My team hiked in to a long, low and weedy drainage. Glassed up 2 mule deer buck about half mile out that kept switching between feeding and bedding down. Came up with a game plan to close the distance and got my buddy within 400yds. He was able to take the bigger of the 2 with his 25-06(I haven't loaded for it yet). Nice 3x3. Gutless quartered him in the dark. A third member joined us for the almost 3 mile pack out.

Day 6, swapped teammates and did some more glassing. Checked out spot from yesterday to find the field next to drainage being filled with cattle trucks, atvs, and beef cattle. That spot is now dead.

Day 7, drove the other direction from camp. Super windy. First area was void of deer, but plenty of coyotes. Buddy tried to hit one with 6.5cm and 124HH. Missed just over his head. Checked out another new spot after lunch. Big plains next to huge sunflower field. Pushed out a bunch of grouse and a huge jack rabbit. All 4 of us were here. The guy with his tag filled, took his shotgun out along the field going opposite of us. Partner and I hiked out to a drainage bout a mile out to glass. Found a guy was bird hunting in from the other side. We let him walk it out, but didn't see anything. Headed back to trucks, but 3/4 way back could see the our buddy waving us out to his position in the sunflower field. Hustled out to find he pushed a buck over the hill. We snuck out to where we could see and found him bedded only 85 yards away, very downhill. Could only see his top of his head and above(nice 3x3), rest was hidden in tall grass. Got set up for a standing shot. Wind was 15-20 with 40mph gusts. Holding still was difficult. Got him to stand/take off. He was 2 steps into it when I hit him with the 168HHT from my rum. Hard quartering away to the left. Went in just left of spine near back of ribcage. Shank went out in front of right shoulder. Found one petal under hide couple inches from exit. About 16 penetration. Did gutless quartering. Opened diaphragm to get heart. Right side lung was torn up. A couple of inches of backstrap on both side got blown out from bone hit and only a small trim around exit hole. Buck nosedived on impact. 2 mile pack out, but thankfully just a straight shot to the truck. ( The 2 that didn't get the shot one the first day, after one shooting his 3x3 and the other shooting at the yote, realized that first buck was only 325-350 yards away)

Day 8, 2 of us that were tagged out started to clean up camp. Other 2 headed out to try to fill tags. One shot a mulie doe. The other one(to put it nicely) just was having a really bad week. They came back to help pack in the afternoon. Then we headed back into town & motel.

Day 9&10 were an uneventful reverse of day 1 &2.
First pic is buddy's buck, second is mine.

 

[Farleg]

Gday cbjr
Congrats & Thanks for the report

What’s your take on the 168hht vrs the 137hh
Only one but first evaluation I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts

& lastly starting to get a bit of age on you these days with those few greys
Cheers

 

[gltaylor]

Awwww, come on Farleg
At least he's still got some dark hair in his beard. Lucky stiff!

 

[cbjr]

137vs168, both have served their purpose so far. There seems to be a bit less loss of meat from shattered bone spray with the 168HHT. I am pretty confident that is a result of the lower velocity(3500fps-MV isn't slow but is lower than the 3830fps of the 137s). Comparing far side lung damage from petals/shank at similar impact velocity seems to be of similar consistency(lungs themselves) albeit the pattern a bit different. Possibly petal shape/size? The closer one with the 137 definitely had more internal pressure from bubble than anything I've ever or since have seen! There seems to be a bit of middle of velocity bracket line around 3350. Where below it is still impressive but above it - my word - anything boiler room couldn't be anything but bang flop.

My current thoughts, I wish there was another PRD Valley between the first 2. Lol. Seated in the first- mile of jump and lots of shank where powder is supposed to go. Seated in the second- .030ish jump but mag feeding reliability has since shown a need for improvement☹. Depending on reports, might just switch everything 30cal to the 154HHT as each gets to needing reloaded again. It'll be hard to not keep feeding the rum 137s for every day carry, though. Save the HHTs for the windy environments.

Ps. Yeah, started getting gray in my 20's. The top has since gotten sparsely populated and it generally stays shaved.lol

 

[choprzrul]

Evening of 11/11 at about 150 yards. 25-06 using 90gr AH at a little over 3600 fps. Went about 25 yards and piled up. 4 shots at deer with this setup has resulted in 4 dead deer. Outstanding terminal performance on all 4 deer. Long Live Hammers!



I had another tag and spent 3 days out in the sandhills looking for a muley, but no luck. Deer numbers where we hunt in Nebraska seemed WAY off from the last several years. EHD + a hard winter + very warm days during season all conspired to make it challenging this year. This was the first year that 1 of us didn't get a buck. My son got his first archery deer a couple days before firearms season, so that was way cool to experience with him.

 

[Farleg]

Gday choprzul
Congrats I never tire of looking @ them
Thanks for sharing
Cheers

 

[Farleg]

137vs168, both have served their purpose so far. There seems to be a bit less loss of meat from shattered bone spray with the 168HHT. I am pretty confident that is a result of the lower velocity(3500fps-MV isn't slow but is lower than the 3830fps of the 137s). Comparing far side lung damage from petals/shank at similar impact velocity seems to be of similar consistency(lungs themselves) albeit the pattern a bit different. Possibly petal shape/size? The closer one with the 137 definitely had more internal pressure from bubble than anything I've ever or since have seen! There seems to be a bit of middle of velocity bracket line around 3350. Where below it is still impressive but above it - my word - anything boiler room couldn't be anything but bang flop.

My current thoughts, I wish there was another PRD Valley between the first 2. Lol. Seated in the first- mile of jump and lots of shank where powder is supposed to go. Seated in the second- .030ish jump but mag feeding reliability has since shown a need for improvement☹. Depending on reports, might just switch everything 30cal to the 154HHT as each gets to needing reloaded again. It'll be hard to not keep feeding the rum 137s for every day carry, though. Save the HHTs for the windy environments.

Ps. Yeah, started getting gray in my 20's. The top has since gotten sparsely populated and it generally stays shaved.lol

Gday cbjr loved the ps

Nice work on evaluation
You now know why sometime back I disagreed with Steve on him saying the 199hh @3400 is pretty well as good as it gets ( can’t remember what thread or old forum ) but you have cottoned onto why I had to disagree as those hyper velocities are pretty darn cool & only one thing left to do is get that 135 -140 weight hht although I’ll admit I’d say it’s potentially going to cut a deer nearly in half but I guarantee it will launch a turbo fairly well

Interesting thought on those 168 bands & hadn’t looked that far into that pill yet but I’ll take notice thanks for the heads up

Cheers

 

[DiscoSteve]

only one thing left to do is get that 135 -140 weight hht although I’ll admit I’d say it’s potentially going to cut a deer nearly in half but I guarantee it will launch a turbo fairly well

Who would want a 135-140 HHT?! ME!!!!

 

[Farleg]

Who would want a 135-140 HHT?! ME!!!!

Gday disco

I wouldn’t want one

I want a few

It’s going to come that I’m sure

How much magazine space do you have left on your 137 load @ present & this goes for other people who use the 137 hh also as ticking here

I just checked mine I’ve got plenty & can seat / crimp to the 2nd groove if I wish

Cheers

 

[DiscoSteve]

Gday disco

I wouldn’t want one

I want a few

It’s going to come that I’m sure

How much magazine space do you have left on your 137 load @ present & this goes for other people who use the 137 hh also as ticking here

I just checked mine I’ve got plenty & can seat / crimp to the 2nd groove if I wish

Cheers

@Farleg - for my 308, the 137 is ~2.748" COAL when loaded with the case mouth crimped in the first PDR valley (the "normal" way). In my rifle, it's 2.864" COAL to the lands, which is with the case mouth at the back of the 2nd PDR valley (2 full valleys showing). My 30-06 could get crimped in the 2nd groove as well.

 

[riceman]

@Farleg - for my 308, the 137 is ~2.748" COAL when loaded with the case mouth crimped in the first PDR valley (the "normal" way). In my rifle, it's 2.864" COAL to the lands, which is with the case mouth at the back of the 2nd PDR valley (2 full valleys showing). My 30-06 could get crimped in the 2nd groove as well.

@DiscoSteve, I'll "try" to be farleg's interpreter
I think with our conversation yesterday his question is in regards to oal. Can you spare any in magazine length? The info you gave us is good. But depending on rifle, magazine length varies.