11 Year Old's Quest For Her First Elk

[naturegirl]

Very nice choice of weapon for her. Get her in good and close with the 150g. Oh yeah in November be prepared to keep her warm and dry. You can never go wrong there.

[DesertBull]

If you need help in 7w let me know. I know the unit pretty well. I had this tag last year but due to work and using my vacation days in Belize I only had two days to hunt. Them ripped a hole in my oil pan on day 2. In 2 days we glassed up 8-10 bulls. I might be able to get out 1 or 2 days to help glass.

[1uglydude]

Where's the H4831sc? I see a can of the standard stuff in the photos. :-)

[lancetkenyon]

Where's the H4831sc? I see a can of the standard stuff in the photos. :-)

I noticed that in the photo too. Trying to burn up the last little bit of the regular H4831, about 1/4 pound left. The H4831SC is in the cabinet. About 5# of it. Good catch!

[lancetkenyon]

If you need help in 7w let me know. I know the unit pretty well. I had this tag last year but due to work and using my vacation days in Belize I only had two days to hunt. Them ripped a hole in my oil pan on day 2. In 2 days we glassed up 8-10 bulls. I might be able to get out 1 or 2 days to help glass.

 

Any help offered will not be turned away. I am going to do my darndest to get my baby a bull. I do not expect any help, but I really appreciate all offers of help, information, and good wishes. Thank you for the offer of the help, it is nice to know that the offer is out there. Great hunting community we have here.

[1uglydude]

Have you compared the two in the past? I used up my small cans of the short cut. I have a single one pound can of the standard stuff and an 8 pound jug of the short cut, all unopened. I don't know that I'm going to stick with the powder going forward, but before I do I want to test a load or two. I don't want to break open the 8 pounder just for loads that might not go anywhere, but I'm also worried that if I test with the standard cut and find something I like, the results might not transfer over to the short cut.

[lancetkenyon]

I have tried both with the same load. I found no point of impact shift or difference in velocity. But...the SC or SSC (IMR7828) sure do meter a lot nicer and it is easier to get more consistent powder throws. I was sometimes cutting IMR7828 granules in half to get a very precise weight.

[1uglydude]

I was sometimes cutting IMR7828 granules in half to get a very precise weight.

 

I've done that too...I thought I was the only one that anal about it.

[lancetkenyon]

So for a couple updates...

 

This was back in July.

 

So, with a two week family vacation to Alaska out of the way in June, and work allowing me a little bit of free time with a 4 day weekend, my daughter and I had plans to finally get up to the unit and do some serious scouting/hiking/shooting. Got the keys to a friends cabin to make life easy and loaded up the truck and hit the road Thursday morning around 2:45AM to be in the unit by first light.

 

Before sunrise, we were spotting elk all over, totaling 68 animals by sunrise, unfortunately it was too dark for photos for all but a few of the elk. A few nicer mature bulls, one stud bull, some raghorns and spikes, and a lot of cows/calves. They really seemed to be hanging around the few tanks that still had water in them and then bugging out to thick stuff at sunrise, as this spring has been really dry in AZ. Phoenix has gone 122 days with no rain, and the higher country was not much better. The monsoons are on the way, but I hope it is not too late for antler growth.

 

We also saw a decent antelope buck with 9 does, a couple small herds of deer (10 total with 3 small bucks), 2 jake turkeys, a lone coyote who almost stopped long enough to get lead poisoning, a bunch of jack and cottontail rabbits (which my daughter took one at about 200 yds. off a sitting position bi-pod), and we glassed up a prairie dog town at 363 yds. with about 15 dogs as far as I could tell. Now numbering 13 or so. My daughter connected on shot #1, and I connected on shot #2. Not bad. A .25-06 Ackley slinging 115gr. Berger VLDs @ 3400fps launch the dogs pretty well.

 

Ran into Williams, AZ for some good BBQ ribs for lunch and headed back out to find a suitable 1000 yd. spot to try some long range shooting and sighting in the .270Win and performing a ladder test at around 400-600 yds. or so. A fun and productive day so far....until.....I got a call from my wife at 3:30 saying she had just been rear-ended on the highway and totaled her 06' Mustang......crap. So much for the long scouting weekend. Luckily we were just setting up the steel and so we took it down, loaded up and hit the road. My daughter was having a blast as we bombed down the dirt roads, rally style at about 60mph heading to the highway. Fortunately, even with the holiday weekend, we only saw one other vehicle all day. Hit the highway and called the cavalry (my older daughter) to pick up my wife and shoot some photos of the damage to the car.

 

So we made it home about 6:45PM and thank God, my wife is doing fairly well. Sore back, but that is it. The next day was spent looking and buying a new car for my wife, which we have been discussing anyway, this just made it about 6 months sooner than planned.

 

A fun day none-the-less, as spending time with my daughter is always a good time, and being in the woods and seeing game is a bonus. Hopefully we will be back up a bunch over the next few months in preparation for the November hunt my daughter has coming up.

 

One of the raghorn bulls

 

Antelope buck

 

A cool cave we found while hiking a bit

 

Luckily we were hiking when we saw this guy, and the guns were in the truck

 

One of the two jakes we saw

 

Lucky coyote

 

Mmmm...powdered sugar donuts, breakfast of champions!

[lancetkenyon]

Finally....FINALLY got to the range to sight in the new scope and do some load development. Sight in took all of 3 rounds with 3 more to verify with my old loads. The SWFA 5-20 is extremely accurate on click adjustment, and really clear. Much more so than my Leupold 6.5-20 VX-III LR.

 

Had some interesting results. The 150 Nosler Accubond LR shoot decent, but I think some tweaking is still in my future.

 

Shooting a ladder test @ 300 yds. over a chrono showed a wide range of velocities. From 2637FPS to 2961FPS with no signs of pressure yet with the bullets at .0010 jammed. But I think I will stop, as I found a good load to try out. I had a high node at 57.5, 58.0 & 58.5gr. with the 58.0 load shooting a sub-MOA group at about .650" for 5 shots. Time to try seating depth then testing at longer than 100 yds.

 

Conditions were as follows: 88-98°, elev 1653' AMSL, pressure 28.11, winds swirling from 1-6 o'clock @ 5-15 mph. Mirage was rocking too.

 

 

Here are a few 5 shot groups after the ladder test:

 

57.5 gr. H4831

 

58.0 gr. H4831

 

Kind of a weird group of 58.5 gr. H4831

[lancetkenyon]

Been out scouting some over the last couple months, but got out again yesterday for a half day. Saw some nice bulls (no photos unfortunately, we were too busy sizing them up through the binos), some deer, a great antelope buck, and shot a couple deer killers. We also found 8 dead sheep that the coyotes had killed. Both the coyotes I shot were on/around the dead sheep.

 

Also, my now 12 year old daughter got to drive the truck around the dirt roads for a couple hours, which she enjoyed, and was relaxing for me too.

 

I picked up a new set of 15x56 Meopta binos, and holy cow, I don't know how I used to glass with "just" 10x42s. The 15s are like cheating! I was glassing up bedded deer on mountain sides over a mile away, even with heavy midday mirage. Glassed up antelope bedded under trees at almost a mile and a quarter, and elk were easily identifiable at a mile and a half too.

 

Beautiful start to a great day.

 

 

 

The three antelope standing were at 1435 yds., and the bedded antelope under the left side of the tree was over 1828 yds. (the furthest my rangefinder goes). According to Google Earth, he was around 2236 yds. +/-

 

My new chauffer

 

 

Local wildlife

 

Glassing the mountainsides a mile+ away is easy with the new 15s

 

Nice buck we spotted

 

 

[lancetkenyon]

On a side note, we have been gearing up for the hunt like crazy. Got her a full set (pants/parka) of Cabela's Silent Suede waterproof insulated gear, a full set of windproof medium weight gear, various layering clothing, and a pair of light, medium and two pair of heavy gloves.

 

She has good 1000gram insulated waterproof boots, waterproof hiking boots, tons of beanies/hats, ear muffs, balaclavas, fleece facemasks, thermals, sweats, fleece, and wool socks. Plus a good set of Gore-Tex rain gear and hat too. So we should be good to go on clothes for just about ANY weather condition we might encounter.

 

She also has her own good binos & tripod, sitting pad, a good small hydration backpack (daypack size) that fits her well, compass, etc.

Anything you guys can think of that I am missing that would be essential to keep her comfortable during the hunt?

[208muley]

It wasn't listed so I will say earplugs for the shot. One thing my daughter likes when it's cold are those insta-heat bags. Just shake em and insta heat!

 

I like what your doing with this thread! When it's all said and done and you post a kill pic, hopefully, you should print this whole thread out and save it for your daughter. It might not be a big deal to her at first but it will be when she gets older. Good luck on the hunt!

[lancetkenyon]

We both have the custom molded earplugs, and they stay in our pockets while hunting. I already told her she will be wearing them for the shot if time permits. But great call. And good call on the heat packets. I never thought about those.

 

So, I went to Ben Avery this morning to verify final loads for the .300 backup gun that I just swapped scopes on. At 200 yds., this is what I got after sight in.

 

Shot two 5 round groups at 100 yds. with the primary rifle too. I am more than pleased with this. They are .277 150gr. Nosler Accubond Long Range at 2909fps. I don't know why they look so small in the photos. The grid is 1" squares, but the holes look tiny, not .277 size.

 

I also got to help a Dad with his 10 year old daughter who has a Jr. doe hunt in 12AW coming up in a couple weeks. Helped get some problems figured out, and the little girl was great. Good shot, great attitude. Good to see Dads taking their daughters out to learn the sport.

 

And I got scolded by a few G&F Range Officers for not dragging my girl out of bed, most of them know her down there.

 

Heading up again tomorrow for some scouting.

[lancetkenyon]

Had a fun scouting day yesterday. Poured like cats and dogs the entire way from Phoenix to the unit. Once we pulled off the road onto dirt, it quit raining. No dust, no hunters, super quiet terrain.

 

We took a few hikes to check bedding areas, and the woods were literally alive with bugling elk. At one time, we had 9 different elk screaming all around us. Hiked a couple miles, and saw some dandy bulls. Dropped a fresh salt block off at a lick I know of about a mile from any roads too. Found some elk sheds, found some fresh bear tracks, saw lots of elk, and a got a photograph of a shooter. Not a monster, but a good typical mature bull. The dogs got a workout, the wife got some relaxation and some laughs, and Taylor and I got some good father/daughter lessons and about 6 miles of boot leather on the ground getting into lots of elk. About 2:00PM, the rain came back with a vengeance, so we packed it up and headed back. Poured the entire way back too. Awesome weather, awesome times, awesome experience.

 

Raring to go.

 

The wife was just THRILLED she got to get up at 2:30AM on her day off to go scouting with us....

 

Even the DOGS love scouting!

 

Quit raining right as we got off pavement

 

We hope to find the guy that did this...

 

Hard to see, but this small 6 point bull was bedded across a 100 yd. canyon from us. No cows with him though....they were with his Daddy further up the canyon.

 

This was the second 5 point shed we found in the same canyon. One in the bottom, one on the ridgeline.

 

Nothing huge, but cool to find. My wife is already planning decorations with them....chandelier, coat rack....I am sure more work for me to do.

 

The young one is on a leash, because he thought it would be funny to chase a herd of elk.....I didn't find it funny, and neither did the elk. So he got strung up the rest of the day.

 

Sorry for the lousy photo, but this guy was about 1K yds. off with his girlfriends, and it was drizzling.

 

 

 

Everyone was wiped out on the way home.