Finally got a chance to get out with a rifle using an early cow elk tag ...
As we were driving to the ranch where we have permission to hunt, we saw a herd of 20-30 elk on the north end ... and then a few more, grazing on hay about 500 yards from the ranch HQ. We immediately got out and put the sneak on the closer group ... my son (Joe, 19) took the .30-06 and crawled the last little bit around a grassy fenceline ... got prone and put the rifle over a pack ... and I watched, but no \"boom\" ... he turned around to tell me they were all spikes.
We went back to the pickup, and figured we\'d just glass for a bit but that other, big group was still out there. With only an hour of shooting time left, we took off. With 600 yards to go, we only had a half hour of shooting time. The elk were filtering away from us, through a willow-lined creek bottom ... I asked him if he wanted to try again this weekend, and he said he thought we could still make it work. I wasn\'t so sure, since we had to cross a bare hillside and we\'d be exposed.
Well, here\'s where I\'ll tell you that Jeff\'s Elk Mountain Slip System really works! I had the \"open cover\" slip on, and we crossed the open spot and were once again covered. Then, after another bit of sneaking, we were in waist-high grass as the elk were grazing on the other side of the creek. There was a small opening in the willows. That Slip System helped again and Joe used it as a shooting stick to get above the tall grass and hold steady.
BANG ... one shot, took out the top of the heart with 10 minutes of shooting light left! Big cow, but the photos taken in the headlights of the pickup later just weren\'t all that great, so I\'ll spare you that.
We both agreed that we can\'t wait to use that Slip System for rifle pronghorn. (Not the decoy, but the open cover slip, for safety.)
As we were driving to the ranch where we have permission to hunt, we saw a herd of 20-30 elk on the north end ... and then a few more, grazing on hay about 500 yards from the ranch HQ. We immediately got out and put the sneak on the closer group ... my son (Joe, 19) took the .30-06 and crawled the last little bit around a grassy fenceline ... got prone and put the rifle over a pack ... and I watched, but no \"boom\" ... he turned around to tell me they were all spikes.
We went back to the pickup, and figured we\'d just glass for a bit but that other, big group was still out there. With only an hour of shooting time left, we took off. With 600 yards to go, we only had a half hour of shooting time. The elk were filtering away from us, through a willow-lined creek bottom ... I asked him if he wanted to try again this weekend, and he said he thought we could still make it work. I wasn\'t so sure, since we had to cross a bare hillside and we\'d be exposed.
Well, here\'s where I\'ll tell you that Jeff\'s Elk Mountain Slip System really works! I had the \"open cover\" slip on, and we crossed the open spot and were once again covered. Then, after another bit of sneaking, we were in waist-high grass as the elk were grazing on the other side of the creek. There was a small opening in the willows. That Slip System helped again and Joe used it as a shooting stick to get above the tall grass and hold steady.
BANG ... one shot, took out the top of the heart with 10 minutes of shooting light left! Big cow, but the photos taken in the headlights of the pickup later just weren\'t all that great, so I\'ll spare you that.
We both agreed that we can\'t wait to use that Slip System for rifle pronghorn. (Not the decoy, but the open cover slip, for safety.)
