Well, after 6 days of hunting I was able to get my first elk!! Not only was it my first elk, but it was my first big game with a muzzle loader!! The cow is hanging in a cooler right now. Her hanging carcass weight is 225 lbs!! We figure about 450 on the hoof, which is a good sized cow, especially for Nevada.

We hunted hard for 3 days before finally finding the majority of the elk at about 10,000 feet elevation. On Thursday I got a shot at a cow, but my bullet hit the dirt before it got to her, she was 150 yards away.

Friday found us looking into a meadow about 500 yards with 40 different elk in it. A stock found us being busted by a cow we didn't see.

Saturday found us parked on the main road and walking in to the area where we saw the elk the day before. We heard only two bugles from the herd bull to let us know where they were at. About half way into the walk, we saw elk at about 600 yards. I could see a good cow ahead of most of the other elk and singled her out.

The stock was on!! I used the broken timber as cover and closed the distance to about 150 yards. I had 3 more trees between the big cow and me. I dropped everything I had, and my dad stayed back. I took my smoke pole and made about another 60 yard stock to get behind a 5 foot tall pine. I eased around the tree and had the cow at 90 yards angling slightly towards me. I sat down, took aim near the top of her back, squeezed the trigger, and heard, "CLICK." The primer didn't go off, and the elk never heard anything. I reset the hammer, took aim again. I squeezed the trigger, the rifle barked, and the valley filled with smoke. I could not see the elk at all. My dad was yelling at me to reload, and I am trying to see the darn cow. Finally the smoke had cleared and I was able to see her head sticking up and her trying to crawl away!! I had broken her back. I finally got the gun reloaded, then it was a 100 yard sprint to the elk to put a finishing shot into her head. The bullet went in behind the right ear and came out in front of the left ear. The first shot went in above the 3rd rib on the left side, hit the spine and stopped. There was no exit wound.

The elk fell right near a two track road and we were able to litterally drive the truck right to her.

Pictures will come tomorrow, as the 1 hour photo center was closed and will have the pics ready by 10 AM. I will also be butchering the elk tomorrow (along with 2 more people helping) and will post pics when I get back.

BTW - the weapon was a .50 Caliber CVA Bobcat with a 370 grain T/C Maxi-ball pushed by 80 grains of Pyrodex RS.