Hey, firsttime! I got a chance to shoot an elk in CO probably at the same time you were there! Don' t feel too bad about not getting one! I hunted elk for almost 30 years (off and on) before I got my first one! They say success was poor in Oct. this year, due to the weather being too warm. The one I got was in DEEP DARK TIMBER, in the White River N.F. near Sleepy Cat, (hunted out of Meeker) at about 9500 feet elevation. DON' T GIVE UP!!

This elk was a youngish 5X4 bull of about 700 pounds. Shot it at about 40 yards. Used a 7mm Rem. Mag., with a handloaded 175-grain Nosler Partition, MV 3050 FPS. The bull was quartering toward me, shot was high at the point of the left shoulder where the neck joins the body. Bull dropped as if struck by lightning! and never even twitched after the shot. He went down so fast he was not visible after recovering from the recoil! Thought I had missed! Two bulls with him fled the scene. I saw them and thought one was him! When I went to look for blood, there he was lying behind a log! Good thing I was using a single-shot, and didn' t take another shot at the one running away! No exit wound, never found the entrance wound or the bullet! Didn' t look too hard for the bullet, as we quartered the thing, took the head, quarters and tenderloins and packed out about 2 miles to the truck. It was downhill all the way, but tough going nontheless!!

Saw three other bulls the next day, but my hunting buddy was on the wrong side of the oak brush that morning, and, of course, my hunting was over, so I had no gun!!