big bull down

Shot a 340-class bull on Sunday with my savage rifle I built in 25-06AI. After running around the hills since the middle of last summer searching for "the one"! We found him! Battling snowstorms since Saturday morning we had a slight break in weather and decided to check on some lower country, as our typical honey hole wasn’t holding anything worth shooting.

The Thursday before, I had bought tickets for my wife and I to see Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans down in Laporte, CO. on Sunday eve. Its about a 1 hr drive from our home just outside of Laramie WY, Laramie is about 2 hr from the area we where hunting with decent roads. The plan was to leave the hunting area around 12pm on Sunday so that I would have plenty of time to make it home wash up and out the door and on the road. My brother in law convinced me we should check the other side of the hill quick before we left, I looked at the clock, thought about it, and agreed that even if we left at 1:30 I would still be able to make my date. We crawled around the east side of the tall ridge in the middle of antelope country. The 4 wheel drive whining along and the little tires on my Ford Ranger busting through the occasional 2 ft drifts on the two track.

We where talking about things that we usually talk about, our wives, our jobs, our hunts ECT. Then I happened to see movement in a sage draw about 200 yds out. I stopped the truck got out with my rifle and put it up, just in time to see a good-looking coyote slip over the top. I got back in, told Chance that he looked nice and we would try to see if we could find him again as the road passed right by the short draw he was now in. As we came next to the draw I stopped and put the truck in park and we looked into the draw. “Nothing, he must have made it over the top” I told Chance; I had my foot on the break ready to pull the lever down into drive. Chance looked across a small swale hidden by a hill as we drove in. “there is a bull bedded out there about 500yds out” he said as he jumped out of the truck and started running down the road in front of the truck. I turned the key off and threw it on the floor (as I hate the dinger that sounds when you open the door), grabbed my rifle and followed suite. We made it with the truck still in the bull’s line of sight but our bodies hidden, we crawled up to the top of a knoll with some larger rocks dispersed on it. “There he is, see him?” Chance said in a frantic voice. I acknowledged that yes I did see him, and Chance then pointed out that there was another bull bedded down just to the left of the original one we first saw. I said, “how far are they” expecting to hear 300 yds. “They are exactly at 500 yds” chance said. Ouch, that is a long ways man, I haven’t ever shot this rifle with purpose at that distance, lets see if we can slip back out and around… I would like to be about 300 yds” knowing that my 7mm Mag had more oompf than my customized 25-06 AI made me wish I had used the 7 more during the deer and antelope seasons. I just couldn’t bring myself to use it when I knew the 25 so well this year.
We back out and ran around to the next hill and peeked over, 700 yds away, and now we were realizing there was going to be no way to get any closer than we did back at the rocks. They were bedded in the perfect spot, they could watch everything and that was that. We decided to walk back to the rocks to watch them. While walking back, my heart was sinking, there were two of me inside my head fighting each other. One saying, “What do you have to loose”? The other with worries of wounding and bringing up how effective that cartridge is and at what distances. I thought if I did wound him I would have to shoot him again fast and put it in an anchoring spot on his body. We made it to the rocks and glassed them again with the 4.5-14 power scope on my rifle, it made it easier to see than our high quality 10X42 binoculars…kneeling in the snow getting blasted with 20mph winds wasn’t making us any warmer, in fact I was having to get up every 5 minutes to make sure I could still feel my knees. We were trying to decide which bull was better, the one on the right we could see fairly well, he was real dark in color and had antlers to match, you could see the mass pop with the white snow in the back ground. The bull on the left was significantly wider than the bull on the right. He had clearly spent more time out in the sun since he was so blonde and light horned. This made him harder to see. After much contemplation I looked through my scope again and told Chance I was going to shoot the one on the right, and that I would wait for the gusts of wind to slow and then shoot. He agreed and I knew he was watching through his binoculars probably just as worried as me. I took the safety off my trigger that breaks clean at less than a pound. I put my last hash mark in my scope right in the right bulls armpit, knowing that calculations put that hash mark dead on for 540 yds. Chance telling me to just “squeeze” as we all tell each other. Boom! My rest was too good, the gun surprised me just as it always does when I really take my time and focus. But he was up my arm muscles had a hard time working the bolt and chambering another round, it felt like molasses in the dead of winter, slow. This was not the time to be slow, he was up and I felt the worry deep down in my gut just as much as Chances tone in his voice, “he’s up” I put the hash mark dead center of his shoulder BOOM! I slowly racked another round while still watching through the scope. “He’s down, he’s down!” the excited voice of my buddy rang. “Ok but can we just sit here for a minute and make sure he wont get up?” I said. We sat and watched for a few minutes. He never twitched. All the while the left bull had only turned and watched his parted lay down for the last time. Our long walk over kicked him out of his bed and he trotted off gracefully. He was just as big looking as the one that fell to my rifle. As we continued walking we talked about the two shots. Chance said his back leg looked funny when he got up and all I could think was that it was impossible that was the shot that felt the best. I was hoping I hadn’t hit him in any of the meat, but I was willing to accept it for the shot we had, I would still be disappointed though.

The last 75 yds I could begin to really see his mass. And I ran up to him just absolutely amazed! I couldn’t believe it! I had made the shot, with a caliber I wasn’t sure of at that distance, in a rifle I built with my own hands and knowledge. I had killed the 340-class bull I had looked for all this time, with my best friend! Upon inspection, we could only see one hit in the shoulder. Maybe the first shot was a miss? I didn’t care, he was down, and the most beautiful one I had ever killed. I kept picking Chance up off the ground shaking him! I was so excited!

My load sends a 115gr Berger VLD hunting bullet at 3235fps. I didn’t know it at the time but it puts out a little over 1500ftlbs at 500 yds. I’m not sure what round was #1 or #2 but, I hit him twice, once high in the shoulders, going in one clean and coming out the other the size of a quarter, sending a crack all the way down it. The other (I believe to be #2) in the spine not 6” from the shoulder shot. Meat damage was minimal, and this bull we judged by his teeth to be 8 or 9 years old. Oh and that funny thing he did with his leg after the first shot? He was three legged, his right rear has been missing for a few years; it was a nub just below his knee/hock. I was able to recover some of both bullets one weight around 80 gr and the other was just a jacket. It still feels like a dream.

My wife said on the way home that she would have done the same thing, we never made the Corb Lund concert unfortunately. But we do have some awesome memories, full freezers and a hell of a mount!

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Great shooting!!!!!!

Great Story!!!!!!

Great Bull!!!!!!!

Good on ya!

Nice bull! Sounds like the 25 did just fine.

Wow!
Awesome!
Too cool!

That is one fine bull! Way to get it done. Great story.

Wow that is an awesome story and Bull. I love the details.

I'm just piling on to say what a great post you wrote, and what a monster you shot. That first picture looks like an 8x10 on the wall!
Jim

Thanks for all the great replies everyone! Im glad i got to share it with all of you!
H.

Well Done !!!