- Messages
- 1,917
- Reactions
- 4,789
My brother went out opening day for elk in Idaho. I went out and scouted the week before and found some good sign and gave him directions on where I thought some nice bulls would be.
He went out with his Christensen Arms Ridgeline in 6.5 PRC and found a nice bull right where I said it would be. It was just over 400 yards away, and he had a good rest and said he put one right in the vitals. Bull went down.
Then bull got up and my brother tried to work the action to get another shot off but the action jammed and the bull wandered into the timber. It was raining hard and he lost the blood trail. Looked all night but couldn't find it. Then he got a call that night that a coworker tested positive for Covid, so he was ordered to quarantine at home for 14 days. His season is over, and a nice bull elk is wasted.
At 400 yards, the 6.5 PRC is still delivering 1800 ft lbs of energy so it should be entirely adequate for elk at that distance. My brother is just sick over the whole thing and now wants to go to the 300 PRC, which has 2700 ft lbs of energy at 400 yards.
I have no idea why the elk went down and then got up and got away. My brother is an amazing marksman and his rifle is capable of 1/2 MOA at 600 yards.
But it was a rainy and stormy day, so the round could have gone anywhere at that range. I'm no fan of shots over 250 yards on animals precisely because of incidents like this.
But it could have been any number of things and because the elk is now wolf food, we'll never know.
He went out with his Christensen Arms Ridgeline in 6.5 PRC and found a nice bull right where I said it would be. It was just over 400 yards away, and he had a good rest and said he put one right in the vitals. Bull went down.
Then bull got up and my brother tried to work the action to get another shot off but the action jammed and the bull wandered into the timber. It was raining hard and he lost the blood trail. Looked all night but couldn't find it. Then he got a call that night that a coworker tested positive for Covid, so he was ordered to quarantine at home for 14 days. His season is over, and a nice bull elk is wasted.
At 400 yards, the 6.5 PRC is still delivering 1800 ft lbs of energy so it should be entirely adequate for elk at that distance. My brother is just sick over the whole thing and now wants to go to the 300 PRC, which has 2700 ft lbs of energy at 400 yards.
I have no idea why the elk went down and then got up and got away. My brother is an amazing marksman and his rifle is capable of 1/2 MOA at 600 yards.
But it was a rainy and stormy day, so the round could have gone anywhere at that range. I'm no fan of shots over 250 yards on animals precisely because of incidents like this.
But it could have been any number of things and because the elk is now wolf food, we'll never know.