Wyoming Bull!

Coloradoboy · Oct 5, 2010

LAST EDITED ON Oct-05-10 AT 08:19PM (MST)[p]I was able to score on this nice wyoming bull 10 minutes in shooting light on opening day here are some pictures I will add the story below.

COLO3D · Oct 5, 2010

Nicely done!

accubond · Oct 5, 2010

Congratulations!! That's a great bull and some beautiful country. Lets hear the story when you get some time.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never has and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Coloradoboy · Oct 5, 2010

Dad and I drove the 8 hours up to our hunting area on wednesday night after I finished up my last class of the day back at college and met up with my uncle, who lives in the area and packed in thursday afternoon after having quite a few mishaps, one being dad and I accidentally locking ourselves in a tack shed for over an hour until my aunts mother came over and let us out. LOL. We did manage to ride the 5 or 6 miles into camp that night and as we topped the ridge riding into where we were going to camp the drainage below erupted with bulls bugling! It was heaven we were practically sleeping with the elk that night and sleep was hard to come by that night with bulls sounding off all night outside our tent. The alarm went off that morning and I had no problems getting out of bed as I could hear a bull screaming outside of camp. As light was approaching Dad, My uncle Rod and I decided to slip about 100 to 150 yards outside of camp and hunkered down in some small pines and set up the spotting scope and began trying to locate the bull we'd been listening to all night. Just at first light I looked up on a distant ridge and spotted a small 5 point bull and directed my father and my uncle to where his location was. Not long after cows and this bull began to spill out. Being that im still young and have plenty of years left to chase big bulls I offered my dad to take him, but dad being his usual self elected to pass on him hoping for something bigger. Being I had to get back to school wednesday and I loved the way this bull looked I elected to try and take him. My dad quickly took off his pack and set it down in front of me and I took off my fanny pack in order to steady myself for the shot. When I first got behind the gun dad began giving me ranges. 640 yards dad whispered just as I began to settle in for the shot the bull began to walk towards following a cow. "Wait" my dad said let him keep walking and see if he will close some distance. I backed off but keep him in the scope. Just as the bull began to come towards us the cow veered off and he began moving off into the timber. Crap! I thought. But dad assured me he'd step out again and sure enough the bull steeped out again in a small clearing above about a 30 to 40 foot cliff. "671 yards cole" my dad whispered as I settled in. "Remember, long slow squeeze Cole, make sure everythings perfect" he added. From that moment everything went into autopilot an everything lined up perfect and I held high on the bull's shoulder and touched it off and the 300 ultra mag roared and the 185 berger was on its way. I didnt have time to collect myself and get back on target after the shot because my dad and my uncle were already jumping up and down in excitement. The shot was perfect, hitting the bull right in the front shoulder and dropping him.. yet sent him rolling down a pretty nasty chute. I have yet to tape him yet but im guessing he'll score 315 or so we'll see.

wylycoyote · Oct 5, 2010

True story. I was there. This shot was not taken without much preparation and experience with this gun, reloading, communication with Berger and the scope mfg (not Huskemaw), running the programs on the BC and true velocity. No wind and a great rest.

treedagain · Oct 5, 2010

sweet bull and pics

PleaseDear · Oct 5, 2010

Nice bull for sure.

Sweet looking country too.

congrats

Robb

knoxville471 · Oct 6, 2010

dang nice bull looks like he was gettin up there in age congrats

rutnbuck · Oct 6, 2010

Good Job. Great story.

Magicman · Oct 6, 2010

Congratulations on taking that bull.

Since I'm not into long range shooting, how do you remember how much bullet drop you might have at those long yardages?

Before you die.....Take time to live

BIGFOOT · Oct 6, 2010

Congratulations on a very nice bull! Great story and photos. Thanks for sharing.

larzmang · Oct 6, 2010

Sweet bull, and nice shot!

Coloradoboy · Oct 6, 2010

Magic man, my dad did his homework on the Ballistic Coefficient on the gun/bullet I was shooting. I took this bull with a 300 Remington Ultra Mag shooting a 185 grain berger vld. Through Berger's BC calculator my dad was able to see what our load would do from ranges of 0 to 1000 yards. The gun I was shooting is topped with a Burris Signature scope with the ballistic mildot redicle. The gun shoots 1.5 inch high at 100 yards and is dead on at 225 yards. The scope has 5 posts below the cross hairs. The first being dead on at 275 yards, the next at 359 yards, the third is dead on at 463, the fourth being 580 yards, the fifth being 711 and the post is 859 yards. The shot was slightly down hill and I had zero wind, I held the fourth post (which is sighted in for 580 yards) on the top of bulls shoulder to compensate for the bullet drop of about 12 inches.

whitetailaddict · Oct 6, 2010

First off congrats, great bull, better shot!

I'm an archer so I don't bother with guns much, that said I find long range shooting very interesting. What power scope?

Coloradoboy · Oct 6, 2010

Im an archer myself and prefer to hunting the archery season.. but my schedule at school didnt allow me to take the time needed to do an archery hunt. But the scope is a 4x to 16x

wylycoyote · Oct 6, 2010

To add to the range calcs' we have the references taped to the butt stock and based on an altitude of 8000ft. The actual elevation from our gps at the location was 9550. The air density helps to shoot slightly flater at high altitude. Like playing golf at sea level or here in CO. Hit the same club farther here than on the coast.

Magicman · Oct 6, 2010

Wow, thanks Coloradoboy. I knew that there had to be a lot more than sticking a wet finger in the air to nail a shot like that. I know a guy in Pennsylvania that regularly shoots ground hogs at really obscene distances. He just dials them in and calls their number.

Again thanks. I wasn't questioning, just curious. That's way out of my league as well as my thinking.

Before you die.....Take time to live

cowhorn · Oct 7, 2010

Hey wylycoyote,any guess how much less drop at that elevation
than say 5000 ft?I have a similiar setup on my scope with dots and crosshairs out to 1000yds,but set for much lower elevation.And great bull with a really fine shot too for ya'll.

rmanwill · Oct 7, 2010

Congrats on a good bull.

Zeke · Oct 7, 2010

That's the way to ruin a good hunt (10 minutes)! LOL. You did your perparation well in advance of the hunt though so good for you!

Really.... Congratulations on a sweet bull and a great experience. Thanks for sharing the pics and your story with us.

I've shot quite a bit out to 750 yards (paper)and some out to 1000 yards (paper) and the one big variable is the darn wind! It will screw up EVERY extreme range shooter sooner or later. The range of your bull was probably well within you ability but remember the uncontrollable wind factor when shooting much farther on a flesh target. I didn't mean to preach and I'm sure you know all this stuff anyway.

Congrats again on a sweet bull and a great shot!

Zeke

wylycoyote · Oct 7, 2010

Depends on several things. Best suggestion, go to Berger's website. They have a free download ballistic program. put your data in for 5000ft with your specific bullet, caliber, etc. If you aren't using Berger remember to use the correct BC factor, G1 or G7.

wylycoyote · Oct 7, 2010

Totally agree. I wouldn't think of taking this shot with "any" wind on a live animal. Wind meters may work for some but in the mountains a cross wind at your shooting location could be an entirely different direction and speed accross the valley or down the ridge. We had dead calm early morning conditions. A 10 mph cross wind could blow the POI feet, not inches at this range as you must know from experience.

Zeke · Oct 7, 2010

Some dummy (me) forgot to tell their daughter about the wind drift at a crutial time and she almost missed a desert bighorn last year! The bullet drifted about 10" at 320 yds and she hammered the ram in the neck. Whew, lucky!

It can and does happen to us all.

Best to you all and again congrats on a BIG Wyo bull!

Zeke