My son and I hunted the juniper and pinyon country north of Grand Junction, CO this past 5 day "elk only" season. At the altitude we hunted, 6-7000 ft, the temperature climbed to near 80 in the afternoons from 40ish at sunrise. Hot.
My son packs a 338 LM, and I decided on my 7 RM instead of the Grendel, which was a mistake.
I filled my cow tag on the second morning with a little bull calf (antlerless) but we were still trying to find something for my "horn hunter" son. On the third day we got on two little bunches of elk, both with 6 point bulls in attendance, but couldn't get in position for a shot.
The next morning we hiked in about 1.5 miles and were on rim rock overlooking the drainage we thought the elk went into. Sat there all day glassing but no luck, which was the start of a streak; mainly due to not taking a short, quick on the draw rifle.
We got back to the truck with maybe half an hour of shooting light left and started driving out. Sure enough we jumped a little bunch of cows, slammed on the brakes, and came to a stop between the bull and the cows. He was staring at us from about 80 yards into the timber, and gave us almost enough time to get a shot off.
If only I'd decided to take the 18" barrel Grendel instead of two long barreled bolt guns my son might have another trophy instead of tag soup. On the other hand I can't wait to see how the calf tastes. We deboned the meat before the pack out and got it off the mountain to the meat processors by 2 PM.
Next year I'm taking the Grendel!
Here's a pic of the area we were hunting
My son packs a 338 LM, and I decided on my 7 RM instead of the Grendel, which was a mistake.
I filled my cow tag on the second morning with a little bull calf (antlerless) but we were still trying to find something for my "horn hunter" son. On the third day we got on two little bunches of elk, both with 6 point bulls in attendance, but couldn't get in position for a shot.
The next morning we hiked in about 1.5 miles and were on rim rock overlooking the drainage we thought the elk went into. Sat there all day glassing but no luck, which was the start of a streak; mainly due to not taking a short, quick on the draw rifle.
We got back to the truck with maybe half an hour of shooting light left and started driving out. Sure enough we jumped a little bunch of cows, slammed on the brakes, and came to a stop between the bull and the cows. He was staring at us from about 80 yards into the timber, and gave us almost enough time to get a shot off.
If only I'd decided to take the 18" barrel Grendel instead of two long barreled bolt guns my son might have another trophy instead of tag soup. On the other hand I can't wait to see how the calf tastes. We deboned the meat before the pack out and got it off the mountain to the meat processors by 2 PM.
Next year I'm taking the Grendel!
Here's a pic of the area we were hunting
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