My wife just filled her cow Elk tag in Colorado.

Yesterday, she shot her elk standing offhand at 85 yards with her Ruger SS Hawkeye 35 Whelen using Federal Premium 225 gr. TBBC. That makes two for her now with that rifle and load.

She said she saw the legs go up after the shot, and then disappear as the cow went down in the sagebrush. She couldn’t find her, so she came to get me to help look. I was in the truck and had sent her out on her own to do the stalk after she had spotted a herd of around 50.

We backtracked to where she shot and followed the tracks in the snow. After only about 20 yards of following the tracks, she spotted something 90 degrees to the left of the direction of the tracks, about 40 yards from the track, down in a ravine. It was her elk. One shot, and the cow must have rolled a bit down the hill. Four hours later after cleaning, quartering, and hauling uphill out of the ravine, she was loaded in the truck. I am getting too old to haul elk out of ravines! But, we made it. No heart attacks...

Good for her. Sounds like a pretty sweet elk hunt. Mine usually end up with 8-10 hours later, all of the elk was finally back at the truck.

Happy New Year with the best meat you can't get from the store.

Jeremy

Congrats, well done!

Congratulations to your wife!

Congratulations to your wife!

My wife's only cow elk was taken with my Model 77 Ruger in 35 Whelen.

Congratulations!! The 35 Whelen is fast becoming my favorite to hunt with.

Congratulations to your wife!!

The 35 is a natural elk,moose, and bear slayer,

Congratulations. Good job with the 35 Whelen. I used mine this year on a bull moose. waterrat is right. Its a natural for elk, moose and bear. Ain't to shabby on caribou either.

Thanks everybody. She’s so happy!

Last night we ate the tenderloins with bearnaise sauce, and asparagus spears with the same sauce on top. Wowser. SOOO good!

She has taken elk with her 7mm Rem. Mag., 338WM, & 35 Whelen. I have taken them with a 300WM, 338WM & 35 Whelen. We both like the 338WM & 35 Whelen the best on elk. Being the Whelen has less recoil, and the rifles are lighter (ours), we are now 35 Whelen fans for elk hunting. This is no knock on any other calibers, but simply our own personal choices. We like the lack of distance they travel after the shot.

We have two lady friends, both of whom weigh less than a 100 lbs., who hunt elk with their 25-06s. For their weight, it’s probably a great round considering the recoil. They get close and only take broadside, behind the shoulder shots.

We like the option of shooting at any angle, and any reasonable distance, usually 350 yards or less. The elk we have shot with either the 338WM or the 35 Whelen, have died either right where they stood, or perhaps have rolled down a hill a ways, but that was gravity working, not their legs. The 225 gr. TBBC my wife used broke the onside front leg, made a mess of the lungs, and exited the off side. Full exit. It was a broadside shot.

We both hunt Africa, and have shot some pretty big bore rifles. She has shot my 375H&H (300 gr.), 416 Rigby (400gr.), 404 Jeffery (400 gr.), and 458 Lott (500gr.). So to her, the 35 Whelen is a sweet, low recoiling round. I shoot 250 gr. NP in mine, and she shoots the 225 gr. TBBC. No problem. She said when she shot this elk, it sounded like a 22 going off, which concerned her, as she wondered if there was a problem with the rifle. Obviously no problem. I think maybe the cold (9 degrees), snow and wind had some affect. Don’t know.

Tomorrow night, we dine on backstraps.

Nothing like venison for a celebratory meal. Congratulations to her. Those ravines may keep you young. At least tough. That is a way to end a year.

Very nice! Congradulations to her on a fine hunt.

Sounds like a good hunt.

I mark locations in sage brush with my GPS marking tape ect.

Animals shot in high sage can be hard to find.

I looked a long time for some.

Love the Whelen! Probably the atomosphere and the sagebrush soaking up the sound and a bit of auditory exclusion from the excitement. My old Whelen sounds like that with cast lids on a cold day as well. My son commemented about when I shot it a couple of New Years days ago. The does made no comment. They just hit the snow.

Pretty good round. I have a 35 Whelen Remington 7400 autoloader. Great for stomping Elks. Surprisingly accurate.

Definitely congrats...the Whelen is an excellent shooter for ANY game...don't know why more hunters don't use one.

Talk about dead animals "hiding" from you...way back in the day I shot a deer at what looked like 100-125 yd with NOTHING except a small bush between me and the deer...it went down "flop-dead". There was ONE SMALL bush between me and my dinner. As I walked past there was something brown there I thought was a rabbit hunkered down...I just glanced at it and kept walking. The ground was clear except for grass and I walked an other 200 yards or so looking, started backtracking walking 25-30 yards to both sides until I was about 30 yards from that small bush...Back in those days we didn't have all this fancy GPS and distance measuring "stuff".

I looked a little harder at that "rabbit" and walked over to it. It was my "average sized deer at ≈100 yds" pictured in my mind...I've sot a lot of those in the fields around my home. Bent down to pick it up and held it straight out in front of my by the hind legs and the front legs just brushed the ground....don't think it weighed 50 lbs and it was a full grown doe as far as I could tell.

DON'T know what kind of deer it was...NOT a Muley OR White tail indigenous to the area. Years later someone told me it probably was a Cous deer from the coast that somehow ended up inland.

Sure tasted good but neither me or my dogs got much of a supper...and NOTHING left over for jerky, breakfast OR snacks.

This taught me a LOT about perspective and "bionic" eyeball distance measuring.

Good Hunting

quote:

DON'T know what kind of deer it was...NOT a Muley OR White tail indigenous to the area. Years later someone told me it probably was a Cous deer from the coast that somehow ended up inland.

Where on earth was this?
Coues deer are not coastal, however Blacktails are on the west coast, not sure where Mule Deer, whitetails and a possible Coues could all collide...….

.[/QUOTE]

Where on earth was this?
Coues deer are not coastal, however Blacktails are on the west coast, not sure where Mule Deer, whitetails and a possible Coues could all collide...….[/QUOTE]

Arizona.

Zeke

Where was the elk hit?

quote:

DON'T know what kind of deer it was...NOT a Muley OR White tail indigenous to the area. Years later someone told me it probably was a Cous deer from the coast that somehow ended up inland.

Zeke reread that part and tell me where coues deer come from the coast to mingle with native whitetails and Mule Deer?....
I am a bit cornfused.

Coues deer are in Southern Arizona, Texas Big Bend, a desert deer for the most part but are costal in parts of Mexico and the Sonorian desert and Northern Mexico...Nowhere near Blacktail habitat,

My bet is that its a cross bred Mule deer, black tail cross or mule deer white tail cross...They do cross breed, contrary to some reports. but Texas Fish and Game identified the cross breeding with the process of DNA testing and structural body differences of horn and tail. Cross bred whitetail and muleys are common in the Sanderson, Texas area of Texas.