Got my elk, though, like making sausage, it wasn't pretty (poor shot). Shot a 5x5 out of a group of about 500. I never realized how difficult it can be to pick out the biggest animals in a large group. Guide was telling me to shoot the 6x6, only I couldn't tell which one he was talking about. Mine was respectable, but not as big as the one he had his eyes on.

Sad story for my hunting partner, though. He also got into one of those big migratory groups and chose to shoot at a respectable bull. At the report the heard bolted, but before they could follow, they noticed an elk left behind When they got up to it, they found that he has shot over his bull and hit a calf. Needless to say, he was sick. (His tag was either sex, so it was a legal kill.) Oh well, at least he will eat well.

There were close to ten thousand elk on the ranch! The owners fear impending disaster, because there is little or no food in the normal wintering grounds (drought). They fear that either there is going to have to be a mass heard reduction, a mass die-off or an artificial feeding program in order to get them through the winter. They have got to kill some cows in Colorado, or there will be real trouble in the future.

Please tell us about the Grand Slams, What caliber, performance etc.

I'm also interested in how the Grand Slam performed. I used a 120 gr. in a 257 wby to take a spike Elk this year. The bullet hit a rib on entry and broke apart. One section continued on into the heart - lung are, while the other section went into the shoulder and wiped out a couple of roasts.
The good news is that he didn't go far.

Where were you hunting at? I got my elk over between Craig and Meeker. I'm also interested in what caliber you were shooting.

Well, it wasn't an elk but I used a 145 grain Grand Slam in my .280 Rem to take a Nebraska 10 pointer. No complaints with bullet performance. Deer was taken at a ranged 234 yards through the neck (it was the only shot available, the deer was bedded)

I had an experience that made me go back to Nosler Partitions after my first (and only) experience with a Grand Slam. It was a 180 gr that I used in a .300 Win mag. I was pushing it a chronographed 3047 fps and the altitiude was about 6500 ft (if that matters). The raghorn (4x5) was climbing the opposite side of the canyon and was about to go over when I put the crosshairs between his shoulder blades at about 200yds, and pulled the trigger. He went down immediately, rolled over, kicked a bit and was dead, just about in the period of time it takes to read this !!! HOWEVER, upon examination at post mortem, it was readily evident that the bullet COMPLETELY DISINTEGRATED !!!! I was picking microscopic pieces of lead about the size of a pinhead from everywhere. I found 1 tiny fragment of jacket maybe 1/32" in diameter. The bullet impacted the spine squarely, and did break into the spinal column, but did not exit the spine. I know, an elk has a heavy spine, but this was not a large bull, only maybe 500lbs or so. I know people will ask here "at what point in the animals death did the bullet fail?", but it spooked me to see a bullet fragment like that. Besides, I don't need any more lead in my system from my venison,I've probably got enough already from casting bullets indoors years ago. Just my 2 cents worth.

bowhuntr

Grand Slams have asways worked well for me, I think maybe some people confuse the grand slam with the hot core bullets...

I still like Noslers, North Forks and Woodleighs equally.

I was shooting my new custom Williams Precision 300 WSM. It is built on a Model 700 stainless action and fitted with a Kreiger barrel and McMillan stock. It is topped with a 3x9-42 Kahles scope. The gun is the most accurate large bore rifle I have ever shot. In it I was using hand loaded 180-grain Grand Slams which chrono at 2980 fps. -- exactly the same speed as my 300 Winnie with the same bullet.

I was hunting five miles north of Craig on Highway 13. This particular ranch serves as a major migration route for the elk every fall. There were seven hunters in the lodge when I got there, and all seven killed out on the same day. I just heard that the next group arrived (seven of them) and all of them killed out on the first day.

Elk in this area are not big, but what they lack in quality, they make up for in quanity.