This is the guy I shot last week with my .338-06 M70, a 225 grain partition at 2600 fps, at 280 lasered yds. He was a bull that I watched from late summer, through bow season and finally got a chance at him the first day of rifle season. He is unique with the strange right horn growth.
After I shot him I was surprised by the size of the right horn, its a bit over 9" in diameter or about the size of a pop can. Everyone I showed him to theorized as to the strange harn......genetics? an old injury? did he injure his skull when he was a calf?
My butcher called and showed me the right shoulder. He had been shot high up on the top shoulder bone, the long bone that is above the knee joint. The bullet hit just below the top of the bone and fragmented. It penetrated the bone and caused a lot of damage. There was greyish gristle that had grown around the wound site in both the muscle and hide. The bone itself had a large deposit of bone material around the wound, with some bullet jacketing and lead present.

My local Veterinarian, a man of over forty years of practice aged the skull from the teeth at 6 years old. The local FWP Warden stated six years old also. The Vet mentioned that the wound was at least three years old, maybe older. Despite the wound, battling infection, etc. This bull mended, grew and became a breeder this season as well as kicking a lot of younger bulls butts too.

I have always mentioned that bulls can be tough, this guy is living proof.

Frank N.

[This message has been edited by Frank Nowakowski (edited 11-01-2001).]

Another shot showing the way the horn grew down , nearly over the right eye.

FN

Nice bull. How did he react to the 338-06.

Congrats frank!

That's a great bull. Almost as big as the one I plan to get this weekend.

------------------
When in doubt, empty the magazine.

Rob,

He was 280 yds away with about 200+ of his buddies, they were all slowly angling across a side hill. At the shot he humped up and ran at about half speed about 30 yds over a small hill. As he went over I saw his antlers angle to the right as he fell. Bullet went in the left side behind the shoulder, took out both lungs and exited, but went into the right leg. Found it at the butchers shop when we examined the old injury he had sustained.
In typical partition fashion it had smeared off the nose lead, but weighed 159.6 grains, and had grown to .575" in diameter.

Worked pretty good IMHO. Now hopefully to try it on a nice whitetail in the next few weeks.

FN

A great bull Frank. I wonder if the wound was from a Nosler BT? Good luck w/ your whitetail.

Congratulations! Nice bull and excellent choice of elk cartridge. Your story reminds me of a similar experience an outfitter out of Pinedale, WY told me about eleven years ago. He had a client who had bagged a large bull elk, when they quartered the bull large amounts of scar tissue was found in the shoulder area. The meat was no good from this part of the animal which apparently had recovered also somewhat from a previous gunshot wound. sure-shot

Here's a picture on an elk leg, I had to finish the job my friend started the year before. FYI, my friend used a .270 and 130g Rem. Core-Lokt. I used a 7STW the following year to put him down for good. It took me awhile to figure out what the lump was in his leg but then I put two and two together...

[This message has been edited by Spike (edited 11-01-2001).]

Spike,

The bone in mine looked real similar, especially the spot with the little "pock" marks, His bone had a circle of them that was maybe 1/2" larger in diameter than the rest of the bone. Plus the hide on that injured leg was dark and thick at the wound site. Thanks for posting the shots....very interesting.

FN

Frank,

Congrats on the great bull! Looks like that 338-06 did a number on him. All I have punched with mine is paper so far. Hope to try it out in the near future. Thanks for posting your pics.

Shawn

The leg bones can be very hard and tough for a bullet to penetrate. I once shot at a wounded moose bull at circa 250 yards and hit him low in the chest, or rather high up in the leg bone. He went done, but I have to give him another shot when I came closer.

Having skinned the bull, we examined our shots, and fond a coffe cup large cavity hihg up i the front leg bone. My .30-06 Brenneke TUG 180 gr. had exploded at the hit and did not penetrate. If that bull had recovered, I suppose that it must have looked like Spike�s photo.

This is a good argument for using enough gun and good bullets.

Frank, your bull is rather impressing. A nice trophy!

Fritz