Idaho elk, bro's 1st

[msorwan1975]

My Bro got this elk last week in Idaho, his first. Scored 404-1/8, weighed ~1100 lbs, estimated to be 5 y/o so a fully mature bull. Like to think I played a small part in his success. The rifle is a custom 300 Win Mag I built for him. Blueprinted Rem 700 action, Douglas bbl, McMillan stock, pillar bedded, Leupold optics, etc. We did extensive load work to prepare for this hunt. Settled on a stiff charge of RL22 w/Hornady 200 gr ELD-X which gave over 3000 fps and grouped under 1/2 moa at 200 yards in repeated testing in various conditions.

[eatmydust]

That is an awesome bull, congrats to you and your brother.��

[chaos19671]

congrats!!!

[gghbi]

Elk meat is delicious! Nice bull and lots of meat.

[Daycrawler]

Very nice bull. How far did he take the shot?

[Qtrborecrazy]

Fantastic bull for his first. Congratulations to both of you.

[MARINE DIVISION TWO]

Congrats ! The rack weighs more than my biggest deer !

[ar15jules]

That is fantastic!

[aubie515]

Very nice...I'm looking to go on my first Elk hunt next year in WY.

How long have you lived in Millersburg? I grew up in Millersburg.

[msorwan1975]

Very nice...I'm looking to go on my first Elk hunt next year in WY.

How long have you lived in Millersburg? I grew up in Millersburg.

A whole month at this point LOL!

Very nice bull. How far did he take the shot?

All of 100 yards! But kudo's to him taking time to ensure his equipment and skills were up to the task of longer shots. He took that seriously.

The bull was partially in cover with the vitals covered by brush. After some time it turned and spooked. Two shots were fired and both were hits while it was at a full run. First hit a bit far forward thru the shoulders but wasn't a great hit in the vitals. The bull tuned a bit and the second shot was a going away shot, slightly angled to the right. It entered the right rear hind quarter, passed full length thru the vitals. Part of bullet jacket was recovered during skinning but the core passed thru.
To me it shows the importance of bullet choice and just how good today's bullets are! Full pass thru of a 1000lb + animal on a going away shot is impressive. Sure the core separated just before exiting but that sure dumped some energy and retained penetration. Hornady's making some seriously good bullets these days.
During load development we tested ELD-X bullets in 178, 200, 212, 220 gr. They all shot under MOA out to 300 yards. The 178 and 200 gr were stellar in accuracy with the 212, 220 just a bit less accurate. But we're talking the difference of .3 moa to .6 moa which is real world meaningless in hunting. What I found very interesting is 178, 200, 212 all shot to same point of impact out to 300 yds. And off the bench there was no significant point of impact shift from the 100 to 200 yard zero with any of the bullets. Basically the 100 yard and 200 yard zeroes were identical.