So, today was cow hunt day.
My .375 isnt ready yet, a buddy borrowed my 30-06, and another my .243, didnt want to carry the 7 (I nearly always take the 7), so my 6.5-284 pulled cow duty today.
Not much action for me early, tho a couple other guys picked up 3, two bulls and a cow.
After packing those out to the ATVs, a couple of us went back to the truck to drop the meat, and the rest walked down the fence line a way.
I ended up splitting off at one of the gates and diving back into the trees about 100yds. It was pretty thick where i was walking, so i just followed along in the cow trails. I made it about another 75yds farther down hill, and spotted a bull staring at me.
He had two buddies with him, so i sat down and started trying to radio the other guys who were a ways down the road, and have them come down on top of the small group of animals.
After a few mins of no reply, i shot bull who had been staring at me for pretty much the whole time, as he started to walk off.
I intentionally avoided hitting his front leg, putting the round in behind the elbow joint. It either deflected off a rib on the way in (didnt check that hard), or he was angled more severally than I thought he was. The bullet tracked thru one lung missed the heart, and came apart somewhere between there and the front of his stomach. We found small bits and pieces, but not even the butt end of the jacket, so either it went somewhere completely different, or the whole thing came apart which would surprise me....but i guess it IS possible.
While penetration and wounding on the off side was unspectacular, the animal did only go about 40yds and piled up to die. Ive hit them with much larger rounds and had to chase them a lot farther.
To do it over, i would not use this bullet on game this large tho, not just because of the penetration issue, but because it seems to come apart too early. A berger that had made the same path, would likely have come apart somwhere in the middle of the first lung, and would likely have blow out the other one, and or nicked the heart at least. It appears the Eld-X only penetrated a few inches then came apart only damaging the one lung visibly, tho the other may have had nicks in it, and leaving the heart completely intact.
On the way out two of our guys ended up getting on some more cows, but they boogied before they could get shots. They did end up getting shots on a pair of Mouflon, tho they only got one.
These arnt forest sheep, his horns and hoves showed pretty serious signs of water rot, but he was otherwise quite healthy, and pretty old.
Ive got a few pictures, tho I wasnt as diligent this time as i was last at getting them. Ill try get my buddies to send me theirs as well and post them up.
My .375 isnt ready yet, a buddy borrowed my 30-06, and another my .243, didnt want to carry the 7 (I nearly always take the 7), so my 6.5-284 pulled cow duty today.
Not much action for me early, tho a couple other guys picked up 3, two bulls and a cow.
After packing those out to the ATVs, a couple of us went back to the truck to drop the meat, and the rest walked down the fence line a way.
I ended up splitting off at one of the gates and diving back into the trees about 100yds. It was pretty thick where i was walking, so i just followed along in the cow trails. I made it about another 75yds farther down hill, and spotted a bull staring at me.
He had two buddies with him, so i sat down and started trying to radio the other guys who were a ways down the road, and have them come down on top of the small group of animals.
After a few mins of no reply, i shot bull who had been staring at me for pretty much the whole time, as he started to walk off.
I intentionally avoided hitting his front leg, putting the round in behind the elbow joint. It either deflected off a rib on the way in (didnt check that hard), or he was angled more severally than I thought he was. The bullet tracked thru one lung missed the heart, and came apart somewhere between there and the front of his stomach. We found small bits and pieces, but not even the butt end of the jacket, so either it went somewhere completely different, or the whole thing came apart which would surprise me....but i guess it IS possible.
While penetration and wounding on the off side was unspectacular, the animal did only go about 40yds and piled up to die. Ive hit them with much larger rounds and had to chase them a lot farther.
To do it over, i would not use this bullet on game this large tho, not just because of the penetration issue, but because it seems to come apart too early. A berger that had made the same path, would likely have come apart somwhere in the middle of the first lung, and would likely have blow out the other one, and or nicked the heart at least. It appears the Eld-X only penetrated a few inches then came apart only damaging the one lung visibly, tho the other may have had nicks in it, and leaving the heart completely intact.
On the way out two of our guys ended up getting on some more cows, but they boogied before they could get shots. They did end up getting shots on a pair of Mouflon, tho they only got one.
These arnt forest sheep, his horns and hoves showed pretty serious signs of water rot, but he was otherwise quite healthy, and pretty old.
Ive got a few pictures, tho I wasnt as diligent this time as i was last at getting them. Ill try get my buddies to send me theirs as well and post them up.
