Pacnor At work with blackpowder
Oct 12, 2009 22:48:41 GMT -5
Post by jeff on Oct 12, 2009 22:48:41 GMT -5
Well a month ago after a post on my antelope, I stated I had a couple more hunts slated with the pacnor. This was an elk hunt in New Mexico with a friend on public ground.
This hunt was muzzleloader only, which required the use of black powder only. My choice was the new IMR White Hots. I used 3- 50 grain charges and had comparable results to 44 grains of 4759. The point of impact was less then 3 inches high at a hundred yards.
We had found this bull a week before season started, feeding and watering on low private ground then heading back up the mountain to public forest.The first morning we could not find him, only a 5x5 and a few cows. The next morning we did locate him heading high with 15 cows and 5 satellite bulls on the fringe of the herd, he had moved about 3/4 mile since the last time we saw him.
The plan was to go around the back side of the mtn and come down from above on them. This was far easier said than done, it was a 60 degree angle, a few of you might remember I had a knee replacement in Jan. so anyways when we reached our bench we thought they would bed on Some of the satellite bulls were bedded directly below us 75 yards including a nice 6x6 320 bull. The rest of the cows and the herd 6x7 we were after was in no hurry to bed. we inched along with them for 4 hours cow and calf calling to him. he would bugle a storm up but not commit to us with so many other bulls that close. We called in the 320 bull to 45 yards and a 5x5 that was in the 280 range. I had my mind set on the herd bull. The open bench they were on was very misleading in judging distance, with out a rangefinder I would have missed for sure, This is where my nerves were tested, the bull was getting ready to bed and he was at 290 yards, I had practiced out to 250yards, the crosshair post was my 250 yard hold, however I had been trying to calculate the entire time how high the shot would be at that angle. I had the safety off and steadied on a dead log for almost 15 minutes with the bull looking directly our way. When he finally turned to his right Rusty whispered 287 yards, I shot using a 220 yard hold over at the sound of the shot the air was filled with smoke, the gun had already settled back down before I herd the 300 gr Barnes original hit its mark, I said he's hit and Rusty screamed he's down, we let the herd single file out of the canyon before getting up, by the way Rusty was also filming the entire hunt. The shot was still 4-5 inches high after the hold on him. The bullet ran the spine from his front shoulder back to the front of the right hind quarter. The massive bull was a 6x7 with 10 1/2 inch bases scoring 361 gross.
I would highly recommend the white hots for a black powder hunt. I'll keep those interested up to date on the rest of the year.
Good Hunting,Jeff~
This hunt was muzzleloader only, which required the use of black powder only. My choice was the new IMR White Hots. I used 3- 50 grain charges and had comparable results to 44 grains of 4759. The point of impact was less then 3 inches high at a hundred yards.
We had found this bull a week before season started, feeding and watering on low private ground then heading back up the mountain to public forest.The first morning we could not find him, only a 5x5 and a few cows. The next morning we did locate him heading high with 15 cows and 5 satellite bulls on the fringe of the herd, he had moved about 3/4 mile since the last time we saw him.
The plan was to go around the back side of the mtn and come down from above on them. This was far easier said than done, it was a 60 degree angle, a few of you might remember I had a knee replacement in Jan. so anyways when we reached our bench we thought they would bed on Some of the satellite bulls were bedded directly below us 75 yards including a nice 6x6 320 bull. The rest of the cows and the herd 6x7 we were after was in no hurry to bed. we inched along with them for 4 hours cow and calf calling to him. he would bugle a storm up but not commit to us with so many other bulls that close. We called in the 320 bull to 45 yards and a 5x5 that was in the 280 range. I had my mind set on the herd bull. The open bench they were on was very misleading in judging distance, with out a rangefinder I would have missed for sure, This is where my nerves were tested, the bull was getting ready to bed and he was at 290 yards, I had practiced out to 250yards, the crosshair post was my 250 yard hold, however I had been trying to calculate the entire time how high the shot would be at that angle. I had the safety off and steadied on a dead log for almost 15 minutes with the bull looking directly our way. When he finally turned to his right Rusty whispered 287 yards, I shot using a 220 yard hold over at the sound of the shot the air was filled with smoke, the gun had already settled back down before I herd the 300 gr Barnes original hit its mark, I said he's hit and Rusty screamed he's down, we let the herd single file out of the canyon before getting up, by the way Rusty was also filming the entire hunt. The shot was still 4-5 inches high after the hold on him. The bullet ran the spine from his front shoulder back to the front of the right hind quarter. The massive bull was a 6x7 with 10 1/2 inch bases scoring 361 gross.
I would highly recommend the white hots for a black powder hunt. I'll keep those interested up to date on the rest of the year.
Good Hunting,Jeff~
