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I believe the generally understood series of events is that when you walk up on a bull elk you’ve put down, your mind will involuntarily start planning your next elk hunt.

And great story on the 300 Weatherby, nice rifle!

Here’s a floor plan of the DSC show, over 800 exhibitors.There will probably be well over 20 outfitters/ranches that offer elk hunting. Both the UU Bar and the Ox Ranch will be there, as well as many others. It’s a great way to see what the options are and figure out what you want. (Questions Like : Area, fence, class of animal (300” bull? 350” bull? 400” bull?), style of hunt (cabin, wall tent, horseback, backpack?), time of year/climate, etc.)

I’d strongly consider the UU Bar if you want mountains, low fence, top end elk, and price isn’t a factor. Their setup is top notch from what I’ve seen (200,000 acres, cabins at 10,000 feet with hot water, great elk herds). I talked with them at DSC a few years back. The DSC convention is Jan 6-9 if you want to go meet a lot of elk outfitters in person, it’s worth your time. http:// https://www.expressuubar.com/ http://biggame.org

Guns Galore in Killeen. They only had the one; I checked every shop within about an hours drive.

They will usually put on more antler mass and usually points as they mature. Most mature 4+ year old bucks in Texas will be at least an 8 point, and then more depending on nutrition, weather, genetics, etc.

I picked up a Ruger American in 300 blackout for my 9yr old to shoot. Mounted a scope and suppressor and did some function checking yesterday, need to finish sighting in. Also picked up some Black Ovis and First Lite merino thermals for me and the wife.

Beautiful reloading/gun room arrangement! - gotta ask what’s going on with the door handle

Some of our deer will chase the turkeys off this feeder if they show up too soon.

We’ve got a big flock of resident turkeys this year that like to hit the ranch house feeder.

Nice! That custom rifle setup looks great.

That’s correct. Their Japanese and Filipino stuff is better than their Chinese stuff from what I’ve heard. Swarovski Z3 or Zeiss might be a good fit; great glass for Dawn and Dusk. The Swarovski Z3s are assembled in the US with European glass I believe. The Zeiss Conquest is Japanese I believe.

Do you use/want to use a rangefinder or not? How far do you want to shoot? With the right loads, you can stretch out past 500 yards, but good glass and ballistic solution will be needed.

Is the kiddie pool a watering station?

Regarding the 300 Wby, in will have about the same trajectory as your 7 Rem mag, but arrive down range with ~20% more energy. Great big game cartridge. Here’s the Hornady Precision Hunter loads for each:

Nice buck! He would be awesome with another year. As you say, not likely, but there’s a chance. Things have changed in many parts of Texas. I saw at least a half dozen bucks this weekend on our little low fence place that are bigger than anything I ever saw hunting the hill country in the 80s-early 2000’s; they would have been shot years before now. Antler restrictions, trail cameras, high fences, the internet, etc have all changed hunting society. Good luck

A Tikka in 22-250 with a Boyd’s at one adjustable stock. The stock was still too long so I took off the adjustable butt pad and made a little homemade recoil pad that cut the draw length down another 3/4”.

Nice work and congrats!

Taught my 9 year old to shoot a center fire rifle today. Still need some help handling the recoil, but getting the hang of it. Did some hunting with her today, she really wants a deer. Didn’t work out this evening but will try tomorrow. Finished with some elk steaks and Camus cabernet, pretty great day.

A chupacabra

Nice, Any history with the buck?

I do like the action on the Ruger Americans (similar to Tikka), and the price point and caliber selections are fun as well. Only issue I had is that the magazine (as sold) couldn’t handle the recoil of 450 bushmaster and the bottom of the magazine would shift upon recoil and blow out. I gorilla glued it and it’s been ok since. Recoil on 450 BM with this light rifle is not insignificant, either shooting supersonic or 395gr subsonics, it recoils more than my 300 Weatherby. You know you are sending a big damn pill down range with those subsonics, the thud when they hit something is nice.

Great looking bucks

Big Culls are fun. My dad shot a similar big six cull a few years back at a place in south Texas

Since Weatherby was mentioned, here’s a bullet performance datapoint on the 200 grain ELD-X. Muzzle velocity 3000fps; impact velocity at 300 yards = 2640 fps, energy at impact = 3095 ft-lbs. Shot was slightly quartering on, entered a few inches in front of the right shoulder and was recovered under the skin just in front of the point of the left shoulder. Obviously shed a lot of weight, but a nice mushroom. I’m a Barnes fan as well and was “only Barnes” for awhile, but they don’t open as well at extended range. Hard to argue that the ELD-X didn’t do just fine here. I want to try some Nosler LRABs, but they have been completely unobtainable for awhile. Nathan Foster really likes the ELD-X and it’s coming around on me. I’m typing this from my blind, nice little evening sit. Bucks are chasing does pretty hard here in Lampasas County. Did see this high fence monster buck right off the side of the county road chasing a doe at 11:15 this morning when we were driving into town for lunch.