English Mike wrote:

What elevation do you live at? I live at 100' ASL & four years running from 2006-2009 hunted CO unit 751 at between 8,000' & 11,000. The thin air really slowed me down & as we were camped at 9,000' it messed with sleeping too. The last year, I spent two weeks at 6,000' before the hunt & felt much better. Dehydration was a real issue & I don't think I ever returned to camp with anything left in my 2 litre Camelbak. Weight wise, I ditched everything I could & apart from water/Gatorade, carried an MRE, trail mix, rifle, 10 rounds, bino's, knife, small camera, trail tape & a two way radio, so not much more than 20lbs on top of the clothes I was wearing.

Mike - I am at 600 feet.... not much better than you. I intend to pack light on hunting days and only heavy pack will be when moving the camp or humping meat out. Then I will move slowly. I plan to arrive 3-4 days early and hang out at 6000 with some short stints up on top of the mesa prior to opening day. My prep work includes using an altitude mask to restrict my breathing while exercising to build up lung capacity and develop oxygen use by my body. I don't know if it will really help but I do not want to be the reason we cant get up to where there are elk.

In our part of the world hunting is supposed to be fun... and when it's breath-taking, or I see something happening I haven't seen before or one of the female hunting-friends is doing something that has nothing to do with hunting...

but I honnestly do appreciate everything you are doing to prepare yourself for this hunt. Would you believe that here in my country some hunters even don't take the time to visit the range to check their own optics? They give their rifle to a friend or to the gunshop to do this for them. And then they don't understand how, with all their expensive equipment, they can miss an animal that one could almost hit with a hammer... Uebung macht den Meister... or: you cannot simply buy practical experience and there is no pill that could replace exercise.

Aloysius wrote:

In our part of the world hunting is supposed to be fun... and when it's breath-taking, or I see something happening I haven't seen before or one of the female hunting-friends is doing something that has nothing to do with hunting... but I honnestly do appreciate everything you are doing to prepare yourself for this hunt. Would you believe that here in my country some hunters even don't take the time to visit the range to check their own optics? They give their rifle to a friend or to the gunshop to do this for them. And then they don't understand how, with all their expensive equipment, they can miss an animal that one could almost hit with a hammer... Uebung macht den Meister... or: you cannot simply buy practical experience and there is no pill that could replace exercise.

Practice makes perfect.

Or the opposite: Poor preparation produces pi$$ poor performance.

Hey Slim. I know what the ballistics are at 10000 but what zero shift should I expect from. 600 feet to 10000 feet ? I am set up to be 2.75" high at 100 for a 300 yard PBZ at 600 feet.

Are you zero'd at 300 yards or does a ballistics program say sight 2.75 inches high at 100 yards to be on at 300? I only trust seeing POI at 300 to have confidence I am zero'd at 300. If this is the case, you should only see a few inches shift. A lot will depend on how temperature sensitive your powder is. Less air resistance at altitude means a higher down range velocity but you may lose muzzle velocity with a colder temperature. You should be minute of elk at 300 but I offset aim with a BDC reticle for the specific distance so I am not aiming with an error to begin with. I would not bet you are good to 600 or even 500 yards. Best to shoot some long range and practice when you get there.

The Zero is 264 yards for a a 6 inch PBZ to 300 yards. Berger 190 VLD hunting bullet with G1 BC of .57, 2900fps, 1.6" scope height. 9000 ft.

I am using 78 grains of H1000. It is advertised as very temperature stable. I may throw some bullets on ice and see what the shift is at 300 if I get a day to play.

I am set +2.75 @ 100 and have verified drops at 200 and 300 matches the ballistics program and is -3" at 300 at 600 feet. I will set up one shot at 265 yards on a milk jug when I get to altitude the day before season. If I hit that on first shot - I am good to go.

The drop at longer ranges would still hold up within the body of an Elk up to 450 (-21"). 500 yard drop is 30" Big old bull would be on the top of the spine but might have a little light under the cross hair too. I am setting 400 yards as my max range and looking for a 20 yard shot. I like the Nikon scope I have on the rifle but unless I have a Night Force or a Vortex and a lot of range time, I do not want to take any longer shots that would be better made by turning the knobs. Just because you can does not mean you should.

I talked with a local guide from the area I plan to hunt. I guess I might have a clue because he is suggesting the exact same locations I picked out on the internet Map recon.

He did say I would want to know for sure where a 500 yard shot would need to go as across many of the ravines is about 450..

Also... He strongly urged us to get a bear tag...

Dawgdad wrote:

He did say I would want to know for sure where a 500 yard shot would need to go as across many of the ravines is about 450..

That has been my experience. All my elk have been 350 to 500 yards (and across a valley) except last year which was 200 yards. I don't trust ballistic calculators to make sure I'm on.

What reticle do you have, Dawgdad? I use a mil-dot with magnification adjusted with the crosshairs zero'd at 100 yards so the first dot is 300 yards, second is 400, third is 500 yards, 5th dot is 600 yards and the post is 675 yards. Even with a duplex reticle, you can use the post to shoot out to 500 yards with the right scope adjustment and practice.

My scope magnification is 11.7 x to use my mil-dot as above. Where I like to have at least 9x to scope a deer at 200 yards, I find 12x is a bit to much on an elk 1t 400 yards.

Dawgdad wrote:

Also... He strongly urged us to get a bear tag...

Sounds like a plan except you may end up with a lot of meat to carry out. The rug would be nice, though.

I will need a bigger freezer if we get elk and bear....

About he scopes - I have a Nikon BDC 4-16 with capped target turrets on the 3006 but the two 300 Win Mags which are not mine... one has a Nikon Prostaff 3x9 with duplex reticle and the other a Zeiss 3-9x with duplex also. I have set the point blank zero to 325 ish with the 190 Berger load and will be verifying where the thicker part of the reticle will be zeroed at. I calculate it will be about 500 yards. Between 350-450 just hold up the body and the drop wilnstill be in the heart lung area.

I would turn the knobs on the scope on the 30-06 with. Onhesitation. The little tiny knobs on the 3-9x I would rather hold off.

Dawgdad wrote:

I would turn the knobs on the scope on the 30-06 with. Onhesitation. The little tiny knobs on the 3-9x I would rather hold off.

If the Nikon on the 30.06 has a BCD reticle, why turn knobs? I like to set my rifle up and not have to touch anything/fine tune before I send the shot down-range.

My bullet drop compensation article has been lost. I have an excel file that calculates trajectory drop for the post. Just a practice or two and shooting with the post is accurate. IM me if you would like me to send you the file.

I don't know what happened there Dawgdad - your post appeared three times.

English Mike wrote:

I don't know what happened there Dawgdad - your post appeared three times.

Stuttering mate.

Getting closer....

I took the rifles to the range and had all three make kill shots out to 500 yards. I did use the BDC circles on the 30-06. The cross hairs at 100 circles for 200-300-400-500 - bottom post would be 600.

The 300 WM PBZ method will work like this.... zero to 300 hold center cross hairs at 9x, at 400 hold bottom "post" tip at 9x, at 500 - bottom post tip at 6x.

Here is the target I used for the Winchester Model 70. All cold bore shots from sitting with the Bog Pod tripod so not bench rest or prone accuracy but a true hunting position accuracy. All shots were cold bore. Two shots at 100, (1,2) 2 shots at 200 (3,4) 2 shots at 300 (5,6) - one shot at 400 Using the fat flat part of the lower post on the Duplex (7) one shot at 500 using the same hold but at 6x.

I missed a wind gust on the 500 shot but still a dead Elk.