Pennsylvania Game News - February 2021 - 14

give 100 percent.
Brian said it was possible I'd get shooting opportunities up to 400 yards out, and
that factored into my decision on which
rifle and ammunition to use. Deciding
that bigger would be better for this hunt,
I opted to leave my favorite deer rifle, a
Winchester .270, at home and hunt elk
with my father's old pre-1964 Winchester
Model 70 in .300 Winchester Magnum.
Dad had used this rifle to harvest his one
and only elk in Montana, 50 years earlier.
Anticipating the potential for longer-range
shots, I handloaded some 210-grain
Berger match-grade hollow points, which
grouped reasonably well at 300 yards.
The weather reports for the first several
days of elk season predicted warm, wet
and windy conditions.
What a " surprise, " I thought. It seemed
to have rained every day I'd hunted so far
this season, so why would my elk hunt be
any different? I packed all of my normal
rain gear, plus some extra ponchos, as
well as rubber boots and waterproof bags
to keep my gear dry. I arrive at camp the
day before the season starts.

WET & WILD
I can't sleep much after midnight on
the eve of the opener. Breakfast is scheduled for 4 a.m., and I'm up and dressed
at 3, feeling the same sense of excitement
I often felt, many moons ago, just before
buck season.
As expected, it's raining when Brian
and I leave camp to make the short drive
to nearby state game lands.
No other vehicles are in the lot, and
we step out into the rain and hurry up the
trail, which ends about halfway up the
mountain at a large food plot.
There's just a hint of daylight when we
arrive and begin edging the plot. Brian is
14

several steps ahead of me when he stops
and whispers back.
" Elk at 200 yards. "
More elk begin to appear. Soon, maybe
20 of them are running down the mountain, possibly bumped by other hunters.
But it's still too dark to see very much, and
we don't notice any big bulls in the group.
Within seconds, the area is empty of
elk and quiet. We sit tight in case a trailing
bull were to come off the ridge, but nothing moves and the rain continues to fall.
We hear several shots across the valley
in another hunt zone. Maybe the elk that
passed us kept going to other hunters
there. As we cross the food plot, continuing up the mountain, an amazing amount
of elk sign is everywhere: tracks, scat,
beds in the grass. It resembles a barnyard
in many places.
We work left, then right around the
ridgetop, where other huge reaches of the
food plot can be seen. But except for a
young buck that passes through, the rest of
the morning is uneventful. We head back
to the lodge for a change of clothes, a hot
lunch and to plan the afternoon's hunt.
The sign we'd seen in the food plot
that morning was enough to send us back
there after lunch. We hike up the same
trail, this time continuing toward the top,
where we can see 350 to 400 yards in
two directions.
We settle in among some tree stumps,
and the hours pass without action.
At least the rain has let up some.
As darkness is falling and we're about
to call it a day, Brian spots something
through his binoculars, as far off as we can
see in the field. It's a bedded bull! I crank
my rifle's scope to 14-power, but can't
pick him out in the fading light. Brian
got a good look at him though. He was a
small bull; not a shooter for us.
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2021

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