I was invited on a special tag area cow elk hunt. I was blessed to have a friend with some privileges that he shared with me. He chose to use a modern rifle but I wanted to use a muzzleloader of course. He said he was told we'd be walking several miles per day and could be in terrain from open prairie to sloped woods. I picked a light, short rifle that had not been hunted with - it is a Traditions kit 1:48" ROT percussion with some slight modifications. I sighted in with 300 grain REAL type projectiles over 80 grains of FFFg with an impact point 2" high at 80 yards (that's as far as the range was where I sighted-in). After two days I was a little uncertain of this whole thing because we had not seen nor heard and elk. On the morning of day 3 we walked over a little water hole and saw 3 good sized bull elk - but not tag for them. That afternoon, we spotted two elk that appeared to be cows. After 2 hours of stalking they were nowhere to be found. The next morning the guide came into camp as we were finishing breakfast. He said "hurry up, there are 3 cows feeding out of the trees towards the open pasture". My friend went with the guide and was able to make a 200-yards shot with his centerfire, putting the elk down quickly. We took it to camp and worked on her while the guide went scouting again. When he came in after lunch he said he saw tracks that were not there literally 10-minutes ago at one spot. We used a 4-wheeler to get to the area to cut down on the time. After walking a few hundred yards we found the tracks and he told me to follow them. I followed up and down through the trees. After a 20-minute slow-stalk I saw a cow elk looking at me at about 60-yards. I aimed right behind the front leg and shot. The elk went down through the trees towards the open. I reloaded, not knowing where my shot hit but feeling like it was a good shot. Another 50 yards or so there was a drop-off of 5 or 6 feet. I looked for a way down and ended up seeing the elk standing just over the drop with only her head and neck showing. I got close to the edge on an angle where I could see some back and shoulder and I aimed to be high in the shoulder angled downward. At the shot the elk ran towards the open grass. I heard impact but did not see any blood. I reloaded again. I followed foot tracks until the trees ended and the open area started. Suddenly the elk jumped up out of a depression right in front of me and limped quickly about 25 yards before I had the sights settled where I wanted them and a slight lead because she was moving quickly. At that shot she went down and rolled over. I wish I could report a perfect shot and a quick kill but it didn't happen. I am not sure what exactly happened. There was an exit hole in the front of the left shoulder. There was an exit hole under the right arm-pit. I saw a lot of internal damage but I did not find and projectiles and could not decipher any other entry or exit holes. I've had cleaner success with my .54 flintlock and PRB's and wish I would have taken that instead but hey, I wanted to try this rifle.
