Very pretty antelope !! good job

7 by 8  Bull with good mass this morning archery by one of my son's friends. 

This is about using a shoulder shot on elk.  Knowing the animals Anatomy is a must IMO.   Some people say elk have a dead zone above the lungs and I have to agree with them.  For instance if the bullet misses the ribs on both sides and just pokes a clean hole thru high and behind the shoulders,    it's off to the races,  he may go down then get back up again,  seen it happen and without another shot or 2 that animal could have easily been lost.  A good friends son lost a 385 bull hit high and that bull took off they tracked it all day in patchy snow and then he called me later , so my wife and I took off up the Mtn the next morning to try and track him.  We knew the exact location he shot from by his good directions and we found where the bull was shot by blood and we couldn't find that elk after a whole day of tracking.  Patchy snow ,  hundreds of elk tracks and we lost the blood as the snow was melting.  Doctor friend of my dad's shot a really nice bull 30-06 180 gr silver tips,   older friends of their's were with him and told the story to the rest of us,  the Doc walked up on his downed bull and grabbed an antler and the bull got up and took off, he shot again and finally the bull dropped.  After a fiascio I had in the early 80's where a 150 gr Gameking  game apart on an elk shoulder and did not penetrate,  it dropped and it got up and I shot it again in the same spot dropped and got up again and went straight down the canyon.  My dad's hunting buddy brought 5-1000 ft rolls of 3/16" stainless  cable on 5 telephone cable reels,   we cable clamped 2000 ft of 3/16" stainless cable out  and went down the canyon.   drop according to topo maps was 800 ft  thankfully we were in the snow and had brought a heavy duty canvas sewing kit with circle needles for Navy sail cloth to sew up the elk belly after field dressing.  we also brought down an extra large metal funnel to go over the elks nose to use as a guide and keep the elks mouth closed while dragging  and  with about a 6 ft section of  roughly 3/8" chain to run thru the funnel and around the elks neck and shackle to the  stainless cable and then attacked to my uncles 70's Ford 4x4 truck's ball hitch with a 5000 lb cable gripper and pulled the elk up the side of the mtn   keeping the funnel and elks head with the direction of the pull and guiding it around obstacles,   all day long with 7 guys we finally got it to the truck.  I wouldn't do this if we were going to mount the head  only to get it out.  Today I have a military sked sled for this purpose where you could drag the elk in parts up without doing damage, another way we have done something similar my wife shot a nice cow and we used heavy plastic solid bottom snow sleds tied together and dragged out  over the snow with a old solid axle Toyota truck which I wish my son still had ,  done it with horses also but it's hard on them.   I've told this story before and it still holds true ,  young or unexperienced people might do this once and they learn real quick get that elk down don't fool around especially if you are near a canyon or heavy vegetation where you may possibly lose the animal ,  shoot for the center of the shoulder in line with the front leg this is especially true for really long range shots where you may mis judge bullet drops and still get the elk.  You may lose a few pounds of hamburger grind but you won't lose the elk if you hit it right with a good bullet.   The only time I would shoot one in an inaccessable canyon anymore is if he was a real monster and then I would still cry about why I did later ,  like I will never do that again.  If it's that frekin bad and we have talked about it before among friends just rent a helicopter or get a wrangler with mules if they can get them in, and pay the bill.  I kid you not between my son and I we probably have a dozen various  packs or pack frames.  I generally take 3 old army alice frames with radio shelves for other people to use,   and lash down elk qtrs  or blood proof  bags of  meat  these old frames are cheap and they work,    my son keeps the rutt sacks on his  pack frames,  I still have a saw buck sitting in the overhead I'd have to look for the Paniers.

Time will tell if these bullets ring out as far as bullet failure when used in ultra velocity cartridges, unless you are shooting really short ranges at larger more heavy duty animals where you need more penetration I think accuracy is more important on your longer shots.  Therein lies the problem most of us are shooting pretty hot rod cartridges that tend to lend themselves better for longer ranges with horse power to spare.  These look like very accurate bullets in your rifle and load development so why not use them and see how they preform just place your shot accordingly.  If someone was trying to drive this type and caliber bullet into an elk with a quartering shot there are better choices, BUT for deer and other animals in this class I'd use it in a heartbeat once you get use to it.  Accuracy is king IMO, and that goes for what we would consider short range cartridges something along the lines of an open sighted 30-30 that a person shoots 4 " groups with it, if you can't be sure of your shot why shoot at it.   I may be a little jaded in my opinions for the most part  I base my knowledge on experience and looking for and at recovered bullets along with  hunting scenario of myself, family and hunting friends.  I actually get a lot of fun just out of load testing and  setting up our weapons so when we do use them for hunting we know what the guns are capable of before we even go, and that's a good thing, a lot of people don't do that for whatever reasons, to be honest anymore I use what I'm  comfortable with and have confidence in and that takes practice. 

I bought an older used long action back country stock from a gun shop friend of mine and fitted it to a 300 Wby Vanguard S1.   Free floated and glass bedded then painted it a light sand color with black spider type paint and then multi coats of crystal clear to enhance the strength of the finish. Lighter in weight and much stiffer  than the original tupper ware stock and looks great. 

I would think chamfering could cause the start of neck splitting ,  how much and to what extent is anyones guess.  Personally I think it depends upon the brand of brass, caliber and how hot the load is along with repeated loading and resizing (work hardening) more than anything else, take nickel plated brass pistol or rifle brass it doesn't matter  both seem to show signs of nickel cracking before the brass underneath starts showing it's cracks.  There are pros and cons to everything if you know what you are doing annealing I suppose will extent the brass life and in some instances especially rare  very hard to find brass or cartridges with known very thin neck thickness it might be a good thing.  For me I don't bother annealing and when the brass wears out it wears out.   Some cartridges I can get 15 + hot loadings with no neck splits, BUT they start case head separation,  Some Semi-autos extract so violently the rims start coming apart so annealing in this case is a moot point.  Some calibers the primer pockets open to a point of not being able to hold a primer and have to be destroyed. These last two references only had been fired / reloaded maybe 3 times  No answer set in stone it just depends on other things. 

My dad was a state and federal cop starting back in the 30's ,  he would be rolling in his grave to see how this country in general has stooped to new lows.  Can't do this, can't do that, people don't want to take responsibility and don't even try to explain some of these  new kids, to be clear not all are bad.  We see the politicians getting rich and lying about it.  This problem could be fixed real quick ,  hold people accountable,  bring back the draft for everyone including women,   get some old school DI's and Company commanders in there to correct bad habits and I mean correct them,   no restrictions on military entrance except medical exemptions. Have those who cannot serve in the military have them serve in the peace corps or conservation corps.   Unless you are absolutey mental  and instutionalized there is no reason for any not to serve in some capacity.  Think about it who did they draft during Vietman.  You want to get ahead in life,   work and don't ask for a hand out  because you are not willing and able.  I have no problems of calling someone out , if you are a dumb shit I might call you one, if your are lazy I might call you that also, sometimes I might ask them if they bumped their head, my wife cringes when I do that.   You think antifa would come to a rural Cowboy's and Indian's  area and start their crap ?