Nebraska “slam” attempt
- Thread starter Stocker
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Stretched the legs on the smoke pole today. The fancy scope that’s on it that came with it has 3 marks below the crosshairs somewhat I believe to be designed for 150, 200, and 250. It took me a few shots to figure that the bottom one is pretty close at 200. Fought some scope over adjustments and my poor shooting skills. I’ve been shooting 1 1/2” groups at 100 so I’m pretty confident there. I most likely won’t take a shot over 100 yards, the fun of antelope hunting for me is sneaking close on them. Broke the 7mm mag out and shot a few sub 1 MOA groups at 200. Hopefully I get it done with my bow and the rifle can stay in the safe. Here’s my muzzleloader spray at 200. The 2 low and right off the target were my first 2. The 2 to the right are 3&4, 5&6 are on the left. Like a guy told me one time after he watched me unload my rifle at a running coyote at 100 yards. “When ya suck, ya suck”
SwaggyD
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- Jan 26, 2022
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Good lord. With potentially another year of growth on that bull I would have a real hard time passing him up if you had the opportunity this season.
There’ll be no passing a bull like that. Even if there was s bigger one just outta range, if one like the one in the picture is in range I’m shooting. Arrow or bullet.
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First trip up looking for a cow for my sister in law. Hoping to get eyes on a few bulls for September. Might venture a little further west to look for a few antelope. Kids needed some essential hunting snacks this morning. 
Hit the first few pivots, found so much elk sign it’s unreal. Threw up cameras. Gonna take the kids fishing. It’s in the mid 90’s so hopefully the elk will move at first and last light. Nebraska scouting has devolved into IPA time.
Gellar
Well-known member
It’s Hard to even keep your beer cold in that heat.
D
Deleted member 52098
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Following along! Looks like you have a fun fall ahead
2 rag horns, and a small 5 point tonight, and a trespasser. A guy drove down the field road 3/4 of a mile from me, spooked the elk, took a leak in front of his truck, then seen the one bull still out in the open and drove towards it. After dark I got bavk to the truck and as I hit the main road I see lights, as soon as he seen me coming out he killed his and took off. Not sure if he’s trying to poach an elk or just look at them, either way hopefully he got a little spooked and leaves the elk alone. At least on the private property. I was actually set up spotting off public, but not many Nebraskans are willing to actually get out of a vehicle to look or hunt.
5 bulls and 1 cow this morning. Cows seem to be all moving at night. There’s a ton of fresh tracks where the cows are crossing out to feed at night. Hopefully we can get on one to fill the cow tag tomorrow. 4 bulls were rag horns or spikes. 1 is gonna be a decent 6 point but nothing too exciting. These 2 dummies laid down for about an hour in front of me 1/2 mile.
noharleyyet
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Big fun Stocker, best of luck. Cool opportunity.
SwaggyD
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Gotta drink it fast.
Had an exciting early morning. Almost hit 2 bulls and a calf on the road at 5:30. Got my sister in law setup. She had 2 bulls and a spike come by her. You can’t shoot spikes on an antlerless tag here or we’d be cutting up an elk now. I snuck into another area and found a better group of bulls. 3 look like they are gonna be nice 6 pts, 1 was a fair amount bigger and looked like he’s gonna be a nice 7pt. I didn’t get any pics of them. I found this bedded in the corn in front of me after I went back to my original glassing point. He’s a nice 6 in one side but just has the main beam and one brow tine on his passenger side. 
We got back last night. I took my sister in law into a spot I’d seen a few cows the night before. Just as it got light we spotted one. 285 broadside for a couple minutes. My SIL just couldn’t get comfortable, also that’s a pretty long shot for her even though she’s been practicing quite a bit. I told her if she’s not 100% comfortable then don’t shoot. 2 main reasons 1. It was the 2nd day of the season and we’d been covered up in elk every morning and night. 2. It was 103 up there yesterday and the prospect of a track job in w cornfield in those temps didn’t seem too appealing or promising to me.
The night before I had a close encounter and learned a little more about how Nebraska elk just aren’t too pressured. I was tucked into a thicket about the size of a pickup and a rag horn fed out of the corn right to me. He got to within 7 yards before finally seeing something odd. He stood there for 15 minutes before deciding I was nothing. Circled around and got down wind of me. He stopped as he hit my scent about 10 yards from me now. He knew something smelled something but either didn’t know what, or didn’t care that much. He went back to eating, even though a little more leery. I’d gotten so occupied watching this bull as I turned my head I got a little startled at the spike walking towards me at 3 yards looking to jump the fence above my head to hang out with his buddy. He didn’t quite get to arms length, I decided if he was gonna jump it I’d spook him so I didn’t get landed on. That would’ve been about my luck, get jumped on by a spike before a once in a lifetime tag, get hurt and can’t hunt it. He finally jumped the fence about 3 yards away. On a side note, I just can’t help but laugh when I see spikes. They have this look in their eye that resembles a really drunk person. A combination of unawareness, perplexed, sadness, fear, and mostly stupidity. I was stuck there in the thicket until well after dark. They finally fed away towards a bean field. I’m the mean time my wife and kids were exploring my theory that most of the cows and larger bulls were not coming out of the corn until after dark. I had them sit on a couple pivot roads. If your not familiar they are strips about 15 yards wide from the edge of a field straight in to the center point on the pivot. Some places they plant the whole field then run the crops over to get there. In this area they leave a grass strip. Sure enough they watched several bigger bulls cross through or hang out in them to feed for a little bit. We didn’t get eyes on any giant bulls, but I think we ended up finding 17-18 different bulls. A few nice 6pts that I would be more than happy to put my tag on after I give it my best effort to find a bigger one. If all of the bulls are still in the area during September I may have to end up shooting a small one in self defense though.
The night before I had a close encounter and learned a little more about how Nebraska elk just aren’t too pressured. I was tucked into a thicket about the size of a pickup and a rag horn fed out of the corn right to me. He got to within 7 yards before finally seeing something odd. He stood there for 15 minutes before deciding I was nothing. Circled around and got down wind of me. He stopped as he hit my scent about 10 yards from me now. He knew something smelled something but either didn’t know what, or didn’t care that much. He went back to eating, even though a little more leery. I’d gotten so occupied watching this bull as I turned my head I got a little startled at the spike walking towards me at 3 yards looking to jump the fence above my head to hang out with his buddy. He didn’t quite get to arms length, I decided if he was gonna jump it I’d spook him so I didn’t get landed on. That would’ve been about my luck, get jumped on by a spike before a once in a lifetime tag, get hurt and can’t hunt it. He finally jumped the fence about 3 yards away. On a side note, I just can’t help but laugh when I see spikes. They have this look in their eye that resembles a really drunk person. A combination of unawareness, perplexed, sadness, fear, and mostly stupidity. I was stuck there in the thicket until well after dark. They finally fed away towards a bean field. I’m the mean time my wife and kids were exploring my theory that most of the cows and larger bulls were not coming out of the corn until after dark. I had them sit on a couple pivot roads. If your not familiar they are strips about 15 yards wide from the edge of a field straight in to the center point on the pivot. Some places they plant the whole field then run the crops over to get there. In this area they leave a grass strip. Sure enough they watched several bigger bulls cross through or hang out in them to feed for a little bit. We didn’t get eyes on any giant bulls, but I think we ended up finding 17-18 different bulls. A few nice 6pts that I would be more than happy to put my tag on after I give it my best effort to find a bigger one. If all of the bulls are still in the area during September I may have to end up shooting a small one in self defense though.
