Barnes Bullets

Black Powder Bull

Trophy Hunter Magazine - Summer Issue 2004

Black Powder Bull of a Lifetime
By: Randy Brooks

Hunting from pre-dawn darkness to well past sundown, we’d been working hard for three straight days. The steep mountain slopes we were constantly climbing seared our lungs and left us gasping for breath. The 9,000-foot altitude only made things worse. Guide Terrance Garcia and I had spotted several great-looking bulls that’d score in the 300-340 range, but we’d passed them up. As owner of Barnes Bullets, I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of hunting over the years. I’ve taken some very respectable elk, but this time I wanted a real trophy.

Soon after sunup the following day, we stopped to glass a distant mountainside. After five minutes behind his bipod-supported Swarovski 15x binocular, Terrance turned to me and said, “I think I’ve found something.”

My 30x Leupold spotting scope gave me a closer look at the lone bull feeding in a clearing nearly three miles away. Even at that distance, we knew it was a good bull-but we couldn’t tell how good. It would take all morning to get within range-a gamble we decided to take.

We watched the bull until it finished feeding and finally bedded down for a nap. We were also gambling he’d stay put for the next few hours.

Instead of heading directly for the site, we decided to reverse course and hike to the truck we’d left parked a mile behind us. A rough logging road took us to the back side of the mountain we’d been watching. We drove as close as we could, then hiked over the top of the mountain.

It was just past noon when we found the landmark that told us we were in the general neighborhood where the bull had bedded down. Getting there had taken nearly five hours of driving and hard climbing.

We knew from experience that after a morning nap, animals like deer and elk typically stand up between 1:00 and 2:00 in the afternoon. There wasn’t much time, so we hurried to get set up. I placed my backpack over a large rock to use as a rest. My rifle was a scoped Knight Disc Extreme .50-caliber muzzleloader loaded with the new long-range 245-grain Barnes Spit-Fire™ bullet we’d just developed. Powered by three Pyrodex pellets, the spitzer-shaped boattail left the muzzle at 2200 feet per second (fps).

Expecting long-range shooting, I’d sighted my rifle in so the Spit-Fire bullet would strike six inches high at 100 yards and be dead-on at 240 yards. I ran the load through the Barnes Ballistic Program to determine holdover at various distances. I taped the printed trajectory table upside down on the rifle’s stock. I could check bullet drop at any given range by simply tilting the rifle to the left.

After finding a solid rest to shoot from, I used my laser rangefinder to measure the distance to a prominent boulder, a few tall trees and some other reference points. I marked these distances on a piece of paper I’d use as a shooting map. If the bull was where I thought he was, I’d be shooting downhill at roughly a 45-degree angle. I took this into consideration when making my last-minute calculations. Then I got into shooting position and settled down to wait. We weren’t sure the bull was still there-but if he was, I’d be ready.

The elk lurched to its feet at 1:15, right on schedule. He stood 220 yards away, facing in the other direction. My quartering shot entered just behind the bull’s left shoulder, broke the shoulder, then exited out the front of the same shoulder. The animal immediately dropped from sight.

I knew the shoulder was broken, and that the bull wouldn’t go far if it wasn’t pressed. “Let’s give it an hour and give him a chance to stiffen up,” Terrance suggested. When the time was up, Terrance circled wide behind where we’d last seen the elk, then began moving back towards me.

When I saw the bull again, he was running in and out of the trees at the edge of a long slide. He stopped 20 yards beyond a pair of shed antlers I’d lasered at 320 yards. There, he stood broadside long enough for me to shoot again. Taking the 45-degree slope into account, I held a few inches below the bull’s spine and squeezed the trigger. The bullet struck 6 inches below point of aim-a center hit. Remaining velocity at that distance would have been 1260 fps.

The elk hunched at the impact, then ran off again. It took 30 minutes of careful tracking to find him. Crippled by a broken shoulder and a liver destroyed by my second shot, the game old bull had traveled nearly a half mile before finally falling dead. Both bullets had done their job. The first shattered the elk’s tough shoulder bone, while the second passed completely through the animal, leaving an impressive path of destruction.

The magnificent bull scored 394-6/8. It was taken in December 2003 while I hunted with Ross Johnson Outfitters in New Mexico. The elk was taken with the longest shot I’ve ever attempted with a muzzleloader, but both the rifle and the new Spit-Fire spitzer boattail bullet were up to the job.

Article originally appeared in the Summer 2004 Trophy Hunter Magazine and is reprinted with the magazine’s permission.