Ernie's Guns

[Pudelpointer]

Growing up, hunting was mostly a family affair. I was allowed to tag along on the annual deer hunting trip; usually 3 days to a week in various locations in southern British Columbia, from the time I was 10 or so. We hunted mule deer, as 30 years ago whitetails were uncommon in most of the province.

The crew usually consisted of my Dad, my Uncle Gord and my older Cousin Ron. Occasionally there were various friends and coworkers of my Uncle's, and as I got older my best friend Scott was allowed to join us, when his (non-hunting) family would let him. Besides family, the only person who was always invited was Gord's friend Ernie, and more often than not he was part of the crew.

Ernie didnt talk much about his personal life, but I knew that His wife had died fairly young, and he had no children. He was a big man, almost as big as Gord who is well over 6'3", and they both weighed closer to 300 than 200. I remember how Gord's truck camper was a tad more than a little on tiny side for five of us.

In late 2010 Ernie got sick, and in early 2011 he died after a short battle with cancer. Being a widower with a well paying job, Ernie had built himself a small arsenal of rifles, mostly Browning BBRs, but also quite a few Winchester lever guns, and a small number of Black Powder rifles. In 2012 I ended up buying a Rem 700 Safari in 8mm Rem Mag and his .54 Hawken with a Sharon barrel from his sister, who had inherited everything. Gord had given me the history on the Remington: Ernie had always liked Gord's 8 Mag, and one day showed up at his place with the rifle, which he had ordered from the factory. Gord remembers it leaving the safe twice; the first time Ernie fired a handful of shots, the second time Gord ran half a box of shells through it. The .54 he had shot for many years at black powder shoots all over Canada and the NW US.

That fall I carried the "Big 8" hunting, determined to take something with "Ernie's guns". On the second day of rifle season in the Porcupine Hills, I took a small bull at 60 yards while watching over a trail, eating my lunch.





The 220 grain Sierra entered in front of one shoulder, and stopped under the skin behind the opposite. It was an impressive kill, as even though the bullet didn't touch the elks spine, or hit any bone, the bull dropped on the spot, kicked a couple times, and died within seconds.



For the rest of that season and the next two, I carried the .54 muzzle loader. I carried it for mule deer bucks, I carried it for whitetail does, I carried it for elk and I carried it for cougar. Hell, I even took it out for coyotes a time or two. It seemed that when I carried it, the deer and elk were always at 300 yards. Every time I left it at home and carried a different rifle, decent bucks would walk past at 60 yards, and does would stand broadside forever at rock-chucking distance.

This spring Scott and I drew high priority tags for grassland elk. I used up 11 years priority, and Scott used 9. The season came, and despite our best laid plans, we had to sit out opening day. However, day 2 found us heading out with my friend Wayne on a very large ranch where we had secured permission to hunt. They both gave me subtle "looks" questioning my choice of rifle in a landscape where there are no trees, where there are not even any shrubs taller than 10 inches!

The hunt itself deserves its own story, but let's just say that 30 km of walking, 42,000 steps, and many 100's of metres crawling paid off when I sent a .535 patched round ball through this guy's chest at 115 yards.



I am more than happy with this bull, and was everything I expected from this hunt. It is the biggest elk I have ever taken, by far.

[slopeshunter]

Excellent write up. Congratulations!

[prarie_boy1]

Great trophy with a classic firearm!

[Berta]

Wonderful!


What a wicked write up!

[Ikilledbambisdad]

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

[58thecat]

Just a awesome story, a man, his rifles, you got the honor to know him and use the guns he once carried.

[redneck yote]

Great story and congrats on the hunt of a lifetime .

[IR_mike]

Way to go bud!!!!

[sage 13]

Good story and elk and that Remington is a beautiful looking gun.

[2 Tollers]

Great story and what a great way to honor the memory of a friend.

[calgarychef]

A patched round ball at that distance? Holy crap, that's cool. Nice story and your dpfriend Ernie would be proud .

[Bushleague]

Golldarnit, now you got me all fired up to start packing my Hawken this season... great post! thanks.

[220swifty]

Awesome all around. That is a beautiful bull, congrats.

[Bobdep]

Great read, and congratulations on your hunt !

[HowSwedeItIs]

Great story and awesome bull, thank you for sharing that

[beaver hunter]

Awesome pics

[dinohunter]

Thank you for great story.

[lannie]

Wow- great story and good on you!

[buddybuckhunter]

Wow,great story thanks for sharing and a beautiful elk with that special rifle.

[Slash8]

A good story indeed. Nice history lesson on the hardware, the men and the memories. Congratulations on a great bull. It was well deserved, thanks for sharing.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Slash8

A good story indeed. Nice history lesson on the hardware, the men and the memories. Congratulations on a great bull. It was well deserved, thanks for sharing.

X2! Enjoyed reading that.

[JoshT]

Great story! Congrats on a great looking elk!

[Wrenchface]

Excellent writing and meaningful experience. Congrats!

[thumper]

Great way of respecting the efforts of others in your upbringing, while paying tribute to one man.

[kujoseto]

Awesome stories. Fantastic elk. Beauty rifles!
Thanks for sharing

[walking buffalo]

Excellent!

In every way.


Congrats and Respect.

[300magman]

Great story and pictures.....very well done!

[TUFFBUFF]

Awesome!

Big fan of the 8mag, that rifle has some awesome wood! The trigger looks super wide, some sort of custom?
Congrats on the prairie elk, no small feat with that setup for sure.

[Pudelpointer]

Originally Posted by calgarychef

A patched round ball at that distance? Holy crap, that's cool. Nice story and your dpfriend Ernie would be proud .

Yeah, it was farther than I had hoped to get a shot, but I had been doing some impressive (for me anyway!) shots leading up to the hunt. I put the ball where it needed to go, and it killed admirably. The bull jumped at the impact, which I distinctly heard, and ran about 60 yards in a "J" before slowing down. I couldn't see an exit. He coughed once and then it looked like a garden hose had been turned on in his mouth! Two more steps and he was down.

Interestingly, his reaction reminded me more of an arrow hit in the lungs.

The bullet had struck a rib on entry, passed through both lungs, and came to rest in between two ribs. Unfortunately the ball fell back into the thoracic cavity at some point and was lost. I really wanted to see the ball after an impact at that distance.

Originally Posted by TUFFBUFF

Awesome!

Big fan of the 8mag, that rifle has some awesome wood! The trigger looks super wide, some sort of custom?
Congrats on the prairie elk, no small feat with that setup for sure.

He had put some kind of trigger shoe on it, not sure why. I couldn't find an Allen key small enough to remove it until last fall, and it is now without it.



Thanks everyone for the kind words. I appreciate your taking time to read and share in my story.

Cheers!


Ian

ps. If you are wondering how I had already managed to get covered in blood, my friend Scott had killed a nice 6x6 an hour before! The blood on my shirt and hands was from his bull.

[Sooner]

Nice Elks, cool story. I love the ones where a inherited/family members rifle is brought out after they have passed and an animal is harvested with it. Congrats.