Classic, not plastic bolts? Ok, I'm in. Here are some photos of a Colorado 6x6 elk I killed in 1987 - my first elk. I just found these negatives and scanned them this morning.

This was a "poor-boy" hunt. No guide, and on public land.

We went in with backpacks. I slept under a spruce tree on a plastic tarp near my stand. No tent, and quite frosty! My hunting companions slept on the opposite side of a high ridge behind.

I had laid out a blind the evening before, setting up my ambush across an open meadow. Here's a photo of my blind, with the sleeping tarp now used as a ground cover to sit on that morning.

And here's a view of my open meadow ambush. There is a little beaver pond at the base of the far ridge. The beavers had kept the meadow open. My shot was to the far ridge, just below the aspens.

I killed the bull elk at first light with my Pre-64 Win. M70 .375 H&H topped by a 4x Redfield scope in Weaver mounts. The shot was 330 yards. I knew the distance because I had paced across the meadow the day before. My load was a max charge of IMR4064 behind the Speer 335 grain bullet, right at 3000 fps. Quite a load for long range elk.

Sorry no glamor shot of me sitting behind the propped-up elk. I was alone when the first photos were taken.

Here's how he lay before I even moved anything. Wow, was I excited!

And now positioned, again with my rifle. I've tagged the elk. The sun is just coming up behind, and you can see my shadow now.

It's no "Boone & Crockett" but for a "do it yourself" Colorado hunt in 1987 it made my world.

While I was struggling to remove the entrails my hunting buddies showed up. Here's a shot of me with my elk, "red handed" from trying to get the guts out of that big animal.

Here's a photo of our hunting group back at our base camp, with me holding my elk antlers. The photo was taken with the camera on timer mode and propped on a rock. Nobody else was in our camp or anywhere nearby.

The Pre-64 M70 is a classic bolt without a doubt.

Curl