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The Land of Enchantment and Big Bulls

Big rutting bulls make for adventure in New Mexico's backcountry.

The Land of Enchantment and Big Bulls
(Photos submitted by the author)

The bugle was so close, and unexpected, that I felt it in my soul. The old warrior was just out of sight, somewhere above us in the thick, dark timber.

Shaking loose our shock, my guide Jonathan and I picked our jaws up off the forest floor and quickly, but quietly, stalked to the top of the rise. The bull bugled again, stopping us where we stood.

Movement to our right caught my eye. Branches covered in fall’s yellowing leaves shook aggressively as a bull scraped his rack against a young aspen. Then, another bugle rang out—not from the rubbing bull, but rather to our left. We were within 40 yards of not one bull, but two, and no place to hide.

The Land of Enchantment

hunter taking a breather
(Photo submitted by the author)

New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, boasts a wide variety of terrain for both wildlife and sportsmen. Four land regions cover the state, including the Great Plains, the Colorado Plateau, the Rocky Mountains, and the Basin and Range region. From vast desert covered in cacti and sage brush, to rugged mountains thick with pine forests and aspens, the state is a sportsman’s paradise. Known for its trophy bulls, hunters from across the world travel to New Mexico to chase bugles through the varying, challenging terrain in hopes of notching their tag on a once-in-a-lifetime bull.

Challenging being the key word. “We’re not going to have a lot of glassing opportunities,” warned Jonathan Adams my guide from Frontier Outfitting. I mentally prepared myself. The game of dark timber elk hunting is a challenge, one I had experienced the year prior. My friend Natalie had drawn a trophy bull tag in Utah, and her target bull had put us through backbreaking hell across extreme mountain terrain and deadfall for days before he finally won.

Our hunt would be a game of cat and mouse in thick ponderosa pines. Jonathan wasn’t exaggerating—the mountains in northern New Mexico were painted black with timber, leaving no gaps to glass up elk. We would have to put miles on the boots and hope that the rut was in full force for bulls to bugle us into their location. But this wasn’t early September archery hunting, I had a Benelli Lupo chambered in .300 Win. Mag. slung across my shoulder.

The absolute perfect opportunity would have to present itself for me to be able to put a bull in my crosshairs without branches and brush blocking my view.

To get the job done, I would also need the right bullet. One that could retain its weight retention at close range to do enough internal damage to bring down a 600-pound animal that is high on adrenaline and testosterone.

The Premium Advantage

box of ammo on an elk rack
(Photo submitted by the author)

The name Federal has long been a recognized manufacturer in the hunting and shooting community—but in the late 1970s, they set themselves apart by not only adding “Premium” to their name, but by backing it up. Federal understood that every day consumers needed quality bullets for hunting. Boutique bullets had originally only been available to handloaders, not the mass market who were purchasing their cartridges directly from store shelves.

“Premium centerfire ammunition is a result of Federal’s desire to provide hunters with the finest rifle cartridges available,” read a 1976 press release from the manufacturer to announce their new Premium Line.

Federal Premium would not stick to the norm by producing only their own top-of-the-line products. They instead would add to their own premium products by partnering with outside manufacturers—competitors to say the least—who produced the best-of-the-best projectiles and propellants. This far-from-the-norm mentality put Federal Premium at a unique advantage. Ultimate quality and versatility were the goals to produce the finest cartridges on the market for their consumers. This dedication to the market set them apart from the rest.

The Premium line would begin with Sierra’s boat-tailed GameKing and move on to the likes of Nosler’s Partition, Jack Carter’s Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, Nosler’s Ballistic Tip, AccuBond, Barnes’ TSX, and eventually Swift’s Scirocco II and A-Frame. These best-in-class bullets fueled Federal Premium’s hunting line, and still do today. But the company didn’t stop there. To truly set themselves apart from the rest, the premium manufacturer created their own superior bullet: Terminal Ascent. This line of bonded bullets is one of the finest hunting projectiles on the market today and was crafted from Federal’s determination to produce the best of the best.

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Characteristics of an Elk Bullet

elk cartridge
(Photo submitted by the author)

The quality and engineering behind Federal Premium made me confident in choosing a cartridge from their vast lineup for the New Mexico elk hunt. But what makes an ideal elk bullet?

Elk are notoriously tough animals. They can be shot at close range in deep timber, or across a canyon. According to Jesse Whiteside, Vice President of Product Management and R&D for the Kinetic Group, owners of Federal Premium, an ideal elk bullet has you covered for all those situations. “You need a tough bullet that holds together up close, or on a shot angle where you may have to shoot through a shoulder,” explained Whiteside. “A 7mm or 30 caliber magnum cartridge with a bonded lead core bullet is perfect for elk.”

The Swift Scirocco II has been available to handloaders for many years but was brought into the Federal Premium catalog in 2020. The Swift Scirocco II shines as a bonded bullet, and its 180 grain offering would be my bullet of choice for the hunt.

Like all Federal Premium chosen components, the Scirocco II features superior qualities that make it an ideal bullet for the Premium line-up. Bonding chemically fuses the jacket of the bullet to its lead core, so when the bullet expands, you have high weight retention and deep penetration. The Swift Scirocco II bullet doesn’t fragment and penetrates in a straight line, giving you consistent performance at varying distances.

By bonding the core and jacket together, even with high impact velocities, the bullet retains weight—an ideal characteristic needed for the close quarters I would be hunting. “The Scirocco II has a very thick jacket, making it a tough bullet,” said Whiteside. “The tapered coppered jacket helps to further control that expansion. The jacket gets thicker as it gets closer to the base of the bullet. The jacket design along with the bonding makes the bullet tough.”

Additionally, polymer tips are all the rage when it comes to quality big game bullets, and for good reason. According to Whiteside, a polymer tip helps bullets fly with higher ballistic coefficients and initiates expansion to give you consistency across many different velocities. This helps to keep weight retention in a bullet and the “mushrooming” that we need to see in all bullets when hunting big game.

Close Encounters

premium bullet mushroom
(Photo submitted by the author)

The timber was thick—so thick that the evening before we had a bull at 30 yards and all I could see was a few inches of his hide through the brush. My heart had felt like it was beating out of my chest as the bull bugled, cutting off Jonathan’s cow call. He was so close—this was the moment we had worked hard for. But the bull had other plans. His harem of cows pulled him away, the brush keeping us from ever laying eyes on him.

Now we stood in the one opening on the entire mountain, right when we needed it the least. A spot we dreamed of for a shot opportunity, but not for standing in. If we moved, we risked busting the bulls. We stood as still as possible, hoping the wind wouldn’t shift and give us away. The bulls were just behind a wall of brush, our only saving grace. Branches snapped and leaves crunched underfoot as one of the bulls made his way our direction. 40 yards, 38, 37…the bull stopped just behind the brush and released a bugle that shook the Earth. I could see his tines: a deep whale tail on both sides, his tips bleach white.

We stood in the open, but the bull did not. My crosshairs bounced up and down with my nerves, my scope dialed all the way down in the close quarters. Two more steps, take two more steps…36 yards, 35…the bull stepped from the brush and stopped broadside between two aspens to release another raspy bugle. The tree trunks stood just enough apart to leave me the open shot I needed at his vitals.

The world stopped. Exhaling, I squeezed the trigger and the report of my rifle echoed through the mountains.

Enchanted Elk

hunter with her elk harvest
(Photo submitted by the author)

The bull fell just a short distance from where he had stood, his dark rack blending in with the dark forest floor. The bull was a true trophy, a seasoned 6x6 who was an old warrior of the herd. Wrapping my hands around his beautiful tines, I thanked him for the bounty he provided me before rolling up my sleeves to start the long butchering process and pack out.

A protrusion on his off-side shoulder caught my eye. Making a small incision, I pulled from the bull the Scirocco II bullet I had fired at just a short 35 yards. The bullet was formed into a perfect mushroom. As promised, the bullet had kept its weight despite the high velocity at the close distance and penetrated in a straight line through the bull to bring him down quickly.

packing a big bull out
(Photo submitted by the author)

It would take two trips before Jonathan and I would get my quartered bull fully back to the truck. Sweat rolled down my back as I rolled my heavy pack off and on to the tailgate. I pulled the recovered bullet from my pocket as I admired the bull once more. The bullet rolled between my fingers, and I was thankful for the solid engineering that allowed me to notch my tag on this true New Mexico trophy.




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