Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Bullet selection

The largest 3 bulls I've killed have been with 7mm 150 grain ballistic tips, they certainly have worked for me and hit the center of the target just about every time.

Until my shrapnel experience on a nice 5x6 - and even then the bullet did kill the animal with fragments and I'm sitting under his antlers, I was a staunch defender of the nbt for elk.

But the TTSX and the like make more sense to me for elk than the more frangible bullets. The cost per round difference of 32 cents buying bullets from Midway or $6.40 for a box of 20 - to me that's very affordable hunt insurance.

We had our longer range sight-in session last weekend with 10-15 mph wind gusts making it realistic. My buddy who uses whatever ammo is cheapest and thinks my cousin and I spend too much making fancy hand loads was shocked that his factory PMC 180 grain 300win mag loads landed 6 feet short of the target at 800 yards where the hand loads hit the gong out of his model 70 using the Z800 reticle in a new Zeiss 3-15 HD5. The 100 yard groups were about half the size of his crappy ammo as well.

High quality factory ammunition with premium bullets or better yet hand loads tailored to your rifle just make economic sense to me. That doesn't guarantee no bullet will under perform but it does put the odds in your favor.

It's astonishing how simple killing is if you use a bullet fully up to the task of expanding (as far as you intend to shoot),and penetrating well even at close range and high impact speed. (Scratch the rib shots;if it can't handle shoulder and heavy leg bones to reach vitals,it stays home. Ribs are no test;almost anything works there).


And of course put it in the right place.

Cost of bullets,compared to all the other hunt costs today, is irrelevant.Funny, guys are running around with $1000+ rifles,$500-$2000 scopes,and squawking about the trivial cost of the only thing that actually does the killing...the bullet.

All sizzle....no steak.

The internet has made killing elk difficult,not bullets!I am amazed at all the bullet talk pro and con when around here very very few people reload.They buy there box of bullets and go hunting worrying not about bullet construction in any way shape or form.You never here bullet talk/reloading talk but you do here a bunch of hunting and fishing talk with a lot of success stories and never have I heard bullet failure talk except on the internet.

All bullets premium or standard work if you do what your supposed to with that bullet/ammunition and especially when to pull the trigger and when not too!

Bob,if I understand this sentence correctly,you are basically saying what Bob Hagel once wrote "A hunter should not choose the caliber,cartridge and bullet that will kill any animal when everything is right; rather,he should choose ones that will kill the most efficiently when everything goes wrong."

Quote is from Bob Hagel "Hunting North America's Big Game" Chapter 23 "Rifles and Ammunition" page 360.

Before the internet I used a Bushnell Banner and corelokts to kill a bunch of deer with my 7 mag. I didn't realize the scope was a piece of crap until it fell apart on a local hunt.

I also didn't look up how to do a million useful things on YouTube or price compare in an instant or sell the stuff gathering dust in my garage or buy other folks dust gathering stuff at a bargain or learn all kinds of things from people all over with much different experience levels.

I appreciate learning here without having to make my own expensive mistakes - members here are happy to share.

If you hunt a nice patch of private ground where you have a great idea of where the animals are and your shot opportunities are pretty steady and at close range you don't really need most of the advantages available to hunters. No rangefinder because the trail you hunt is 75 yards from your downed log where you almost always kill something. No fancy scope or bullets or binoculars or any of the expensive toys hunters drag around these days. If you drive your truck or 4 wheeler up to it so much the better.

If you only get one opportunity on public land after a quick 2 day scout and a 5 mile hike up and own steep terrain at 350 yards quartering to you - those advantages are nice to have.

Most every bullet works fine on deer and in my opinion a premium bullet is worth loading up for elk, and I believe the benefits are most apparent out of a sub 30 caliber rifle.

Still sage advice after all these years.
Always liked Hagel....

Yup,Bob Hagel nailed it with that sentence.

You guys haven't selected your elk bullets yet?

Just found some 165 g. Nosler Partitions made especially for the .300 win.. Old stuff...

Saw 6 cows yesterday, no shot.. they stood and looked at my step son who was only 10 feet from me, but the distance was enough my view was blocked by heavy brush.. Such is hunting.. I may scrape the elk hunt and go bird hunting..
They are more fun and easier to pack.. For those who take elk hunting seriously best of luck..

Of course they have. They just want to make sure everyone else makes the right choice.

Elk bullets,thought we were picking bullets to kill dirt berms with and that look pretty afterwards.

At least we are on the same page....

Glad that's cleared up.

Most guys don't brag about the ones that limp off. Half the time they don't even look for blood if something didn't hit the dirt before it made the timber.

I have know doubt that happens to some so-called hunters,internet warriors and those that don't do the net, especially the long range commando's.Bullet type makes know difference to a complete idiot.

The difference around here for the locals I was talking about is that they spend the year in the woods working and playing and have hunted since day one with daddy and don't get the spook or the high spike in blood pressure when they see something move,again this has nothing to do with bullets or construction.

The question was....." My wife is hunting cow elk with a 270 win. should I load a 150gr nosler partion or 140gr hornady btsp?."

Well,I have hunted with the .270 Win for 50 some years and used about every bullet out there at one time or the other,it never misses a hunt.I still have my '50's Win Mod 70 and another.My choice has always been 130 grain bullets..Tried several 150 grain and didn't care for them but I do like the .277 140 grain Trophy bonded.

My to go bullets in my .270's was and is the Sierra and Nosler,both 130 grain but more so the Nosler and if I was out of bullets or ammo for the .270,I would just go buy a box of Remington 130 grain Core-Lokts and go hunting.

Logcutter, that is too simple.. What would happen to all the johnny come lately bullet makers???? I guess my favorites are Nosler and Sierra, but never shot much stuff with Core-Lokts, but a few whitetails and antelope..

Enjoy you posts, keep them coming..

you realize you are talking to somebody that can't spell 'no' don't you?

toad, I saw that, but sometimes my computer screws up my spelling also.. Have a good one.. Maybe we will all be trying our favorite bullet on elk this month.. Shoot straight and have a great hunt..

That's the main thing right there. Even if it's a bullet we've never tried, it's good. It's called learning experience. If it doesn't perform like we thought it should, we can always try something different the following year. Some guys have done that and probably like myself find themselves doing a full circle and coming back to the old tried and true Nosler partition.... However, I still use the 250gr. sierra GK in my 338 win mag. Drops them dead (most times in their tracks). I've had core separations where the core keeps sailing clean thru and the jacket is found on the offside hide. No magic mushroom to be found or perfect bullet to look at, but the same can be said for most partitions I've shot: Don't recover them too often. I do have 1 partition (30 cal 180gr.) somewhere around here that was found in an elk (fired from my 30-06), it wasn't picture perfect but the bull was dead. When I think of perfect bullet, this is what I want to see:

1. Minimal blood shot meat.
2. No shrapnel left inside the animal.
3. Animal doesn't get blown to shreds. Yes I've seen it here when guys post those pictures of softball sized exit wounds. Not for me and that's not what I want my bullet to do.
4. Stabalize well in my rifle and shoot accurately.
5. Open/expand well.
6. Create humane kills...AKA critter dies as quick as possible (DRT).


Good luck to you elk hunters. Shoot straight and be safe..

Well....sure I have!

I don't need elk bullets. I need elk hunts.