Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 30-06 didn't impress me.

Looks like elk country to me. Damn, I'm getting all fidgety now ! ! ! !!

A BIG part of me would die inside BSA.

Yep, I hear that buddy. I remember flubbing a shot on a nice muley back in 2001. He was running at 200 yards away. The 300 win mag about took his front leg off, so he high tailed it the hell out of there on 3 legs. Probably faster than when he was running on all 4. It took me a few hours to find that sob. I know how it feels to almost lose an animal. It get's to a guy if you have any conscience at all!!!! If I would have been using my trusty 30-06, it would have been a perfect heat shot. Atleast that's what I always tell myself. All those years shooting jack rabbits on the run with the ol 06, never had any problems like that... Let's start a thread on why we don't like the 300 win mag.... OH, here's the buck too:

Good on you for doing whatever it took to find that buck, I have to believe most of us here have been there, I know of few other sinking feelings that stick like those.

We owe the animals to hit em hard and right.

One of the guys who hunts with us hit an cow elk with his Ford F-250 Super Duty. He said she ran over a quarter mile and he had to finish her with his .22.

This year he's going to try a Chevy 1 ton with the Dura-Max.

I'll keep you posted.

Is that like stepping up from an '06 to a .300 WM?

DF

It's not the caliber of truck, it's shot placement.

I shot this 3.5 year old 5x5 Roosevelt in the Oregon Cascades in 2001 using a 180 grain Partition from a .300 Wby Mag. It was raining sideways.



I spotted him in his bed, about 125 yards. When he stood up he was quartering to me hard, showing his left side. He knew something was wrong so I had to shoot quickly and I had to shoot offhand.

The sight picture looked good but all he did at the shot was take a big jump and disappear into the puckerbrush. I marked my position with flagging tape and went to look at his bed. No blood, no tracks, nothing. The wet ground hid every hint of his passage.

I trusted my sight picture and started a back-and-forth search in the direction of his jump, sort of like a seismograph track. About an hour later and only 150 yards from his bed I found him dead. The bullet took out his 9th rib, his left lung, liver, then lodged near his right femur. No gut, thankfully.

150 yards in the Cascades might as well be a mile, as thick as it can be. I couldn't get the sight picture out of my head, though, and I knew he was dead. Trust your shot and don't give up.






P

Cute little elk hunter.

Oh heck, I thought my 30-06 was better than that.

+1

DF

Thanks. He was great until a couple of years after these pics.





Now he's almost 16 and only the threat of prison keeps me from murder sometimes.





P

Hormones.

You forget when you were 16...

DF

Yeah, enjoy those years with your children. Seams like it was yesterday my son was that age, he's now 37. The good thing is, he made me a grandpa.

Life is such, make it great!

My grandson will be carrying a 30-06 on his first elk hunt next year, lefty Savage with a Leupold 3-9 vx2 and 165 grain TTSX. We painted the ugly stock camouflage last week and he has graduated from 110 grain soft loads to std 150s now, He is a big kid but may stick with the 06, personally I like the advantage the 300 Weatherby gives in open country and the better shorter blood trails. I'm still bothered by the 2 deer I lost almost 40 years ago because I was impatient and hope never to lose an elk.

Pharmseller,

The good news is they often start to recover, at least somewhat, soon after 16. But they also may be in their 30's before they start thinking you're not an idiot.

That is so funny because it's true.

True.

Klik-, I'm not pushing one cartridge or another because what Tom stated is absolutely true. But I did use a 340 from about '91 through 2011 and came to really like the cartridge and the semi-custom 700 it was in. I can say in my experience it is an elk cartridge extraordinaire for near and far. Due to the Brown Classic stock it was not punishing at all for me at 8.5 lbs.

Nine bulls with several just inside five hundred yards with none going more than 20 yds. The 210-gr TSX at 3150 became my go-to.

Grand, leggy cartridge.

I hear you, George. I really like the 340 as a moose cartridge but I haven't even shot mine in several years. Last year's moose I used a 375 to follow-up after it had been hit by my partner. But for several of the years previous to that, it was the 30-06 getting it done, usually with a single shot and often at 250-400 yards.

(I could probably trade most of the rifles I own for one good stainless 'paddle-stock' Ruger 77 (in 30-06) and call it good, but what fun would that be? )