Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Best .308 round for Elk at 300+ yards??

Anyone have any experienced recommendations on good .308 round for medium, long range elk hunting (out to about 350 yards)?

I'll be shooting a 26" heavy barrelled sniper rifle with a tactical scope that was designed for use with the 168 gr, Federal Match ammo. So if you know of a factory round with the right bullet for busting elk that gives a similar trajectory, so much the better.

Thanks.

Take a look at the offerings from Black Hills. They offer a load with the 168 grain Barnes TSX that ought to fit your requirement

Black Hills Gold Ammo


Hope this helps,


HBB

I'd look hard at the Black Hills Gold ammo loaded with a 168 Barnes TSX. Should line up pretty well with your 168 match ammo.

Black Hills 168 TSX

Apperenty great minds think alike...

+2.

BMT

Well, Federal Premium High Energy loads have one with a 180 grain partition at a reported 2,750 fps (or thereabouts), that's not too shabby either.

At that range, it hardly even needs to be a premium as the impact velocity will be pretty low.

That said, the 168 TSX would be an excellent choice. As would a 165 Partition or Accubond.

My vote goes to the Accubond IF you are indeed going to be shooting this elk at 350 yards. If you will be shooting it at anywhere from 20 yards to 350 yards, then the Partition or TSX is probably marginally better.

In truth, any of those, and several others, will work just fine. Your .308 is operating in a velocity range that does not test bullet performance particularly. A Core-lokt would probably work just as well as a TSX at 350 yards, IMHO.

-jeff

... I love .308, by the way, and every round derived from that case. Hope I didn't come off as hatin' on your rifle!

-jeff

http://www.doubletapammo.com/php/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=52&products_id=206

That is the way to go.

If you're thinking on my wavelength, Brother are U in trouble

HBB

Thanks for the info.

I'll try and get a box each of the Black Hills and Fed Prem HE and see which one my rifle/scope combo likes the best.

The double tap sounds real interesting 200gr at 2550, but I'm not sure how well the rifling will match up to that heavy a bullet. Still, if I come across a box, I'll probably try it.


Jeff-

No offense taken. I agree that the .308 is hardly a 350 yard elk rifle. And really tough bullets might not open up as well as I'd like at those ranges.


Thanks to all.

Yup, unless it happens to be one that's closer. I load 165g North Fork and TSX/MRX in my .308.

For a general-purpose .308 elk rifle, yeppers! Or a Partition or Accubond. But he's got a big heavy sniper rifle setup... sounds like he's pretty much planning on a longer shot.

If the elk co-operate.

-jeff

Well yesterday I went out and spend 76.00 on a couple of boxes of the FED HE 180gr. (I couldn't locate the Black Hills ammo at the two stores I went to, and I had some other stuff to do.)

Theoretically, the FED HE looks like it just the ticket. The ballistics are within an inch or less out to 500 yards with those of the Fed 168gr Matchking. The Fed Matchking is the cartridge that my scope (Springfield Armory Govt Model II) was designed around.

The Nosler states that the 180gr Nosler Partition needs at least 1800 fps to open up properly and at 500 yds the theoretical velocity of the FED HE is still moving at around 1900 fps.

Now if I can get my rifle to group well with the load, I am in business (otherwise I go back and look for the Black Hills ammo).

Jeff:

I am not wishing for a 500 yd shot at an elk, I just want to be reasonably confident I can make one if I need to (since nowadays I pretty much limit myself to big 6-pointers or better).

I also got a bear hunt coming up in a couple weeks and shots will probably either be really close or really long. I feel better with 180gr bullet for that work.

And, finally I got a deer hunt coming up after the elk hunt, and for that I would really like to try out the rifle for a long range kill (provided I feel confident I can make the shot).

Again, thanks for all the good advice.

That's the factory load I'd use... I've chrono'd the 180 HE load in a 22" bbl'd 308... 2,700 fps is typical.

That's what I got in my 84M, too. Matter of fact, I think it was you who recommended those loads to me, thanks for that.

.308 is just an amazing little creature, isn't it...

You'll whack any of the critters you mention with that load, that's for sure!

-jeff

I would recommend a sporter rifle and hoping for a closer shot. I can just imagine packing a varmint gun through the woods.
Proper placement is key not what premium bullet you use. Federal Fusion's or the Core-lokts I use are as good anyhow at a fraction of the cost IMHO. At least ever elk I ever shot was just as dead and didn't run off and die miles away, or hundreds of yards either.

I'm sure glad you said that. I was planning on using my .308 loaded with the 150 gr. TSX over a mild charge of Re-15 ( 46 grs.). Somehow, I think it will work.
I'd hate to have to carry my 11 lb. plus, target rifle up into the Rockly's. I'll try to make do with my little 7.5 lb M70 w/ 4X scope. Maybe some dumb elk will take pity on me and stand around fairly close so i can carefully shoot him it the lungs. I'd be real nervous trying to break both shoulders with that bullet. E

When I went elk hunting in Colorado a few years ago I only had time for factory loads as I did not handload at that time, so I tried to sight my gun (Rem model 7 in .308) in on the Fed HE 180 grain loads which my gun absolutely hated. (that was the load I really hoped would work)
I also tried some TBBC's (my second choice) like the first choice my gun hated these, so I ended up using my deer loads which were Winchester 168 grain BT's....to say I felt undergunned was an understatement as I felt I needed a better constructed bullet, so during my hunt I passed a shot on a decent 6x6 only because I had a texas heart shot opportunity (not my first choice of shots anyway).
So because of the bullet I had I passed on an opportunity at a rather decent bull and never had another opportunity at an elk that year....I feel that if I had one of the other 2 choices I really wanted, I would have taken the shot and got that elk but not with the BT's.
Of course my distance was considerably shorter say 90 yds....but in the back of my mind I always wonder would the BT's have done the job?.......I guess I'll never know.