Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Is the .308 a 300yd. elk cartridge?

If you guys have shot an Elk with a .308 over 299 yards 6 and 3/16 inches you're just lucky!

None of my elk were killed with a 308 winchester but I have killed a pile of hogs with the 308 including some very big ones.

It is an awesome killer that works just as well as the 30-06 in the field with good 150 and 165 grain bullets.

In really open country where I didn't have to carry my rifle a lot,I'd probably take a little bigger rifle,but in rough country where you have to carry a rifle a long way; you just can't beat a nice light 308.This is even more true if the shooter is recoil sensitive. The 308 just seems to kick like a little gun and kill like a big one and it's super accurate as a rule too.


Britt

If you guys have shot an Elk with a .308 over 299 yards 6 and 3/16 inches you're just lucky!

I wouldn,t trust it past 299 yards, 11 inches and 15/16th's.

Is that 299 yards from the muzzle, or from the chamber?

From the muzzle of course, only an anal compulsive type would measure from the chamber, DUH!

Yeh, the muzzle for me also, but have to adjust for the recessed crown on some of my rifles.

OOH, didn't think of that! Gonna have to refigure trajectory on some of my rifles now.

Nice bull, Carol.

And it sure looks as though that .308 and the shooter were both up to the task at hand.

Save me some back-strap!!!!!!!!!


Kodiak

JIm you need to be here .
Got various chunks oh him browned , and lightly treated with Lowry's seasoning salt, then put into the crock pot with taters, onion,carrot, corn,celry, mushroom soup, worscesthshire sauce, and a liberal dose of Mrs Dash. And just before she gets home I'll dump in enough rice to soak most of the liquid.
Carol will fix up some fresh biscuits when she gets home tonite. hmmmmmm gooood.

Ranch13, we need a "scratch and sniff" option here! Save some for us!

Shot a cow elk at 297 yards last year using a light weight Ruger 77 in 308 Win. and 180 Nosler Solid Base. With the short tube I get around 2650 mv. Took off top of heart, messed up some lungs, broke the off side upper front leg bone, lodged under the skin with 120 grains left. Very dead elk cow.

You mean size DOESN'T matter?

LC

michiganroadkill,

I do agree that when animals are shot in heart/lungs, caliber makes very little or no difference, assuming we're within the realm of reason. Hence, an elk ain't gonna know the difference between a .308 Win and a .300 WBY. This is one of the reasons why I love the "little" .308 Winchester! They are accurate as hell according confidence that as long as I do my part it will do its!

BTW, when I started hunting deer about 36 years ago, my dad told me that there was a time when the .300 was all the rage for big game. He was talking about the mighty .300 Savage, legendary for felling all big game! In short, he was telling me not to demand my 7MM Rem Mag do anything for me, that it was up to me to shoot properly. Borrowing a term from another poster, it was true then, and like most truisms, it still is true!

leftycarbon,

"You mean size DOESN'T matter?"

This is not what honest women have told me!

FWIW, cause I know Campfire discounts Jamison.

July 02 Peterson's Hunting Magazine Choosing an Elk Rifle.

Jamison lists his max effective range of 34 cartridges. A table on page 49 gives the yardage where velocity drops below 2,000 fps and the yardage where energy falls below 1,500 ft-lbs. One bullet weight typicaly used for that caliber. Nominal velocitiy of chrono'd factory rounds I guess. You pick the figure that is lower (vel. vs. energy) from the table for comparison. Examples:

Cartridge/ Bullet/ Max Range (yds - limiting variable)

25-06/ 120/ 235 energy
270W/ 150/ 345 energy
280/ 160/ 365 energy
7mm RM/ 160/ 470 energy
308/ 180/ 295 velocity
3006/ 180/ 375 velocity
300 WM/ 180/ 550 velocity
300 RUM/ 180/ 625 velocity
338 WM/ 225/ 380 velocity

So no, 308 doesn't make it!

gmack,

No hard feelings, but I look upon writers who write stuff like this as not having credible material. It seems overly arbitrary to assign a value (energy) to penetrating the vitals of elk. And how would the author account for the fact that the .303 British was once a very popular big game round in Canada? What about the also once popular .300 Savage?

Ain't no doubt in my mind that the .308 Win is capable of taking elk as far away as most hunters can shoot!

If I had to live with only one rifle for all North America it'd probably be chambered in 7MM Rem Mag. But I am not so sure I could eliminate the .270 Win or .308 Win. Ain't it great that we in live in a country (USA for you foreign folk) where capitalism allows us to have what we want (in this case, lots of rifles)?

Without listing specific MVs, and BCs, that evaluation is less than useless. It's misleading.

Hard to rate a CoreLokt and a Scirocco as equals, despite having same diameter and weight.

gmack,

I have a book on elk hunting. In it, the author wrote that the. 308 Win was one of the four best cartridges for elk hunting, so it's good to know that OPINIONS on this topic will vary, just like gas mileage!

Mando,

Don't shoot the messinger.......again. I accurately presented a gunwriters work without judgement (and a ), not mine.

I was trying to show that an article like Jamison's (and there have been others) is the reason that the 308's capability gets questioned.

Sure, Jamison over generalized with respect to the 308. That's because the focus was a broad "apples to apples" look at 34 candidates.

I don't think there's anthing wrong with recommending (for mass consumption) 2000fps and 1500 ft-lbs for elk. I do believe that bullet selection is more relevant for the 308 in elk camp than say my 300 RUM. Information like Jamisons informs the reader that more planning is prudent when selecting the 308. That's my take on it.