Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting .260 for elk

My girlfriend is guna use her 260 for elk this year. what do u think would be the best bullet for her to use? i handload so my options are unlimited.

I really think we should place bets on when someone will say........

I say before 11PM central standard time, someone will say it....

Barnes TSX 130 grain, and hitem right where huntsman22 hits em, his seem to fall down right away!

140gr Partition or 130gr TSX

Wife hunts with a .260, last year we switched to the 130 TSX for all big game. That makes it easier than re-zeroing between the 120's and the 140's she used to use.

Is there 3 in it?

There is no way a .260 is adequate for elk, just as the 6.5x55 Swede is NFG for moose.

A 6.5mm-06, now that's the ticket - sooo much better than the wimpy .260! I'm in process of building one and have a box of 130g Scirocco II's sitting on my desk...

A 140g A-Frame, 130g AccuBond, 140g Partition, 130g TSX, or even a 120g TTSX should do just fine as well.

Good luck to your girl friend.

130 TSX for everything, or the 120 Ballistic tip for everything.

The 120 BT is (I'm told) the same as the 120 7mm designed for the 7mm rum, but swaged to 6.5mm.

Holds together like a partition, flys like a matchking.

6.5 No good for Elk, but make Elg real dead. Scandinavians seem to use equally the 139-140s, 156, & 160 grainers. This is primarily woods hunting and they know how to shoot or they don't get a license.

Laker I know my 6.5/06 will kill an elk! As matter of fact, I did so with a 25/06 once but that is no feather in my cap, everything that day was perfect. The elk stood broadside, distance was under 200 yards and that Nosler bullet did what it was supposed to do.

Now to answer the original question, I would bet even money that at a reasonable range (under 200 yds) that .260 Rem. caliber in a hunting rifle, will smoke an elk but there are certainly those limitations remember. I like the idea of the 160 grain bullet myself for elk or moose.

Plenty of 12 and 13 year old boys and girls thump elk every year on youth hunts with 243s.

260 is just fine.

Doesn't Nosler offer a 160 grain Partitian? That's the ticket!

WhenI used to visit Sweden on business in the 1980's, I knew several old timers who used the 6.5x55mm on Swedish Elk (Moose to us). They never seemed to have a problem. Just hit them where it counts.!

Personally, I don't feel there is a best but there are some darn good choices.

129 Horn
125 Nozler

would be my first two choices

Dober

If everything goes right, starting with getting close enough, the .260, 6.5x55 SE, and even a .223 Remington may kill an elk in its tracks.

Then again... things aren't always perfect.
Would your rather pass up an unethical shot because you are using a marginal cartridge?

I am not bashing the .260 Rem, just noting that, everything else being the same, a .30-06 or .45-70 at a reasonable range is a whole lot more of a sure bet.

The last time this came up,Lee24 who admits that he has never killed an elk,said cartridges in the class of a 260 were too little.

I'm not sure how he knows having never killed an elk. I have killed a few elk and I'm pretty sure the 260 with a good bullet in the right spot will be perfect.

It is actually hard to find anything much better than the 260 and 6.5x55 when you are looking for something to take elk sized game without a lot of recoil.

But then again I actually have hunted and taken game with a 260,perhaps it's better to listen to Lee24 who has not.

I got a hankering to try my 264WM this year on wapiti cow.

And I wasn't even thinking about using the magic boolits, just some ole green box 140 gr cup & core.

But if I can get some dies by then & talk a friend into helping me figure out a load, i might take some of them there fancy boolits along.

I would probably pass up an unethical shot regardless of the caliber/cartridge.

If recoil is a real factor in the decision process, as it sounds like it might be for the original poster, then a .260 or 7mm-08 would have to be top o' the heap. I've brought a 7mm-08 to elk camp a couple years, and though I never killed an elk with it, I didn't feel undergunned. I loaded 150-gn Partitions for what that's worth.

If recoil ISN'T a real factor, well... my opinion is that there's "better" elk cartridges than a .260 out there. But let me add that's not based on killing them with a .260. It's just based on the size of the critter, the terrain I've hunted them in, and seeing a half-dozen or so killed pretty decisively with larger calibers. Decisive = good with elk, IMHO. A little overkill doesn't suck <g>.

daveh's dad used a 243 on elk, and I think he still does.

killed a bunch of them from what I hear with Remington 100 grain corelokt bullets.

I'd use it in a hert beat. I've toted my 6.5 Swede several days afield, only no elk to smash. Btw I saw some penetration tests somewhere and one of the best penetrating bullets was the Hornady 129 SP. Maybe someone saw the same and can give more info.

Joseph

I believe Alpinecrick has also whacked a bunch of elk with a .243. It has to work, if the hunter does things right. How could it not, really?

But, it's not quite that simple... I've killed two deer with a .22 rimfire, and both were POLEAXED. But the conditions were very controlled. I wouldn't hunt deer with a .22 RF.

Anyway, I've carried a 7mm-08 elk hunting, so I'd carry a .260 and be pretty darn sure I could kill an elk with it. No argument there. For the original poster's needs it's probably pretty close to ideal. 7mm-08 being even closer <g>.