Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting .260 for elk

Steve
This is the truth of the matter- As mule deer migrate up mountains, at around the 5122.756 foot elevation mark, they begin morphing into elk. As they get higher and higher up the mountain, they increase in size until they reach maximum size at approximately the 7348.9678 foot elevation If you subtract the elevation the elk is at from 7348.9678 and add it to 5122.756, you'll get the per centage of the median weight the elk of any specific age groupd of elk. People often lump Teddy Roosevelt Elk in with Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt elk, and that, in conjunction with not accounting for the elevation the elk lives results in confusion as to their size.
Once you use my simple formula to determine median elk size, you can divide that median size by ten to get the case capacity of the cartridge needed to kill the elk- ie, 600 pound elk need a cartridge with 60 grains water case capacity.
Then, divide the ballistice coefficient of the bullet by 0.6 to find the maximum range you can shoot at- It's all simple-
Don't believe me, ask Lee!!!
Fred

LMFAO!
Good one Royce

Good one Royce, and you explained it so well it all makes perfect sense!

My brother-in-law used to live on the Olympic Peninsula, just outside of Olympic National Park and we went over there several times to fish and hike around the hills. I was quite impressed at the bodysize of the Roosevelt elk. Even the cows had a heavy deep-chested look to them. They were noticably bigger than our Rocky Mtn variety in these parts.

True, but even better is the little know fact that if one can get an albino platypus above 28,000 they become supermodels. Of course, that means Everest, K2 or Kangchenjunga.

Yeah DZ,

I'm very surprised that there are some here who even converse with this person.

As I posted before on this thread.

Here is a proven description of Lee.

"dentifying a Pathological Liar

Pathological liars, or "mythomaniacs," may be suffering from histrionic personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder. The following comments basically reflect a pathological liar who has the characteristics of histrionic personality disorder.

Some characteristics:

1. Exaggerates things that are ridiculous.

2. One-upping. Whatever you do, this person can do it better. You will never top them in their own mind, because they have a concerted need to be better than everyone else. This also applies to being right. If you try to confront an individual like this, no matter how lovingly and well-intentioned you might be - this will probably not be effective. It's threatening their fantasy of themselves, so they would rather argue with you and bring out the sharp knives than admit that there's anything wrong with them.

3. They "construct" a reality around themselves. They don't value the truth, especially if they don't see it as hurting anyone. If you call them on a lie and they are backed into a corner, they will act very defensively and say ugly things (most likely but depends on personality), but they may eventually start to act like, "Well, what's the difference? You're making a big deal out of nothing!" (again, to refocus the conversation to your wrongdoing instead of theirs).

4. Because these people don't value honesty, a lot of times they will not value loyalty. So watch what you tell them. They will not only tell others, but they will embellish to make you look worse. Their loyalty is fleeting, and because they are insecure people, they will find solace in confiding to whomever is in their favor at the moment.

5. They may be somewhat of a hypochondriac. This can come in especially useful when caught in a lie, for example, they can claim that they have been sick, or that there's some mysteriously "illness" that has them all stressed out. It's another excuse tool for their behavior.

6. Obviously, they will contradict what they say. This will become very clear over time. They usually aren't smart enough to keep track of so many lies (who would be?).

Here are some ways to tell someone is a pathological liar contributed by another WikiAnswers Contributor:

* They lie about even the smallest things. For example, saying "I brushed my teeth today," when they didn't.

* They add exaggerations to every sentence.

* They change their story all the time.

* They act very defensively when you question their statements.

* They believe what they say is true, when everyone else knows it isn't.

Here's an alternate "checklist":

* Lies when it is very easy to tell the truth.

* Lies to get sympathy, to look beter, to save their butt, etc.

* Fools people at first but once they get to know him, no one believes anything they ever say.

* May have a personality disorder.

* Extremely manipulative.

* Has been caught in lies repeatedly.

* Never fesses up to the lies.

* Is a legend in their own mind. "

What are you doing, writing Lee24's obituary?

Jeff

SU35 must of gotten tired of fantasizing about himself / herself.

Why don't you .260 Remington fans pose the question of its suitability for elk hunting to some hunting writers who have a lot of experience with elk and have seen some marginal cartridges in action?

By the way, I wouldn't consider the .270 Winchester a 300-yard elk cartridge, either.. But then, I have never been in a hunting situation where I couldn't stalk to within 200 yards of any animal, unless there was a canyon or big water in between us.

As I have said before, if you are good enough to shoot the heart at 300 yards, then it isn't much of a hunting challenge to shoot game at 300 yards. If you aren't good enough, then you need to realize you are too challenged to be taking those shots.

I know this to be true. I know because one summer my niece was a Park Ranger Assistant at Wallowa Lake State Park in NE Oregon. The "Question of the Year" that summer was one posed by a lady camper who asked, "When do the deer turn into elk?" She was dead serious so obviously knew something about it.
I don't know what they told her, but I hope it was as informative as what Royce has shared with us.
This is one of the reasons I frequent here; to pick up bits and pieces of factual information. My niece will be so happy when I share this with her!

300 yards is well within reach of a .270 for elk. Alot further in the right hands. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot that far on the right opportunity. As for the .260, its every bit as good of an elk cartridge as the guys here have been saying. Gun writers or not, they have as much experience in the elk woods as anybody. This is a fact and people would be wise to listen to it.

Some of you guys did not know that Lee has a new book coming out.

It's called "The Purpose Driven Lies".

The first line in the book goes like this " It's All about Me."


It gonna be a smash.

Some years back ADF&G transplanted Roosevelt elk to Alaska, both here in SE and also to Afognak I. Near Kodiak. They have done extremely well and are utterly enormous, with individual animals approaching the weight of moose. Moose are bigger, no question, but I knew a game biologist that witnessed one hoisted onto a fishing vessel here in SE ungutted that went something over 1,300 lbs. I can't remember the exact weight, but this is no exaggeration. Wolves just can't eat one of these animals as fast as they can a Rocky Mtn. elk.

1flier

dogzapper, having wrestled a few blacktails out of those slippery canyons of the coast range... I cannot even imagine getting an elk out of some of those places. Seriously.

It reminds me of a story I read somewhere... I think on rec.hunting, back in the newsgroup days... where a guy talked about killing his first elk (a Roosie) and finding himself knee deep in guts at the bottom of a god-awful hole, and just about breaking down crying <g>.

Then again, over in Eastern Oregon I've worked my way into a few spots where I then had to b!tch slap myself because it would dawn on me that even if I saw an elk, no way was I dumb enough to SHOOT the damn thing! That's always fun, when you've spent a couple hours getting there in the first place.

These threads always end up in the same place. Will it kill it? Of course. Is it the best choice for a person who isn't recoil-sensitive? Probably not. Round and round it goes <g>.

Like, uh, Dogzapper?

Sometimes, or most times, in elk hunting, No pain No gain. Just the nature of the beast.

You mentioned earlier in this thread the tenacity of elk to stay alive and that bigger calibers probably help put them down. Won't argue that point at all but I was amazed the other day on a different forum when a member posted a video of his buddy shooting a decent sized mule deer buck at 200 yards with a .50 BMG. That deer ran 75 yards before it piled up. That was tenacity to live if there ever was one. I've come to accept that elk die where they want to die regardless of caliber. There are times and places where bigger is better or a good decision rules the day.

Oh yeah, I've had a couple deer run where it was like "what the HELL?!" The little dude in the picture below took a 200-gn Hornady at about 2600 fps at 20 yards, from my .358. Then he ran over 200 yards with that hole through his lungs!

Pretty sure Rost495 has a tale of witnessing a 50 BMG shot deer go a ways, also.

What it comes down to for me is that a larger cartridge has more ability to "do work", as a physicist would put it. The work at hand being the crushing, liquefying, tearing, smashing etc of tissue. I'll take all I can handle when it comes to elk. Perhaps as I get less "mad at 'em" I'll think otherwise <g>, but for now, I'll smack 'em with all the cannon I can handle.

(which is my .338 WM or .325 WSM for what that's worth)

Nice buck.

You guys up in ID, OR do hunt some serious vertical feet and dense forest. Most of CO seems to be more open to a degree. There are some really punishing places here and I've dropped a big bull in the bottom of one. Straight line was a 1/2 mile from the truck on the map, but in reality it was longer than that. All vertical hill and dale. Miserable pack job, but worth every minute of it.

Seriously? That guy was TINY. It was last day of the season, I'd just got back from (unsuccessfully) hunting elk, and had decided to shoot the first legal deer I saw. He was the unlucky one. They have to be forked horns to be legal. He was... barely.

Tender little dude, though <g>. And well bled-out.

The .338 Win Mag is the gold standard for elk and big bears.
There probably is a good reason for that.
The .325 WSM would be right there as a niche elk cartridge.

What are Boddington, Wayne van Zwoll, and Rick Bin carrying for elk? What would they say about the .260 Remington?

Boddington recently fell in love with the .270 on an elk hunt. Wayne used to push smaller cartridges in his earlier works. Have his articles out of the RMEF magazine Bugle to prove it. Don't know Rick Bin so I cannot say what he's said.

The .338 may be your gold standard, but I think most of us that have been elk hunting for a while would be looking more at the .30-06 or .300 Win Mag as being the standard. Nobody I know out of dozens of elk hunters uses anything bigger than the .300WM..................... You're clueless Lee.

But then again I forget that knowing you, you've probably consulted on the creation of elk and elk hunting.............

The .338WM is a dandy elk cartridge just so everyone knows that. Can't think how a guy would go wrong with one.