Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 300 wsm or 7 rem for longish elk?

Elk are FAR easier to kill than most fathom,due to their vital sizing and demeanor.

Boolits matter far more than headstamps.........

Or 7m SAUM, nothing wrong with a 30 cal, but you will eat 30-40 grains worth of recoil increase to shoot the same bullet BC, that is just plain physics.

This is true, and the lethality of 7mm bullets is beyond question BUT, for a dedicated elk rifle I'd go with the 300wsm every time and eat the slight increase in recoil. I'd simply rather hit an elk with a 200-gn .30 than a 7mm anything.

if you can show a reason that the 300 wizzer is better than the 7 mag when ur' flyin' schitt over yonder that would be a great place to start.... other than mag restraints and brass choices i really cant think of any

woofer

I just think bigger is better for elk, as long as the shooter can shoot it, and I doubt there's enough recoil difference to make one shootable and the other not.

Elk are big, they are tenacious sometimes, and they live in places you'd really rather not get to know the depths of <grin>. Can't see a reason- in this case- to pick the 7 in a dedicated elk rig.

Ya ya, I know, that'll get me yelled at... whatever... grin...

Superior trajectory curves,superior wind drift values and superior impact velocity...all via less recoil,is purty good trades.

Though in fairness,I'd wager your gross 30 cal and 7mm elk combined numbers,to define paltry.

Hint..............

Stuff that 300WSM with a good bullet.
Sight it in.
Practice a plenty.
Hunt n grin!

Jim

In fairness,I've only had/have a coupla 300WSM's,with a #5 contoured 1-10" 24" Hart tubed 700 s/a wearing HS DBM in a HTG,being the "best". MK4 base,Badger standard rings and q 3.5-10x M1 LR.

While it would(do) Agg in the realm of stupid,it cain't hang with 7mm BC's.




Hint.................

Picking pepper out of fly [bleep] again........

Lol.... well, the dude asked, didn't he?

Besides whatever micro-differences there might be in drift & trajectory that Stick is pimpin' most certainly fall into the "fly chit" category too.

Fer instance:



The 7mm drops less but that's something that's necessary to compensate for either way. The 7mm shooter clicks up 41 clicks at 600 yards from a 100-yd zero. The .30 shooter clicks up 46 clicks. Thinking the guy who can do one can do the other.

Then there's the retained energy and frontal area, both of which favor the .30
Using the above bullets and speeds, since I know the Amax is his favorite plaything:

7mm: 1738 ft/lbs at 600 yds

.30 cal: 2025 ft/lbs at 600 yds.

The .30 will keep that bullet above 1800 fps to 850 yds. The 7mm to a bit over 900 yds. So retained velocity only matters past 850, and the 7 doesn't get you much more anyway.

For an ELK rifle I'll stick with what I said, hitting them with more bullet doesn't ever suck and as JWP so eloquently put it, the differences amount to chit, ballistically.

It don't get "Fly Chittier"...than a Dreamer trumping things she's never seen or done.

Congratulations?................

Lol.

The .30 flies just as good for practical purposes and hits harder. How is that not better in an elk-only rifle?

Hits harder? Then why not something 338?

If hits harder matters for practical purposes why doesn't hitting even harder matter? How many Elk have you hit right with a 7mm that walked off?

You were do OK until you metioned energy, a useless number when rating terminal performance. My 500 Linebaugh shooting a 525 grain WLFN has 1410 FPE and will shoot completely through and exit on a mature Bull Bison and on Assian Buffalo. This I know for a fact because I have seen it do so. The 22-250 shooting a 55 grain bullet at 3600 FPS has a calculated FPE of 1583. From expereince The revolver load hits noticable harder and penetrate night and day farther

FPE is BS of the highest order

Not when you are comparing similar bullets at similar velocities.

BS is BS at any velocity. It doesn't work and trying to find a case that by coincedence it is on par doesn't make FPE valid

I have seen a lot of Deer taken with the 30-30, 30-06 and 300 win. If you believe in FPE then one would believe that the 06 & 300 win would be much better killers of Deer. Yet the field results tell a different story. I have never seen a 30-30 fail to exit on deer given a reasonable angle, I have never seen the 30-30 not leave a large wound channel and put the deer down quickly. I have seen the 30-06 and 300 fail to exit on even broad side shots,b ecause of the bullets blowing to pieces

FPE is silly at best

Note the word SIMILAR.

Don't think comparing 30-30 bullets at 30-30 velocities to 06 or 300 Mag bullets/velocities fits the definition.

I certainly agree FPE is not necessarily an indication of effectiveness, especially when comparing dissimilar bullets and velocities.

How in the world does FPE at "simular" velocity have any more merit? Of course it doesn't as FPE in meaningless in terminal ballistics and to argue otherwise is an excise in futillity

Which would you rather shoot at a large, dangerous animal-

a 110TSX at 2800fps or a 200TSX at 2800FPS?

Granted, this is an extreme example, but FPE is not meaningless.

What caliber is the 120 grain bullet, what caliber is the 200 grain bullet? If the 120 grain bullet is a 6.5mm then I would not have a dought that iit would work just fine. If the 200 grain bullet is a 30 caliber bullet then I would not use it at all. The heavy for caliber TSX bullets have vry log shanks after expansion and this at time causes them to tumble and not penetrate well

FPE is a meaningless number the only thing that matters is if the bullet will penetrate deep enough to put hole through the vi tails, all else is moot.

Momentum is a useful number, but not FPE