Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 6mm Remington 100 grain bullet for elk hunting.

Gotta few....but I see plenty more when I head out west every year. Best of luck with the 243. Agree that it's not the best choice, but if you make it work for you then that's great. More power to ya. Whatever makes your propeller spin. Best of luck this fall.

I guess I can't state an opinion because I've not tried to kill anything elk sized with a .243 or 6mm. I never will either. Of that I'm positive.

At least for me the cost of an elk hunt (my last license was $760 alone) is such that I'd say if you can't afford a real elk rifle then you can't afford the hunt.....stay home.

That said, others can hunt as they want.....I really don't care what you use.....For me elk cartridges start with the .280 Remington!

I knew a now retired CO outfitter that got a 243 as a present in High School and used it on everything he had a tag for. He was very sold on that round.

figured i would resurrect this thread since i have a 6mm Remington... I note that recorded in these pages are some old familiar handles that don't post anymore on the Fire...

I moved to Georgia in 91 and after seeing some of the big deer there I went from 6mm to 25-06 in a hurry. Some people arrive at cartridge performance on does, pre-rut bucks, and bucks in rut as if they were all the same critter but they aren't. Size matters too. I expect elk are much the same way.

The argument of "it's not about the power of the round but bullet and shot placement" has really grown. Where that is mostly true, when hunting elk on public land those perfect shots are few a far between. If your sitting on a sagebrush ranch, glassing a herd from your truck and picking the most broad side elk to shoot, I'm sure the smaller rounds work fine. You can shoot, then watch the animal until it falls. But when your hunting in thick cover with no snow and the animals run after the shot, good luck finding an elk after it runs more then 100 yards carrying a little 100 grain bullet in its guts. A .243 would never be my pick for an elk rifle. The past two years both elk I took with my .300 didn't leave a blood trail in the dry Colorado weather, but the elk didn't travel more the 15 yards. After 20 years of hunting elk the only animal I have shot and lost was a pheasant. Bottom line, pick the gun best suited for your type of hunting (if its elk don't chose the minimum legal caliber), learn how to shoot it, learn when to pass on shots, and fill some tags. If you can't shoot a 30/06 then you better know your limitations.

If it was all one had and he was careful with the shots, but I'd be inclined toward larger calibers.

And I have seen Mule Deer shot with a .243 and not drop. What does any of this prove? Mostly that the little 6MM is the smallest caliber allowed for Big game.

I've seen antelope shot 3 and 4 times with belted magnums and not even hardly show any evidence of being hit. I've seen mule deer shot with the 300 winmag. 5 times and still needed head shot. Have witnessed elk dropping in their tracks from a single round out of 243's 30-30's and the like. Elk hit with a 375 H&H right thru the boiler room and still travel another 200 yds. with no blood on either the entry or exit wounds.
None of the examples prove much of anything.
It all boils down to the hunter using a rifle and cartridge that he/she has confidence in.
Whenever these threads boil down to who has the supposed most testosterone, I'm always reminded of an old lady that spent the prime years of her life on the east face of the Bighorns raising kids, and helping her husband on the ranch. Her theory was that those guys using those" big ol 30-06's" on elk were just showing off, there wasn't any need for anything bigger than her 92 in 25-20.

I tend to agree with this.

The only "kill" I was ever in on with the 6mm Rem was a friend's kid using 100gr. rem Coreloks. First shot from 175 yards was perfectly placed through the lungs, but the cow traveled a LONG way before piling up.

I'm a believer all-around elk cartridges start at 270/7mm... maybe, 6.5mm, but not smaller for sure.

You guys kill me..

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...11538668/Matthews_first_elk#Post11538668

That does not count, Your son was a beginner and it was not a massive B&C Bull. Just a good tasting shooter bull. Beginners luck with his pop gun.........


P.S. The above statement was all in Jest in case anyone was offended.

I will add, that 100 grain partition blew completely through the elk and out the other side with massive trauma to the insides.

An example of one small spike is very inspiring... I'd definitely base all my future elk hunting on it.

I'm sure it was just a fluke........we got lucky.

I know a gentleman in WesterN Wyoming that has lived there his whole life. He is about 70 and has killed an incredible amount of elk in that time. He recently moved up to a Creedmore and 129 gr Interlocks for elk because he feels his shooting is not what it once was, up til three years ago all he used was a .243 with 100 gr. interlocks. Yes he placed his shots and had time. but in 60 plus years of hunting he never switched until age and eye sight got to him.....

There is all kinds of elk hunting, and little of it is an apples/apples comparison. For instance, shooting eating sized elk out of a hay meadow on a private ranch isn't the same as a big bull in the timber on public ground.

And so on...

Yeah. A couple of times...