Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting The 300 Wby Mag for elk- is there anything better?

Is the .300 Wby big enough for jackrabbits?

Only if you use North Fork bullets.

Gotcha! Thanks for the info.

I have loads of it. Wanna see some pictures of my reloading supplies?

I for one think it woukd be really sweet to post your reloading supplies!

The irony! I think you and your buddy need to head back to the drawing board given you gut shot and lost and elk last year.

And grands slams where good bullets I have a 130gr my dad recovered from a deer and I used them out of my 25-06 for years. However, the Nosler BT is a much better, tougher, more accurate and flatter shooting bullet.
The AB is even better yet, although not by much. A AB is simply a bonded BT from what I have seen. The 30 cal versions have identical jackets to my eyes.

Thanks!! I'll get right on it!!!

Get your facts straight. It wasn't last year, it was two years ago. Also, it is the first big game animal I've lost since I started in 1982. I admit it isn't a perfect record and while I regret its loss, I'm not ashamed of my record, either.

One or two years ago, it doesn't matter. The fact is you took a shot that you were not skilled enough to make, yet you mention the "pathetic" shooting you have seen at the range. You are one not those guys at the range that you have observed. That the irony is lost on you is telling.

BWalker,

You want us to believe no one in your hunting group has ever lost an animal? How long have you guys been hunting?

My favorite targets are clay pigeons on the 500 and 600 yard berms, where a crosswind is the norm rather than the exception. My hit ratio for a single session has been as high as 40%. Most of my rifles have me dancing off the edges but that's what I expect with MOA rifles. The 'pathetic' shooter I referenced would be lucky to hit a clay at 100 yards and 50 yards would be a challenge for some.

My mistake on the lost elk was not a matter of shooting skills but marginally misjudging the crosswind across a canyon. If you have never made a mistake, feel free to throw stones.

At least I have the courage to admit the lost elk, knowing that I would take flack for it. I rather doubt you would do the same.

Both actually.
Read through that thread about last years lost elk and it references the elk he lost the previous year.

The entire matter would be long forgotten but for the fact that Coyote Hunter himself continues to bring it up. That, and as you noted, a proclivity for criticism, and dare I say boasting and unsolicited advice.

Read through that 2014 episode and there appear to be more serious issues than bullets and marksmanship. The whole story just doesn't add up.

It is clearly a ranch hunt. Somehow it is also a road hunt between 3 different game units. This part is never clearly explained. Look at the success rates on these ranches and most of them are astonishing. It is difficult to reconcile having that sort of access and then making the decision to fling a long shot. The desperate shot attempt doesn't jibe with someone bragging on their vast experience. It almost appears to be a quest for a stunt shot.

The failure to make any attempt to contact the neighboring ranch appears to be illegal. At various times in that thread Coyote Hunter offers that he is not sure which ranch, that it is all about money and paying customers on those ranches, and that this particular ranch does not get along with the ranch where he is hunting. I personally don't buy that explanation because I own property that is elk habitat. If a dead elk turns up there I am going to have a discussion with the neighboring property owner about that elk whether I get along with him or not.

Perhaps saddest of all is that it appears that some younger people are apparently witness to this.

Like you, I've packed damn near everything for jackrabbits... Next question please....

Show us your reloading components.

If you can't "connect the dots" from those two stories....


Screw it. I give up.

What scope is perfect for a .300 Wby?

The previous elk I ‘lost’ went down in some tall sage. When I approached it got up and went over a nearby fence onto private land. After going for a ways across open grassland it turned back and retraced its steps toward the sage on public land. The range was under 100 yards when it stopped at the fence and was shot by another hunter on the private land. There is no doubt in my mind that the elk wasn’t going far and at worst I would have recovered it provided I could get permission to follow it onto the private land. Had the other hunter not fired I was ready to do so as soon as it jumped the fence back onto public land. The other hunter made the question of recovery moot. If you want to consider that one ‘lost’, then yes, I have lost two. In the end the elk was recovered, however, something I never felt was in question.

Here’s a photo of last year’s ‘lost’ elk.





Wow, no need to get the facts straight when your goal is to besmirch someone's reputation with innuendo and misrepresentation or outright lies.

I think you'll find the vast majority of my advice is in response to open requests rather than unsolicited. I don't know about you, but when I seek advice I also judge the advice and the person giving it - including their qualifications, their experience, success and motivation. Doesn't matter if it is about hunting, a medical or legal issue or anything else. If that information isn't on hand I have no problem asking for it. Providing that information up front isn't boasting if the intent is just to provide that background information. There was a radio host I used to listen to that once a month would talk about his professional experience. Why bother if everyone had already heard it? Because every day there were new listeners that hadn't. The situation is no different on this forum.

Yes, it was a ranch hunt, something I have clearly stated in the past and have never made any attempt to portray as something else. It was an unguided Ranching For Wildlife hunt on Snake River ranch to be exact. RFW hunts for cow elk are open to any Colorado resident for the standard resident cow elk application fee. If people choose not to take advantage of such hunts that is their concern, not mine. Since my primary goal is to fill the freezer and although I generally get an additional OTC bull tag for public land, antlers are optional. Since 2006 I have hunted RFW whenever I can get an RFW cow tag, which has been every second year, and make no apology for doing so.

A ‘road hunt’ and ‘3 different game units’? You didn’t get that from anything I wrote about the lost elk because those ideas are false, unless you consider hunting 2 miles from the truck a ‘road hunt’. As to the units, I hunted two units that year, not three – units #3 and Snake River ranch, both with cow tags good only for their respective areas. After 3 days of hunting Snake River my hunting companion went home, leaving me to hunt alone. By then my right hip was so bad that just getting from the cab of my truck to the fuel cap at the gas station was an adventure and getting far from the road was out of the question. Instead I switched to Unit 3 and spent a lot of time exploring the unit by road and sitting on public land high points in my truck hoping to see elk migrating through public land. I didn’t see any elk (and didn't really expect to as the migration hadn't started) but there was nothing illegal about it, nothing to be ashamed of and not much else I could do except go home. My hip continued to deteriorate rapidly and a few months later I had to get hip replacement surgery.

‘Fling a long shot’ in a ‘desperate attempt’? What have you been smoking? It was a 400 yard shot max, as lasered to the trees just behind the cow. Probably closer to 390 and I was shooting from a very steady sitting position using a tripod. This is a shot I’ve made many times on prairie dogs, coyotes, antelope and deer and elk using the same sitting position and tripod. The sitting position and tripod also get used at the range to shoot steel and clays at 500 and 600 yards, so it isn’t like I was inexperienced at that range. My son-in-law and I had plenty of time to discuss the possibility of getting closer and both of us agreed that any such attempt would likely fail. We had been watching the elk for a couple of hours before I took the shot, one that we both agreed was the best opportunity we would get and had a high probability of success. The public land cow I had taken in 2013 (the year before) was at 487 yards and the Snake River cow in 2011 was right at 400. This year's elk was at 411 on public land again. A ‘desperate attempt’ or a ‘stunt shot’? Far from it. I simply misjudged the wind. Like bwalker I guess you've never made a mistake, or won't admit it, so fee free to continue throwing stones.



As far as we’re concerned there was nothing remotely illegal or unethical about what we did. It was getting late when we lost the blood trail and it was 2 miles back to the truck, a trek I wasn’t comfortable attempting in the dark with my bad hip. We made it to the truck at last light. When checking out of the ranch we inquired about the other adjoining ranches and were indeed told that they were not at all friendly or cooperative with Snake River - but that information played no part in our decision making as we were already off the mountain and it was well past dark. In any case, I was physically incapable of making another trip up the mountain that night. We returned the next morning and picked up where we had left off, but we found no more blood and no downed elk. By then the cow could easily have been on one of 3 adjoining ranches or it might have still been on Snake River Ranch. We feel we made the legally and ethically required ‘reasonable attempt to track and kill’ the elk but with the passing of time and no clear indication of where it went, contacting the other ranches and randomly searching them – assuming they would have even allowed it, which we had been told they would not – would have been a gratuitous and unproductive effort at best. Never mind that by then the condition of my hip made another (third) trip up the mountain impossible, regardless of which ranch we chose.

As far as ‘younger people’, my son-in-law was the only one with me. He is in his early 30’s. Regardless, there were no actions taken on our part for which I am the least bit ashamed, whether it was hiking in 2 miles on a bad hip and finding elk, observing them for a long period of time while considering our options, taking a shot we both believed would be successful or our attempts to recover the elk afterwards. Nor am I in any way ashamed that my hip had me reduced to walking with a cane or that the best I could do was hunt Unit 3 from the truck. It beat going home.

I guess the answer to the question is an organic one; it's continually evolving such that the answer last week will not be the answer next year when some poster revives the thread.

It depends on what the shooter has used and his experience with it.

We have had or have the 30-30, 300 Savage, the 308, the 30-06, the 30 Newton, 300 H&H, 300 Bee, 300 Win, the Dakota, 30-378 BeeBad, the 7.82 Patriot, the 7.82 Warbird, the 300 RCM, the 300 RSAUM, the 300 WSM...in no particular order.

Just below this group caliber-wise, and assumed competition, are the 7mm RM, 7mm Weatherby, the 7mm WSM, the 7mm RSAUM, the 7.21 Lazzaroni, 7mm Dakota, the 7 RUM, and the 7.21 Firebird, and the 7.61 Sharpe & Hart.

Just above the 30's dimension-wise but still competing are the 325 WSM, 338 WM, the 340 Bee, the 8mm RM, the 358 Norma, and the 375 H&H and Bee.

This is just a quick listing and doesn't include the wildcats and "improved" cartridges or many metrics just the most quickly remembered and named.

It's why most like a buffet too. There's something for everybody and it doesn't have to always stay the same ..though as that contemporary philosopher of our time, Jerry Seinfeld, has proffered, "not that there's anything wrong with that."

My gawd I am really happy there was no internet when I started using a 300 Weatherby for elk,or anything else. I just figured a 180 gr bullet at 3200,or a 200 gr at 3000+ fps was pretty good and started shooting elk with them.

I was younger, shot a lot and recoil was not a concern. That did not come until later. It worked fine on everything...more like spectacular and not many cartridges dumped those bull elk better.

Times sure have changed..