Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 165 Grain Bullet for Elk

Do think a 165 grain Nosler Partition or Accubond out of a 30-06 is fine for elk? I'd like a single load for my 30-06 that can be used on anything from deer to elk and I think a 165 grain bullet would be a good weight for a wide range of game. And do you think a 165 grain Nosler Partition or Accubond would penetrate through an elk's shoulder?

The 165gr. is an excellent choice as it will be an all-around bullet. Some may argue the 180gr. for elk but its not necessary. I'd opt for the Partition for elk/bear and the Accubond for all else. If your rifle likes Acc's over Partitions, then load up on Acc's for everything. Others will chime in here pretty soon.

I'll be doing the same, only with a .308Win..

I killed my cow last year with a 150 NBT from a 308. 150ish yards and it was a mature cow. The bullet smashed though the onside shoulder and the jacket was under the hide behind the opposite shoulder. Couldn't find the core, but the jacket penetrated the meat between the ribs.

The cow stumbled 30 yards or so and dropped....

The 165's you mention in the '06 should be just fine..

Yes. Friends and I have used the 165 Partition on elk,mule deer,whitetail,black bear,pronghorn, etc. You will not recover a whole bunch until you get to elk sized animals and even then it seems it takes both shoulders to stop them.

They will handle the long angling shots on big deer and of course any broadside shot;even saw one instance where one broke both hips on a spike elk and sailed on through.I think it's one of the best loads out there for a mixed bag elk, deer, and bear from the 30/06.

I don't know anything about the 165 AB.

I've killed a number of animals with AccuBonds from the 140 .270 to the 250 9.3, and in general they do work just about like Partitions of the same weight and caliber, which is what Nosler designed them to do. I might go with the Partition at muzzle velocities above 3000 fps, but that doesn't apply to 165's in the .30-06.

I've killed several elk with 165's out of my 30-06, Speer hot core. and a 300wsm with 165 Sierra game kings. The Noslers ought to work just fine. Shoot em through the lungs and get your knife out.

My 1st bull fell to a 165gr partition at 435 yards. He took 3 steps and rolled down the hill. If you do your part, it will do its part.

I've taken a lot of elk with 150's from a 270. The 165 in a 30-06 makes elk shootin' a piece of cake assuming you hit it right.

For years my elk load was a 165 Sierra HPBT, but no in an 06.. It killed a bunch of elk very quickly, but I never tried to break a shoulder with it.. Lately, I have been shooting Accubonds.. Again in a 300 not and 06, results have been excellent.. This year I dropped a large cow elk with a 150 grain Accubond and it performed perfectly.. I have a batch of 165 Part. loaded for the same rifles, but just haven't used them.. I think either the Accubond, or Part. would be excellent in your 06..

So far I've taken 3 elk, all cows, with a .30-06. Two were with a 165g North Fork and one with a 150g AccuBond. No drama, just elk dropping straight down at the shot. The one with the 150g AB was on the ground before I recovered from the recoil. The other two dropped at the shot as well. One got back up a couple seconds later and I immediately put another into her which put her down for good, hastening the inevitable. The last disappeared in fairly tall sage and struggled back to her feet when we found her a few minutes later. She was too hurt to move and I gave her a finisher from about 10 feet.

Pick whichever one shoots best from your rifle.

I have killed over 30 elk with a 30-06 and 165 grain Hornady
Spire points. Premium bullets wouldn't have done any better, but if you are so inclined, the Accubond would be my choice...

I like the 180s for elk in th 30 calibers but if your gun shoots the 165s well don't think twice about using them. Ive killed several with 150s in NBT, AB, and TTSX from a 7 RM including one bull over 800lbs. Shot placement tends to be more important than an extra 15 grains of bullet weight.

What he said. At moderate velocities, you cannot beat Interlocks. My kids have killed three elk using them from a model 600 Rem at 2600 fps. They are accurate and function well. I have yet to find any caliber that will not shoot them accurately.

While I have in no way killed the number of elk that some on this board have, I know they can be funny critters.

I killed one cow with the 165 bt from an '06 with an impact velocity of about 2400 fps. The cow never flinched from two impacts about three inches apart. I thought I had lost her until I got to where she was standing at the shot. Blood was every where on the ground. The cow had stepped over the horizon and then piled up into some high brush forty yards away. The bullets had destroyed the heart and the aortic arch as well as smashing the lungs and lacerating the liver.

On the other hand I have shot two two bulls, a five point and an old, old man six point with the 7mm 162 gr Hornady btsp at an impact velocity of 2600 fps. In both cases the bulls were obviously mortally wounded at the first shot and unable to run away. But I did add more lead to the mix until they each fell over.

Yes, the '06 will definitely kill an elk with either of the 165's you asked about. But after my experience with the '06 on the aforementioned cow, I came home and loaded up a couple hundred Hornady 190's for the task.

If I were to ever take an '06 elk hunting again it would be with the 190 in either the Hornady btsp or the Nosler ABLR.

MT2000: I have killed all manner of Big Game with my various 30/06 Rifles using the wonderful Nosler 165 grain Partitions!
The game includes Antelope, Blacktailed Deer, Mt. Goat, Mule Deer, Black Bear, Whitetatiled Deer and Elk.
I don't think you can go wrong with the 165 grain Nosler Partitions and well placed shots on any big game from Moose on down to Antelope.
Best of luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I do not wish to cause insult, but I think it's a little silly to ask if a 165gr. Nosler Partition is enough bullet for elk.

You say you don't wish to cause insult, then you do exactly that.

Why criticize someone who is simply asking a question?



P

What do you mean by "fine"? If you equate that to "ideal", then no. Adequate? Usually. I prefer 180s in the '06 for everything from tweety birds up. However, if my '06 had an noticeable accuracy preference for 165 grain accubonds or partitions, I'd use them.

Penetrating an elk's shoulder depends on a lot.

Is it a nice clean elk or did it just stand up out of the wallow with 2 inches of mud you have to shoot through before encountering hair and hide? What's the angle ... how much meat do you have to shoot through before hitting bone? How far away is it? In other words, how fast will the bullet be traveling when it hits bone and is it already mushroomed out or not?

Further, what do you mean by "shoulder"? The shoulder blade? Upper leg bone? Or the ball joint? Those are pretty different. Most of the shoulder blade, other than that big ridge, is no thicker than a rib bone and should be pretty easy to shoot through unless the angle is pretty glancing. The upper leg in the shoulder area is a lot tougher and the ball joint is tougher yet.

I'd rather aim for the opposite shoulder and shoot through the vitals FIRST rather than shoot through a hardened target and hope to have enough bullet left to make a clean kill second. Sometimes elk cooperate, sometimes not.

If they're cooperative, a .25-'06 or .257 Roberts will work really well. If they're not, hand me a .338. In between ... is in between.

Basically, what I'd suggest is know what the limits of your bullet are and stay within them. That usually makes dead things. Exceeding them usually leads to tracking. Unfortunately, with an "in between" option, nobody who is being honest with you can say "this always works". They can say they made it work 89 out of 89 tries, what they're not saying is they had enough judgement not to try the times it was going to fail.

Tom

IS: IME it isn't all that unusual to bang an elk trhough the ribs into the chest and have it show little reaction...especially since we are likely coming out of recoil and the elk may be a good distance away.

We know they are big, phlegmatic animals and don't always react to soft tissues hits. This kind of behavior leads lots of people to go to a bigger rifle and heavier bullet.....which I guess sort of works but not always IME.

One fellow I hunted with said he liked a 300 Weatherby or 338 because the elk "react" more to the shot than they do with a 270 or 30/06 and in some cases maybe this is true...anyway I have seen it sometimes from 300 mags and 338,340 etc.

OTOH I have seen them hit with bullets from those cartridges with about as much reaction as a 270 or 30/06...and if they are aware of you and scared they become like truck tires IME

I admit, that cow was my first elk. And I was expecting the humped back I typically see when a solid hit is made on a good Mule deer. Often times the deer gathers itself up and runs up to 100 yds after the shot, but I had never seen a deer not react to bullet impact.

In many ways shooting a bull elk with a 165 gr bullet from an '06 can be compared to shooting a deer with a 60 gr 22 caliber bullet.

Either will do the job with proper bullet placement.

And I always remember sage advice given by several seasoned elk killers.

Keep shooting AIMED shots until all four of the elk's feet are pointed at the sky.