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Why carry a pistol if I have a rifle in my hand? Anyway...

My rifle of choice is:
Kimber Montana 84M in 338 Fed
5 lb 14oz including sling, but no ammo.
Leupold VX2 3-9 w/CDS
I tend to switch up the bullets. Have used 185 TTSX (2730FPS) and 160 TTSX (3030) on elk. Current load for 2015 is 210 Partition (2600)

My hunts start with a ~6mi hike in and I hunt between 10k and 11k elevation. Very steep terrain, endless dead falls to crawl over. After using a light rifle I will never go back.

After the first trip back to camp, I leave all my hunting gear except for a knife and a light, get a good frame pack and a compact 45acp.
There's no predator where I hunt that is that hard to chase away.

I don't think that a long barreled .44 would be my first choice, but WY game and fish is serious about guys watching out for grizzly bears when they are gutting animals, particularly around Yellowstone. They suggest that one guy stand guard, with a rifle in hand, while another attends to the cutting. The bears are habituated to come to the sound of shooting.

Beats carrying a fire extinguisher.

Forbes 24b in 280 AI, with swarovski scope on top of it. Weight is 5.5 pounds for rifle, 14.5 oz for scope. I went light because I hike in steep and deep, average 8-12 miles daily. Somedays I have covered more than 15 miles. I think 18+ is a personal best but I spread that over 21 hours.

I hunt public land so I have to go further, faster, and be more nimble than the plethora of other hunters. Seems like every year more and more guys are willing to go further back in. Last season I got my elk 6+ miles from a road. It took me, 2 other guys, and a horse a total of 25 hours to get him out of the woods. Sanity of elk hunting was a frequent topic of conversation during the ordeal.

As for advice on your "rig" I generally say to focus on your personal fitness first, then rifle accuracy, followed closely by optics quality, and minimize weight on all of your components. Your chosen rifle (rem 700) will work well. 8 pounds is the middle ground. I hunt with a very fit buddy who carries a browning BAR with Burris eliminator 3 on it. His rig easily tips the scales at 10 pounds.

He is able to get through it, or suffer through it because he is physically able to endure it. Mid 30's, and I bet his rig changes as he ages.

Its important to be able to make the shot count, but there are many solutions to that equation. The one thing that will remain constant no matter what rifle/bow/muzzleloader you are using is YOU. And nothing substitutes real world knowledge of your hunting area. If you don't have the time to acquire this personally- it might be time to evaluate hiring someone (guide) with that knowledge.

There are plenty of people who luck into an occasional elk, but the guys who fill their freezers year after year usually have been hunting in the same area for years. Knowing the behavior of hunted and pressured elk can play into a distinct advantage.

Good luck- I promise you one thing for sure- elk hunting is one heck of an adventure! Worth the sacrifice, and elk steak tastes even better when you earn it the hard way.

For those looking at external frame packs- on a budget. Look at Eberlestock Mainframe F1. Weight is 4.5 pounds, then add a Kifaru Camp bag 0.8 pounds in weight.

http://store.kifaru.net/camp-bag-4800ci78liters-p146.aspx

http://www.eberlestock.com/miva/mer...amp;Product_Code=F1&Category_Code=BP

You will be into one of the lightest external pack/ pack frames available at under $300, and weight is 5.3 pounds.

Real world testing. 2014 -I had a hind quarter, both backstraps, with meat bag, and head with antlers strapped to the frame using only the provided straps. Trust me when I say it is tough enough to pack out heavy loads, I believe it will handle more weight than you can carry.

17_wizzer, been there. Good post.

Excellent post.

I've received some great advice so far.

After having a hard time getting my elk out 2 years ago I purchased a Mainframe F1, I didn't get to try it out on a elk this year but liked he way it felt with my old pack strapped to it and loaded. Now I have my sights set on the F2 Transformer to use with it next year.

As for my gun I traded my Finnlight WSM for a Forbes 30-06 and was happy with the change.

I may be the only guy on this thread that lives and hunts around Yellowstone. Grizzlies are a way of life here.

When I'm taking apart an elk, my rifle is nearby. When I come back in to pack out meat, sometimes I pack a pistol, sometimes not. But I sure as heck wouldn't pack a 10" 44 mag!

But I ALWAYS pack bear spray, and I'll take bear spray over any handgun, every time.

Call it "Bear Extinguisher."

More useful to me these days. If I had a revolver, I might shoot myself with it.

no one could hope to accurately guess at what a different person might select in a wife, hunting equipment, a truck, rifle or predict what choices they make, in each area, because they are not using the same base of past experience to base those choices on.
while Id bet your correct that the vast majority of the readers would not select that revolver , I find it an excellent choice as is deadly accurate and fast to use in my hands and has accounted for dozens of hogs and several deer in the past.
I load a lee 310 grain hard cast over 21 grains of h110 and cast from 95% ww alloy and 5% pure tin, it will hold a 3" 100 yard group of a bench rest and a 4" 50 yard group free hand, and its a whole lot lighter and easier to pack back into some canyon on a meat retrieval trip than any rifle I own.
yes your correct it might not be your ideal choice , but it IS mine and I'm very willing to carry and depend on its performance,as I have for 35 plus years

Curious, how many times have you needed to use it while packing meat over those 35 years?

HAD TOO USE.. once, but Ive also used it several times to collect other game , like one mule deer ,and a few grouse head shot on a trip back out near the truck, since the opportunity was there and I had a license

I didn't carry a 9mm on day 3 of a bow hunt for elk in Utah and hunters with dogs ran a bear into my area who was pissed off and growling. That stick and string seemed pretty impractical thinking about a charging bear. Luckily he sniffed me first and I didn't have to ward him off with an arrow and a knife.

The physical exercise that mixes climbing stairs or hills with a load and having a good pack is very good advice. I hunt with an Eberlestock x2 and use it for the first quarter haul out , then go with a Cabela's Alaskan frame pack as the meat hauler. I have rented horses a few times and that is a great way to haul out elk - can sometimes be an adventure wrangling rental horses too.

Lighter wool layers great warm boots and practicing shooting out to 400 yards + are nice but nothing pays off like being in terrific shape.

If we don't tag out during archery season:

Mine: Primary: Remington XCR 300 RUM with a VX3 3.5 - 10, Before that a custom Sendero 300 RUM with an NXS scope.
Backup: Remington Mountain 30-06 with a Trijicon 3-9

Hers: Weatherby 7mm-08 with a Nikon POS 3-9.

We cover as little as 3 miles per day to as much as 13 per day.

Nula 300 WM
VX 3 4.5x14x40
180 Nosler partition
3 to 12 miles
500 to 2000 altitude change
We always try to get animal out whole, there is usually 4 of us. We have one guy sweep in front and the other 3 grab and pull. It is amazing how easy it can be to pull an elk when all the sticks and such is out of ur way. Although this doesn't work every time. But nothing like a full bull hanging on the pole. Furthest pull we did on a nice 5x6 was 4 miles and about 1300 feet up. But then again we had to 1/4 up a 4x4 that was only 1.2 miles out.

Guess I'm a bit "old school" in my choice of an elk rifle. I started my elk hunting with a Remington 700 chambered in .338 Mag. and scoped with a 2x7x33 Leopold and have never seen the need to change.

While it is a bit on the heavy side (just under 9 pounds scoped and ready to go) when compared to "modern" elk rifles, I have never seen that much difference in any rifle between 7 and 9 pounds (over 10 and I do begin to feel it at the end of the day). I stay in good shape through the year and at 58 don't mind a bit of weight in my hands (it's bad knees that limit me more than the rifle I carry). Still I typically cover 5-10 miles in a days hunting.

I totally agree that getting an elk out is much harder than getting in to shoot one. I have come to believe your best investment is to have pack horses located that you can hire to get the meat out once the killing is done.

What I do notice more than weight is the handiness of a shorter rifle. The 24" barreled .338 is a bit more awkward and slower to into action than my Ruger Mannlicher carbine I sometimes carry when hunting thicker timber, but no real handicap when glassing more open areas.

I really like the .338 on elk size game, but do sometimes hunt with a .308 (the Ruger), .30-06 or a Savage 99 in .358 and have never felt under armed.

Only once or twice have I ever thought the "power" of the .338 was a real advantage and only then when I had to take a severely angled shot at over 300 yards....and the lighter rifles would have likely have done just as well even then.

I have carried some type of handgun on my hip almost daily for more than 40 years and feel kind of "undressed" without one. Most often it is a SAA in .45 Colt with 260 grain cast bullets loaded to 1000 fps. I've carried so long that I don't even notice the extra weight.

To no one particularly, generally you'll notice those that live in elk country use lighter armament than those that don't... just saying.

Yep. I use a lowly .308..