Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting .308 cal., 165 gr. Horn. Interlocks adequate for elk?

They shoot really well in my rifle. would they be adequately built to take an elk out to, say, 300 yd.?

Buckstopper, yes they'd be adequate. But why settle for adequate?

Yepper it'll do

Dober

That's on heck of a bull! Great looking elk country too.

Adequate +, or, > Adequate. Take your pick.

Check the lower parts of this thread, particularly the experiences of Ingwe and Shrapnel.

FC

Looks like overkill....the only thing that's left is the cape...that's a lot of meat damage!

Dang wolves...grin

Dober

Are 165-grain Hornady Interlocked bullets adequate for elk? Yup, I've killed a few score with them; never had an elk need two of them and more elk dropped at the shot than not.

The 150-grain Hornady Interlocked is also an incredible elk-killing bullet. Not a classic elk bullet, perhaps, but if anything I've experienced BETTER KILLS with them than any other bullet ... .30-'06 or .308 Winchester, pick your poison.

Note: Elk killing is considerable different than writing stuff in the gun-funnybooks. Also, frankly, it takes many, many years of elk killing to understand what works, what kinda works and what is gonna leave you following a long blood-trail with quite possibly a horrible evening at the end of it.

The Hornady Interlocked 165s and 150s work very well on elk and I prefer them to the 180s and 190s. (That was the next question and I saved someone from asking it)

Steve

Well, nothing like actual experience! I consider the question definitively answered!

John

Steve,

Please tell us where on the animal you place your shots for such good performance. Thanks.

Steve, what bullets did you see NOT work well on elk?

Also, it would appear that Hornady has, in their wisdom, changed the Interlock at least in some calibers/weights. That could really invalidate decades of experience guys have with them- which SUCKS!!

I've got a pile of 165 HDY BTSP's... my 308 absolutely dotes on them. I'll use them for elk gladly, but my preferred bullet in the 308 is the 168 Ballistic Tip

I'm basically off the Campfire, but will surely answer your question.

As in all hunting, the hunter is doing the very best he can, given the situation ... and all situations are different. Ya just do the best you can.

As I've posted many times, when I was posting on the Campfire, the fist shot on elk is critical. Elk are relatively easy to kill with the first shot, but if you screw that one up you are in deep trouble.

Let me approach the answer from two aspects; Steve the hunter and Steve the guide.

Given Steve the Hunter: I typically hunted open country, stuff like Hell's Canyon of the Snake or the Imnaha. Generally, I'd spot a herd of elk around the end of a big ridge. I called them a "crown of elk" because that's what the strung-out herd looked like. Then, depending if you have a bull or a cow tag, you work as close as you can to the critter you want. Sometimes it's impossible, so like antelope hunting (they are quite the same dynamics), you back out and find some more elk or come back later.

I had a few hunters I guided for who taught me lots ... particularly about shooting long ranges. In short, don't do it. As a result, given Steve the Hunter mode, my average elk, even given the open country I hunted, was maybe 150 yards away and almost never 200.

Where do you shoot them? How the hell do I answer that?

Really close up and on a still elk, honestly I'd either brain the bugger or break the neck up high (medulla oblongata, if you know anatomy) and just kill the sonofabitch dead.

Given a 100 yard shot, broadside, I might still plant the bullet at the base of the ear; or from the back, in the middle of the neck, or from the front, just under the chinney-chin-chin. BUT, it depends, if he's squirlley, I'd hold tight behind the shoulder, mid-height and not too high, and hit both lungs and the aorta. Given an angle, I'd rather err and clip a far shoulder than shoot too far back, hit one lung and screw up the shot.

200 yards, I'd tend to do the same.

My last two bulls were really far for me both 400-ish and I took one in the center of the shoulder and the other between the shoulders (shooting kinda down), breaking the spine. Don't ask what cartridge, nor what bullet because you would not agree. BUT my last two bulls, both 6X6s died to a single shot each.

Steve the Guide: I only shoot after it is abundantly clear that my hunter has already screwed up the shot and/or I am asked to collaborate with the shot. Every guide hates that ... it is the client's hunt and the client's good time, it IS NOT Steve the Guide's to take that away from him. BUT given a total balls-up situation, Steve the Guide center-punches BOTH shoulders with no frigging' regard for meat. Or, given no shoulders, a high bunghole shot to break the spine or whatever the Hell it takes. At the time the crapola-hits the fan, only breaking major bones will stop the elk.

Anyway, I probably didn't answer your question to your satisfaction, but it would take being in the bush for a while and seeing a thousand situations to explain it to you.

I remember one guy from Connecticut who asked me once, "How much is my cow going to weigh?" My answer, perhaps not to PC, was "How the [bleep] do I know?"

It was the truth, just not the answer he was seeking ... mostly because nobody known until they been there.

Steve

Schit, I feel like the Elk Abby

I've killed elk quite cleanly, just being kinda careful, with 100Ballistics in my .25-'06. Not a lot of elk, but enough to learn. The Ballistic, the TOUGH ONES, kill the crap out of elk.

As you prolly know, I've killed quite a number with the .284" 120-grain and each bull has simply dropped to the shot. The 140 Ballistic is considerable "softer" and in my opinion will not penetrate as many "feet of elk" as the 120.

The .308" 165/168-grain Ballistic: Heck, I'd use it.

I've been trying to think back and I've killed maybe three or four cows with the 150 Ballistic in my .30-'06 and it freakin' electrocuted them ... they simply dropped and there was little meat damage and I don't remember any that stopped in the elk. Now bear in mind, the city-slicker (which you ain't) will be thinking about shooting the elk with a Keithian "raking shot" for pity's same. You and I know that if you shoot an elk tight behind the shoulder, even a HUGE one is probably not three-feet from side-to-side and two-feet is more like it ... and that is just thoratic cavity ... not meat.

I'm sure I've killed an elk or three with the 165 Ballistic, but I don't totally recall. For sure, I would have no hesitation, no matter what the Ballistic Haters say.

I remember a real cow elk shoot 'em up I was involved in one year. I've never written about it and it's painful to remember, but prolly every experienced guide has seen good clients go nuts and stuff happen that shouldn't. We won't waste words or talk about where (more for legal concerns), but I was in Steve the Guide mode and we had a [bleep] of wounded cows on a prairie and the hunters were finally told "Cease Firing." Anyway, it was a horrible elk rodeo and I maybe dipped (didn't say I did, but I might have) eight or ten 180 Ballistics into blood that dreadful morning.

These animals were the worst situation; multiple hits, running to get the Hell out of Dodge and one good shooter ... me.

Anyway, however many .308" 180-grain Ballistic Tips it was, it took ONE per elk and each of them died most sincerely dead ... right ... there.

I'll prolly look-see how many more questions. Maybe answer one and be GONE.

Brad, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Oregon and God Bless You.

Steve

Steve, yeah, I'm a ballistic tip fan. Have used them with perfect satisfaction since the 80's!

Merry Christmas and Blessings to you and yours too Steve... nice to see you around!

Steve,

Happy New Year. I sure wish you'd stop by more often.

Jeff, as you know, I've donated all of the money I've earned from my articles to educate young children. Young Catholic Children in Catholic Grade School. I've never kept a single dime and I've also donated WAY more than I've earned beyond that.

If I named bullets that DON'T work on elk, and I can easily think of three brands, I would be cutting of the future possible income from "Steve's Kids."

Like in any business, it's better to make friends than enemies and it's always better to never burn a single bridge, no matter how unlikely you'll ever need to cross it.

I am pissed off with the Firearms Industry and Firearms writing in general, for reasons most here know. But, having said that, there's no telling what the future might bring. I very much doubt that I'll ever write again and it's for damned sure I'll never trust a manufacturer "friend" again, but you never know.

Any time I've mentioned here, on the Campfire, or in an article that a product, bullet or otherwise, was a good one and I was satisfied with it's performance, it was the Lord's Truth. I'm probably one of the few writers who never stretched the truth in print; never became mainstream because I would not sell my soul, but at least I can sit here at my computer and be satisfied that every time I put out an opion or a statement, it was based on my personal field experience and usually not on a single event.

Johnny Barsness is another writer cut of the same cloth and I'm proud to call him my friend.

OK. Enough Elk Abby. I'm back to lurkdom.

Goodbye and God Bless All,

Steve


PS. It may be a while before I visit the Campfire again. Let me leave you with something I know to be true. Some of my guided guys were gun-nuts who knew just every last little thing and some were just plain guys who wanted to learn to hunt elk and later do it on their own ... maybe. Some were decent hunters, a few sucked and a couple were fantastic.

I've seen butt-shooters and gut shooters; Sorry, it don't work. You've simply gotta place the bullet where it will drive the life out of the animal; elk or whatever.

It is the hunter who kills the animal. The rifle, the scope, the cartridge and bullet are simply tools. Speaking as a guide; my finest hunter shot a Remington 700 ADL in .308. He used 150-grain Remingtom CoreLokt bullets for a few years and then went over to Hornady Interlockeds. For part of our hunts together, he used a 4X Leupold and he eventually graduated to a 2-7 Leupold in Weaver mounts. He would simply never shoot over 200 yards and he waited, like I did in Steve the Hunter mode, for the elk to position himself ... then he would simply press the trigger and the WAR WAS OVER.

The last thirty years of my elk hunting were very much the same. Yeah, I knew fracking-everything about the equipment, but it didn't much matter. As long as the rifle is accurate enough to place the bullet (1.5 moa is fine) and the bullet is good enough to penetrate the thoratic cavity or the madulla oblongatta or whatever the hell, it's good enough. And for optics, Leupold never failed for me.

Never forget that it is the HUNTER THAT KILLS and a 70-yard shot beats the hell out of a 200 yard shot. The hunter is patient, he sets up the shot and then he simply executes the big game animal.

Thanks dogzapper, just so happens my 06 shoots hornadys well ( 165 gr). Still i am working up a load for 165 tsx's but its nice to have a backup plan.

Steve
Thanks for sharing your wisdom. It's always nice to read your print.

Take care, hope you have a nice New Year.

Yup