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

I’ve long been a believer that the launch platform is relatively unimportant and that the important thing is to place a good bullet in the right place.

My first elk was a big spike back in the early 80’s, broadside at about 100-110 yards. I centered a rib with a 162g Hornady BTSP with my 7mm RM. It came to rest under the hide on the far side after missing the far ribs entirely or barely nicking one of them. Retained weight was something like 47.7%. Although I was a complete noobie at the time, that performance didn’t impress me. The next year I switched to 160g Speer Grand Slams and used them exclusively for 20+ years. They killed well and I didn’t recover one until the last year I used them. That one was from a 5x5 bull on a 100-110 yard broadside and it had destroyed both shoulder joints before coming to rest under the hide, exposed but still in the bone. Retained weight was 70.7% IIRC. About that time Speer change how the Grand Slams were made and I switched to a true bonded-core bullet, the North Fork SS, which has provided excellent accuracy and on-game performance from my 7mm RM, .300WM and .30-06 rifles. Several years ago I gave all my remaining 160g Grand slams to my hunting buddy and, as it turned out, took my 6x5 bull last November using his 7mm RM loaded with one of those Grand Slams. Range was 411 yards on a quartering away shot. The results were 4 steps and down.

These days I have settled on three bullets for big game – Nosler AccuBond, Barnes TTSX and North Fork SS. While I have yet to recover an Accubond or a TTSX (or its predecessor the MRX), I have recovered some North Fork bullets. Mule Deer once wrote in response to one of my posts that (I’m paraphrasing) he couldn’t see using the North Fork bullets because of their relatively poor B.C. Poor B.C. or not, they shoot flat enough from my .280 RM (140g), 7mm RM (140g and 160g), .30-06 (165g) and .300WM (180g) for use at 600 yards, the limit of my practice and as far as I’m willing to take shots because of that practice. In practice, my longest shot ever on big game has been 487 yards and that used a poke-a-long 225g AccuBond form my 22” .338WM. What I’ve found is this:

Nosler AccuBonds – Two elk and an antelope, all with exits. One of the elk went 20-30 yards, the other maybe 10-15. The antelope went maybe 20 but all were dead on their feet once the AB entered the rib cage.

Barnes TTSX (and MRX) – One elk, a few steps and down. Multiple deer, including two lengthwise, all straight down DRT. Multiple antelope, most straight down DRT. A notable exception is an antelope that ran about 20 yards.

North Fork SS – Multiple elk. Most went straight down at the shot. A couple managed to get back up but couldn’t go anywhere. (I approached one and finished it off at 10 feet as it stood watching me. The other I shot as soon as it stood back up. In both cases all I did was hasten the inevitable.) Some bullets exited, some hit heavy bones and did not. The only elk I’ve ever lost was hit with a 140g NF from my 7mm RM and, according to evidence on both sides of the blood trail, too far back and high, a liver hit. That bullet exited even though the range was 389 yards. I don’t blame the bullet but rather the placement. The North Fork bullets have been consistent performers and I continue to use them in my .280 Rem, 7mm RM, various .30-06, .300WM and .45-70 rifles.

Here are some of the North Fork bullets I have recovered:





From left to right:

.30-06, 165g North Fork @ 2800fps
500yds from dirt, 145.0g retained

.30-06, 165g North Fork @ 2800fps
~25yds from cow elk, 133.2g retained after hitting a rib and leg bone

7mm 140g North Fork @ 3200fps
~150yds from buck mule deer, 131.2g retained after going from ham to sternum


Water jug bullets.

The bullet to the left of the hardcast is a 350g .458” North Fork (6 jugs) fired from my .45-70. The far right bullet is a 180g Barnes MRX (7 jugs) fried from a .300WM.

Granted, water jugs are different than animal flesh and bone, but it is a consistent test medium the results are often similar enough to on-game performance to be informative if not definitive. In any case, hunting bullets that come apart in water are of no interest to me except for varmints.