OK, so what bullets and weights do you choose to use when hunting elk? And why do yyou choose them?
Since you finally asked the question, I’ll answer. My bullet choice is based on a few different characteristics with accuracy at the top of the list followed by low recoil, and as good a BC as I can get with accuracy and low recoil optimized. Shot placement is more important than bullet weight or KE (to me anyway) and those all help with shot placement. Accuracy is obvious but low recoil helps because it means I’ll shoot more and be better with the rifle and BC helps with long shots.
I start with the rifle I want to carry and shoot, not the bullet. I hunt in the mountains and most often while backpacking so I try to minimize the weight of everything I carry including the rifle, the exception being pronghorn hunting. For elk and deer my favorite rifles are a Kimber Montana and a NULA. I bought the NULA for the AK sheep hunt and it’s one of my favorite rifles because it’s very accurate. Again, shot placement is my top priority.
Light rifles are not fun to shoot in magnum chamberings or with heavy bullets so I tend to go with milder chamberings based off the .308 case. Velocity and flat trajectory are not that important with a good repeatable scope, even for long shots. The .223 is not legal for big game where I hunt so that points me to the .243, .260, and 7-08 as giving the best combination of lighter, low-recoiling bullets with good BCs. It’s more difficult to get a high BC in a .243 bullet (and .243 bullets top out at lower BCs than 260s or 7 mms) so that further narrows it down to .260 and the 7-08 for me. And that’s what my favorite two rifles are chambered in, .260 Remington and 7-08, the NULA and Montana respectively.
So once I have the rifle I want in the chambering I want I shoot a few different bullets to see which are most accurate in that particular rifle. I start with bullets I know to be accurate with good BCs which for me lately tends to be the Lapua Scenar. I’ll shoot a few different weights with a few different powders, again, to see which combination is most accurate because bullet placement is most important to me.
In my .260 I settled on the 123 grain Scenar because it’s very accurate in the rifle (the most accurate bullet I tried) and has a decent BC of .525. I worked up the load for my 7-08 before I started shooting Scenars and settled on the 120 ballistic tip because it was very accurate in the rifle (the most accurate bullet I tried) and the 120 has a reputation as a very tough bullet. I own probably 15 rifles and the 7-08 is the lone example where I settled on a Nosler bullet in case you’re wondering. The BC of the 120 BT is not optimum but as I said accuracy is my top criterion. And both the .260 and the 7-08 shoot accurately enough that I’ve killed prairie dogs out past 600 yards. If energy or bullet mass was important to me I wouldn’t have chosen either bullet or either chambering for that matter. The 7-08 is the rifle I take elk hunting when I go for elk with a centerfire which is seldom. I most often hunt elk with a muzzleloader and the bullet I chose for my muzzleloader is once again the bullet that shoots most accurately in the rifle I use, a 348 grain Powerbelt.
My other favorite rifle is a very accurate model 70 re-barreled to 6.5-06 AI with a McMillan Hunter stock. It weighs around 9 lbs. so I don’t take it on mountain hunts but I do use it for pronghorns although lately I’ve been leaning toward the .260. The model 70 shoots bugholes with the Berger 140 grain bullet (great combination of low recoil/high BC) so it’s best suited to long distance shots on the plains where it’s windy. But I like the .260 better for some reason.
There you have it.
