Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 270 for Elk

Shot my first elk with a 270 and a 150 gr. Speer Hotcor. No problem, roasted her heart cut into steaks skewered on sticks over a fire in -4 near Pinedale. Second elk with a 150 gr. hotcor out of a 30-06, roasted heart again but had salt this time. Living as a hermit in a small town that had two bars and two churches I teamed up with a guy that had no rifle but a strong back so I loaned him my 270 to hunt with. I stuck with the 30-06 and he the 270 for 6 years. We killed 12 elk with one shot apiece, him shooting the 150 Hotcor and I switched to the 180 Hotcor as I felt the 150 was too soft for elk. I don't know why but I switched to a 338 Win Mag for a couple of years and the first elk I shot with it provided the longest toughest recovery I ever experienced due to bullet failure, no expansion from a 250 gr. Sierra BTSP. The other elk hit the ground quickly. Carl still using my 270 thought my use of the scope killing and hard kicking 338 was funny, killed two more elk with one shot apiece with the 270. So then I traded the 338 in on a 300 Win mag. Two years in a row I carried the 26 inch barreled 9 pound rifle which actually was a fine elk killer but long and heavy. Sadly Carl moved back to civilization. I then started using the 270 still using the 150 gr, Hotcor and took two more elk in two years. I can't really say any of these rifles were better than the other though the 30-06 and the 270 weighed less and kicked less than the magnums. Next year I am taking a 270 loaded with 140 gr. Partitions. Moral; if you have a strong back you can carry elk off the mountain and back to the truck.