Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk Rifle

Any of the 4 you list are fine, and the 308 and 30-06 are close to perfect.

Personally I recommend a bullet that is excellent for 97% of the kills you'll make in your life, instead of the 3%

In other words, stay away from the "long range bullets" that work wonderfully at 500 yards and farther, but not as good as the old standards from 500 and closer. I have killed enough elk that I can't count them easily, but the very longest shot I have made in 40 years on an elk is 400 yards. The next longest kill I have made on an elk was about 175 yards. ALL my others have been at 125 or less with most of them being at 65 yards and less. My closest was about 8 feet.

In my 40 years of hunting and guiding for elk hunters I can say that any "deer rifle" from a 25-06 and up is OK for elk, if you load "elk bullets" in them. My daughter and both my grand-sons have killed elk with a 257 Roberts,and none of them have needed 2 shots. They all used 120 grain Nosler partitions except for one elk that was killed with a 115 grian Barnes. All had exits and all fell withing 15 yards of where they were hit.

It's not so much the gun or the shell you need to worry about. It's the bullet that makes the bullet hole, and it's the bullet hole that is killing the game. The simple truth is that a bullet used on elk should exit and make a hole in a nearly straight line that is 1" or larger in diameter. Any bullet that does that will kill elk as well as any other cartridge you can name. Bullet that come apart can result in very dramatic kills but they are also the ones that do erratic things in the bodies of game animals and cause difficult tracking stories and sometimes lost game, even when the bullets are placed well. "Electric shock kills" 85% of the time with 15% being unreliable is NOT as desirable as 100% good kills in which you get exits, and the elk never go more then 25 yards. The "electric shock kills" impress a man because they look so dramatic, but overall, if they are happening with bullets that come apart and don't exit, you are just playing the odds and sooner or later your broken up bullet is going to fail your expectations.

A bullet that expends,never breaks up more than 40% of it's weight, and always goes clear through is far more reliable overall. If the elk falls instantly (many do) that's great, but if they run and fall, they will do so only a short distance away from where they were hit, leaving a blood trail a blind man can follow.

I am speaking form experience here as a hunter and guide, and I would FAR rather know my hunter has a bullet that will go clear through than any of the new "long range" bullets I have seen used so far. Many of them will not exit an elk. I am sure some will, and time will tell what kind of track-record they will give us, but if you are coming from out-of-state and spending hard earned money on these hunts, I would advise you to use a partition bullet, an expanding solid bullet ( X or GMX or the like) or any bonded bullet.
Some of the newest offerings may be OK, but then again they may not be. The ones I have seen used in the last 5 years have not impressed me much so far. If you use the ones I recommend you are going with a combination that is proven. Let those that don't have to risk the time and money you would risk do the experimentation. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" applies very well in your case.

The rule of thumb is that your bullet should weight 60% (or more) of it's unfired weight when it stops. Even if it hits bone.

Bullet construction is Key. Just going bigger is not always an answer.
I have personally seen 270 grain 9.3MM Speer bullets fail to go deeper than 5" in small deer when fired from a 9.3X74R. that's a gun and cartridge that is supposed to be a top choice for big bears, buffalo and bison. (Yes that 5 inches, and it was measured with a ruler, not just guessed at. The wound was oblong and 7" long at it largest point, but just under 5" deep) A poor hunting bullet is a poor hunting bullet no matter what it's fired from.