Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Minimum Elk Cartridge

Tha factory ammunition nowadays are like the garanimal clothes marketed for kids.

There will be pictures of animals on the boxes of cartridges.

Buy the box of ammo with a picture Cervus canadensis on it.............money.

Generally you would like in cup and core bullets a sectional density of about .25 or greater. Sectional density is a predictive value of penetration.

You would also look for 2 foot pounds of energy at point of impact. Cup and core bullets use both hemorrhage and " Shock" to harvest.
So a 700 pound Cervus canadensis would require 1400 foot pounds at point of impact.

Bore would most likely be .25 or greater. Just a guess. I am sure a .243 will suffice.

Monolithic bullets require less sectional density perhaps as low as .200 They penetrate more due to keeping their original mass during the path through the animal.

Less foot pounds of energy also is suggested for the monolithic.. Because they maintain mass, they do not loose energy as easily, and depend on hemmorage more than " shock." To harvest.

But velocity to allow the monolithic to " open up" is most likely desired. Opening up makes a petaled almost arrow like broad head projectile moving through the animal. At or around a minimum 1800 fps at point of impact is what most monolithic bullets are published as needing to work to my knowledge.

I also believe monolithic bullet guidelines suggest a .25 caliber or greater also. ( But just a guess)

Certainly these guidelines like any law is meant 2 b broken.

Certainly shot placement trumps speed or power.