Most of my elk hunting has been spot and stalk. I like to spot elk by glassing distant openings early in the mornings, but I've found many of my elk by slowly stalking through the dark timber. For about 20 years I used my horses to pack a camp deep into elk country, and they were great for packing the elk out. I built my first elk rifle, a Herter's Model U-9 barreled action in .30-06 and a Herter's semi-inleted walnut stock, when I lived in NW Colorado. With that rifle I killed my elk with both 150 grain Hornady Spire Point bullets or 180 grain Sierra SP bullets. A few years after I moved to Montana I had that rifle re-chambered to .30 Gibbs and my favorite bullet then was 180 grain Nosler Partitions.
I killed my first elk with a .30-40 Krag and whatever factory bullets my Uncle gave me when I borrowed that rifle from him. I killed my only archery elk back in 1973 with a 10 yard spot and stalk shot with a Herter's recurve bow shooting a fiberglass arrow and a Bear broadhead. I killed one of my best 6x6 bulls with a 117 grain Sierra GameKing bullet from my .257 Ackley in the early elk season while looking for a ram in one of Montana's Unlimited bighorn sheep units. I've also killed elk with my 7 mm Rem mag shooting 160 grain Accubond bullets, and I killed my last two bulls with my .300 Weatherby Vanguard rifle shooting one with a Barnes 168 grain TSX bullet and the other with a 168 grain TTSX bullet.
I don't think that I have killed any elk with a shot over 300 yards.
