Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Best Elk Cartridge in the World??

These are great post hunting season topics. I don’t know of what’s best, only what has worked for myself and my hunting partners so far. I’ve recently picked up a new hunting partner, my little brother, 20 years old. First year he used his 270 Win on a cow in the BigHorns on public land, the following year he had gotten a 280 Ackley and this year he had Kevin Weaver build him a 300 Win. We looked over a bunch of cartridges he could’ve done and about everything came back to a 300 Win, mainly cause great brass is there for it.

We hunt all DIY public land mostly in Wyoming, Oregon and Idaho. I’m not terribly worried about elk getting shot by another hunter but I do hate when they wander off into the timber since their partners always trample out their sign so dying near by the kill site doesn’t stink.

Anyhow, back to my little brother. We have shot quite a lot since he started elk hunting. He’s a proficient loader now and has learned how to shoot long real well. He used the 200 AB on this bull at 675, it was sort of the classic case of public land elk. They came out about 30 minutes to quitting time. We either had to take the shot or try to come back tomorrow and find a way to get closer and hope they were there. We’d shot that far and further so our dope was solid and I knew he could kill the bull.




So that’s what we did.



We dealt with a bit of wind and his bullet landed just behind the front leg rather than on it, but it still traversed one solid lung and the rear of the other. The bull humped up and he got another round on him, where he dropped.

It’s a tough scenario and I’m quite sure any number of folks with smaller rifles could’ve done the same thing with a bunch of other smaller rounds. I don’t hate them at all. I was glad he had the cartridge/bullet combo he had that day since I hate trying to find elk in the timber. Not saying the 300 Win or whatever guarantees anything, cause it doesn’t but it didn’t hurt us that day.

I used an 06 with 212 ELD this year. I kinda joked with my buddies it was sorta like a 6.5 Creed with some ballz... all kidding aside I think they’re all capable and great but when I’m hunting with a tag I’ve waited a couple years for I mentally stack the deck in my favor. I love the 270 Win/WSM as well. Not many elk I’ve shot they wouldn’t have done great on as well. Same for the 338 Win. It’s been an elk planter for me as well.

It is interesting though, I like seeing what works for others and how they apply them to their hunts.

Happy New Year fellas!