When I started elk hunting I used a 30-06 and the 150 gr. Speer flat based spritzer Hotcor, one shot apiece on three elk in a row. All were broadside in the ribs around center right behind the shoulder. All three bullets were either in the far ribs or against the hide. My also young at the time hunting partners were using mostly 150 grain Remington or Winchester factory loads, the cheap stuff. We tried to pick our shots and did well generally. My 4th elk was a pretty nice 6 point and I made the mistake of leading him just a bit too much and hit him in the shoulder, the bullet did get through it but the wound channel was narrow and this elk went a long way before going down. Thank God for snow. And the fact we got a snow machine right next to him. Got pretty cold cleaning him after dark. I switched to 180 gr. Speer Hotcors for a couple of elk making every effort to not hit a shoulder and even making a neck hit which dropped it. I shot another elk in the shoulder in thick timber south of Bondurant. This bullet ended up looking like a 30 caliber wadcutter under the hide on the far side. Another pretty long tracking job and we found this one had crawled up under some willows and chopping that away was a real lesson in hard work. After that I used Partitions on elk in both my 30-06 and a 270. What do you know I started getting some exits. So do you have to use premium bullets no you don't. I will use them on elk if I can every time. I went on to play with 300 Win mag, 7MM Rem mag and a 338 Win mag. I used Hornady 175 gr. interlocks on one elk, a 250 gr. Sierra Gameking on another which turned out to be the most epic elk recovery of my life and rest assured I could not get that done at this stage of life. I used a 200 gr. Partion out of the 300 Win Mag and guess what? Text book hit just behind the shoulder, out the far side and elk went 30 yards downhill. We were able to back the truck up to the hill and after we cleaned him easily slid his big arse into the truck! Perfect bullet performance. I went back to using my 30-06 and shot my 20th elk with it in 2017. Odd thing I used the 270 occasionally and every elk shot with it went down quickly and with no drama. 150 gr. Partitions after I switched from 150 gr. Speer Hotcors but both bullets worked really well. Maybe the 270 was just a lucky rifle.

Dog I rescued in January

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