Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Honest elk rifle opinion.

I get the queasies every year I take out anything less than a 300Win, even though I can read all the ballistics charts and Jack O'Connor etc etc. My bottom line, no doubt, go to elk rifle is a tang Ruger in 338Win with either 225 or 250 gr Partitions or Trophy Bonded bear claws. Problem is it weighs 9 1/4 lbs with a Leupy 2.5-8 and it gets heavy at the end of the day. It does drop the elk, however. In contrast, I have killed elk with 7Mag and 30-06 and even a 300Win with first year Accubond 200's and was not happy with the result. They all died, just not as convincingly as the 338. So, what will I carry this year? A 30-06 with 22 in bbl that weighs 7 1/2 lbs and load it with either Hornady interlock 180's or 165s. Will it do the job? I'm reasonably sure it will. Will it give me th absolute confidence the 338 does? No. But like Lefty, now I'm growing old.