Hunterbug,
I believe the 25 06 will do the job quartering away at 300 yards...but I'd much rather be a good enough hunter to get with in 100 yards myself-out to 250+ yards it kind of becomes a shoot instead of a hunt, no?
A shoot instead of a hunt? Not necessarily, no. But you say you�ve never hunted elk before, so I understand the question.
You may be lucky to SEE an elk, let alone get close to one, especially if you are not familiar with the territory or the habits of the local elk population. When you do find an elk, the shot may be near or far and you may have all day to set up your shot or mere seconds. You might spend all day stalking your elk only to have another hunter stumble into the area and take a shot from another angle, ruining your opportunity. In short, a 250 yard shot might be all you get and you might (and probably will) work darn hard to get it.
Case in point, a few years back we spotted a herd of about 80 elk bedded down on a knoll below us. The country was open sage. We crept up to a ridge and watched them from behind a sage bush from 11:00 until dusk, at a range of about 500 yards. Try as we did, we could not figure out a way to get closer. While we watched we were overrun by antelope, rained on, sleeted on and snowed on. They started moving at dusk, off the knoll and into a valley below it. Again we got as close as we could, about 450 yards. I laid down on my back and pushed myself head first through the snow, sage and cactus for another 100 yards. Slowly sitting up, I was able to find one legal bull but it was laying down behind a cow � no shot � and shooting light was going fast. They finally got up but the bull stayed behind the cow. I followed them with the scope and when the cow stopped I took the shot � 350 yards as measured with a GPS and mapping software. That shot came after days of hard but unsuccessful hunting and was the only opportunity I had to take a bull that season.
My last bull was taken at 213 lasered yards, again in open sage. A herd of maybe 60 was strung out and on the move. I had no time to pull out the shooting sticks and simply took a knee. A break appeared in the line of elk and a bull stopped in the middle of the line. I lined up the crosshairs on its shoulder and just as I was about to drop the hammer on the .45-70 a larger bull ran up and stopped, chasing the smaller one away. I switched targets and sent a 350g North Fork on its way, and got my bull. Had I tried to get within 100 yards the elk would have been in the next county and I would have gone home empty handed.
On the other hand, I�ve had elk hunts where I was nearly run over by one. You�ll need to decide what you want to do if a long shot is presented and prepare accordingly. I practice out to 400 yards and have no intentions of letting a legal animal go just because it�s outside knife range � I love elk meat and work far too hard all year so I can spend a few days trying to get some.
