Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting The 300 Wby Mag for elk- is there anything better?

I used the 139gr Hornady factory load. It always killed well.
I also had a near lifetime supply of factory 160gr Partitions. I ended up giving them to my father in law, who I sold a another 7mm weatherby to.

We're on 50K acres and altitudes ranging from 4500-7500', but I don't think I'll use my 257, even though I am aware it's capable of doing the job. Right now I'm leaning towards a very nice (and relatively light at 7lb) Custom Shop pre-64 70 in 338 with 210 TTSXs, not so much for the caliber, but my wife gave me the rifle a few years ago.

That and a 24" tubed Mauser action Weatherby with 180 TTSXs. Life is about time and money and presently the former is an issue for me. If I was fortunate enough to live in a place like Montana, I'd do this on my own a lot more, but I just don't have the time so I pay. Nowadays about the only spot and stalk I do on my own is for hogs, because the Okeefenokee Swamp is about a 20 min drive from my office. The price one pays for being a flatlander and a wife that's high maintenance. I have to work, even though I draw a nice retirement, but there it is..

I alternate between DIY and guided. Although when I go guided it's on public land. Mostly do it because I enjoy riding horses in the mountains. I also am lucky that I live in a rural area and can rifle hunt 5 minutes from my door, although the deer have been sparce the last 5 years.

Ours will be on horseback as well. We have a place in the mountains of central PA that is surrounded by a state forest (Rothrock) and it is beautiful. Two more years and I'm retiring for good and finally going to Alaska to hunt. My favorite place by far though, is still Africa, not only for the game of course, but the whole Africa experience.

Jorge, I think I'd be tempted to pack that 338WM!

What state is your hunt in?

Brad, do you feel there is any difference between the 338 and the 300 magnums?
My father, who hunted extensively believed there was very little if any differance. He prefers stepping up to a 375.

I have killed elk with a 300 Wby, sadly those days are over. In the area where I hunt, grizzly's rule the woods. I consider the 300 Wby borderline on deterring an bear attack. If I hunt elk now, I take a 358 Norma. If I ever draw a tag in the lowlands (where there is a herd of about 35-40 elk), I will be comfortable taking my 300 Wby again. However - nothing says "watch my back while I quarter this" like a 250gr 358 bullet.

It's still a .30-caliber bullet launched faster than some other .30-caliber guns. You can do the same with a .300RUM, and several other and equally faster .30-caliber rifles. You can also kill just as dead with a .308. .30-06, and so on. All you have to do is to close the distance before you fire the rifle.

There are other calibers that have just as many if not more bullet selection. For example, the bullet weight for .33-caliber bullets start at 165 grains, and ends at 300 grains.

Here is the subject 338, it sports a different scope now, a 2.5X8X36 Leupold and I have an ill Zeiss 2X12x50 that is set up if I ever get to that leopard blind (it's too heavy!).
As the the 338/375 issue, I'm just not seeing toting a 375 around here in this continent unless it was the big bears, and even then, a 338 will suffice and it shoots a bit flatter too.

Never hunted elk, but use a Ruger .338WM topped with a Leupold Vary-XIII 2.3-8x (same as yours) for all my hunting in Alaska where I live. After using the heavier bullets up to the 275-grain A-Frame and down to the 235-grain FS, I have settled to the 225-grain Barnes 3-Shock tipped (the one with the blue tip). I load it close to 2,800 fps at the muzzle using the online Barnes data.

This moose season I will be using a Ruger .338 WM Hawkeye African version, but with a synthetic stock to avoid scratching the walnut one. Also, it does not have a muzzle brake like the one shown below:
http://www.ruger.com/products/HawkeyeAfrican/specSheets/47120.html

I don't imagine a 300 Weatherby doing a mountain Grizzly any good. Across the valley from where I hunt in MT has the distinction of the area with the most grizzly attacks on hunters. Mostly during bow season. In 7 years of hunting out there I have never seen a bear track, be it grizzly or black. I have seen cat tracks, which frankly I am more worried about than grizzlies.

I agree with Ben's dad and probably came to the same conclusion about the same time...think we are about the same age.

I killed most of my elk with the 300 Weatherby and 300 Winchester, including some out to 450-500 yards. The 300 WM starting a 180 gr at over 3100 made those bulls go rubber legged. Some collapsed like they were dynamited.

The 338 is sort of a slugger,medium velocity medium bore cartridge. It give 250 gr bullets the same velocities a 375 H&H does with 270's. Good 250's are easily driven over 2900 fps from the 375 H&H and shoot as flat as any conventional 338 bullet. The 375 holds the same advantage in diameter/expanded frontal area over a 338 bore, as the 338 does over a 30 caliber, FWIW. I think it counts in favor of the 375 bore.Some may not agree.

On these same hunts I had companions with 338's and 340's shooting 210-225 partitions and I could really not see much difference between the 338's and the 300's on any bull elk fairly hit.

But Partitions are great equalizers among cartridges, the performance being so consistent caliber to caliber that terminal results can sometimes be hard to distinguish.



The "secret" as distances stretched was forget the lung shots and plant the shots on bone for more dramatic ,even if not always immediate), results. A bull elk that will shrug to a lung hit will likely not do it with a shoulder shot angled into the boiler room for maximum effect.

I came to prefer the high velocity of the 180-200 gr bullets from the 300's over the 338's. A light 375H&H filled in from there.

As to the mountain grizzly and the 300 Weatherby, my half assed view is the 300 Weatherby will make very short work of any grizzly. I had heard this but got to see it first hand on a good sized Alaskan brown bear killed by a companion. One 180 gr Partition from a 300 Weatherby killed him pretty instantly. There is no big bear I'd hesitate to shoot with a 300 Weatherby.

The 300 with good bullets is a fabulous killer.

The most popular cartridges in Alaska are the .30-06, .300WM, and .338WM. The 7mm Magnum comes next. The .375H&H is usually favored by the coastlines, probably because of the larger bears, but overall is vastly outnumbered by the other calibers. For the interior of Alaska where shots can be longer, the .338WM is quite nice. For close work you can use a 250-grain, or maybe a 275-grain A-frame. For the average hunting distance from 50 yards to 300 or so you can use a 225-grain to perhaps 250-grain, and for small game such as pronghorn past 300 yards there is nothing wrong with a 180-grain loaded around 2,900 fps.

By the way, when it comes to penetration, a 250-grain .33-caliber bullet has great SD. Take a look:
http://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_SD_list.htm

Ray the 338 is good.I have had several and hunted with them.

It's my favorite

Three of the friends I hunt with in September used .300's (two .300RUMs, and one WM). The other uses a 7mm Magnum, and I use a .338WM loaded with 225-grain 3-shock tipped.

SD is pretty meaningless with expanding bullets.

All depends on bullet design. Of bullets that are similarly constructed, lets say two Nosler Partition of the same caliber, one heavier than the other. The one with the greatest SD has the potential for deeper penetration.
http://www.chuckhawks.com/sd_beginners.htm

Better explained here (more details):
http://www.chuckhawks.com/sd.htm

That would depend on the location of the partition.

I think the big 33's (338 WM/340 WBY) make more visual impact than the 300's. Guides like that because they can see hits better.

As far a killing difference, I think there's absolutely none.

For me, I like 22" barrels and the 338 WM works perfectly at that length, while not needing to be more than 8lbs all-up. A 300 WM/WBY should have at least a 24" bbl., and apples to apples will weigh a bit more (around 1/4lb) than the 338.

I find the 338 WM with 200's/210's about the same recoil-wise as the 300 WM with 180's.

So for me, a 22" bbl'd 338 WM stoked with 210 Partitions weighing around 7.75lbs all-up is the "ultimate" elk rig.

But that's years back. I haven't toted a 338 WM for over 10 years. I'm perfectly happy with 270/308 class cartridges. "Ultimate" is overrated...

Brad,
Years back when Allen Day shot the two buffalo using his 300, the ammo was factory WW using 180gr Fail Safe bullets. We had many phone conversations about that hunt as well as the ones we made together.
As for Echols not using freeborn in his Legends chambered to 300Wby, this is not completely true. He typically short throats them but one cannot load ammo that touches the lands and have it fit in his mag boxes. And they can handle most all of the Wby factory ammo w/o pressure troubles.