Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting More bullet gack - elk in the timber

Rosco great bull. Stuff like the 140 TBBC worked great. My pal used them in 8 Rem Mag.

On angling shots I learned you held with the vertical crosshair through the opposite shoulder. If your bullet were up to it, you'd break the off side bones.

Yep,applying it seems to be the hard part for some..I've screwed it up myself..one time

Here's a 168 TSX I drove at a hard angle through a good 6pt bull from a 30-06 in "the dark timber"... it caught the bullet. Which only goes to prove exactly nothing.

I tend to think the penetration of the 168 TTSX is about like the 180 NP. Me, I'll take the Partition or Accubond over any mono.

You're already shooting a good combo in both rifles. Shot placement/angle has more to do with your problem that the bullet weight. My buddy neck shot his elk broadside with 160 grain Partitions. The elk dropped in his tracks and the bullet exited.

I would worry about other issues that you may have, cause your rifle/bullet combo ain't one of them. Just my 2 cents.

Should of said the bullet is still going the bull not so much.......I've had good luck with the ttsx's so far but I wouldn't call them my favorite bullet!

I inherently thought of a 9.3x62 for a great timber round...250 TTSX or a 286 grain (anything) would punch quite the hole. Tikka makes a forest which is about 7#. Mine zips a 250 TTSX at 2600 fps and shoots better than I do..
Good luck.

I've had and seen enough failures with monos, including a .308 150 TTSX that didn't open on a cow, that I've sworn them off.

Granted I only have 4 elk. 1 with 180 TSX and 3 with 168 TTSX out of 06. I have not recovered one bullet even though one elk got shot in the shoulder.
only TTSX bullet I have recovered is when the neck shot elk was still looking at me when I walked up to him, I put one behind his head at point blank and dug the bullet out of dirt.
I really like the idea of 35 Whelen. Right now thats my next elk rifle as Ive looked up some load data and some guys are pushing 250 grain pills over 2600.

I can't claim a lot of experience with the 35 Whelen but have killed three caribou with mine and 250 grain Partitions. One took one through the lungs at 250 yards and walked in a big half circle toward me pouring blood out like a garden hose. I kept thinking she'd drop and she probably would have but I put a second shot in to anchor her.

The second was quartered to me at 100 yards and the bullet entered in front of the left shoulder and was recovered in the right hip. It dropped at the shot.

The third a quartering away about 150 yards was hit behind the shoulder and exited just forward of the off shoulder. Dropped at the shot.

In each case the lungs were pretty thoroughly destroyed and the two with exit wounds were right at 1.5 inches with little to no blood shot meat on either the entrance or exit. In the old timer's words, "you could eat the bullet hole."

Three caribou with 250 grain Partitions does not make an empirical test but that bullet had already established its stellar reputation before I ever came along.

I'm extremely fond of my 400 Whelen with 400 grain Hawk or Woodleighs and my 300 H&H with 220 grain Partitions but if I had to be limited to one rifle and load for all NA big game it would be the 35 Whelen with 250 grain Partitions.

MtSmith's post made me smile.
I have a Ruger #1 in 9.3X74R and I am deeply in love with it.
So much that I am thinking I should make myself a Mauser in 9.3X62.

In fact, I am trying to get Green Mountain to make a run of .366" barrel blanks. They wrote to me and said they would do it if I can get them an order for 100. So now I am trying to get them to make the barrels if there are 100 barrels to be sold instead of all 100 going to one buyer. I was told they would bring it up in the next meeting. So if anyone out there wants a 9.3 (X57 or X 62 or X64 or X74R) and can do the external barrel work themselves, contact Green mountain and tell them you'd want one (or 2 or 3 or whatever)
I have so far found sales for 35, but that's a long way from 100.

I have a new Mauser M12 in 9.3x62 that I am completely in love with. 21" barrel, 3 position safety, terribly smooth action, iron sights, 5 round detachable magazine that can be filled while in place, very accurate.... I could go on and on

My own feeling is the "Ultimate Elk Rifle" is a 22" bbl'd 338 WM running 210 or 225 Partitions. 6x36 on top. Under 7.75lbs scoped, with sling and rounds.

I've owned this rifle, and killed elk with it, but I really don't want to pack around the Ultimate Elk Rifle (I prefer something about 1 lb less), and I don't really want to shoot it anymore.

So I just use a 6.5 lb 308...

Barring that, I think the "Everyman's Elk Rifle" is a 21 or 22" bbl'd, plain-jane 30-06 running 180 NP's. All-up weight sub 7.75 lbs.

Agreed. My two bulls and two cows shot with a pre'64 .338WM and 225 NP's were all pole axed immediately but now am reluctant to carry a nearly 9 pounder in the mountains. I should add that a nice 5x5 collapsed immediately with a 165 NP from a .308Win. a few years ago. You know what that means.................

I use Nosler 200gr. Partitions in my 300 H&H and Woodleigh 350gr.PP in my Ruger 375.

Yes I do!

Most of my elk have been shot in relatively open country, but I have killed a few up close...with a bow and rifle

While it is not needed, I really think highly of my 375 H&H with 260 partitions. It is pretty heavy though.

I don't think you'll find any notable advantage of .338 rounds over a 200 grain bullet out of a .308 round, but if it gives a guy confidence then go for it.

bwinters,

Of the elk I've killed, roughly 30 of them have been at less than 100 yards. Mostly with a 270 and 150gr NPt's. I prefer an exit hole too--critters seem to get sick quicker and more obviously with two holes.

I also don't buy into the "big slow moving bullet" timber rifle thing. I never know when I'm going to step out of the timber and look across a quarter mile away and find elk. My primary elk rifle is under 7lbs and a 50ft to 500yd rifle.

Two years ago I shot a cow at 25 yds--twice--as she was slightly quartering away, running across an old skidder trail. The 150gr NPt's didn't exit. Muzzle velocity averaged 2865fps. But I've had plenty of other times when I've had exits with the same load that passed through elk (and sometimes bone) and the bullet had to travel further to exit. Who knows why those things happen.........

The 160, 175, and 200 gr NPt's in 270, 7mm, and 30 cal respectively, seem to all behave similarly--they open reliably with excellent penetration. I've killed elk with the 160gr, and elk and moose with the 200gr, and witnessed elk killed with the 175gr. My observation is they do indeed penetrate further.

But the difference between those bullets vs the 150, 160 or 180, could be difficult to really tell a big difference most of the time.

I went to Alaska twice with a 30-06AI, using a 180gr X-Bullet the first time and a 200gr Partition the second time. Killed a caribou and a moose both times. When I came back from the second trip I used the same load to kill two elk, a deer, and a pronghorn. The 200 gr NPt passed through everything.......even the pronghorn.........

You may want to consider the 160 NPt in your 270--especially with the RL-26 or IMR7977. I'm about to try IMR7977 with the 160gr in one of my 270's.

Casey

The 250 Partition penetrates really far in my water jug tests, about 7 or into the 8th jug most of the time from my Whelen. I haven't been able to keep one in any animal.

That's more penetration than the 300 RUM with a 200 AB does or the 300 WSM with the 200 Partition.

I think once you step in the .338 and .358's 250's at 2600-2800 you'll see a lot of penetration along with wide wounds.

No perfect answer but my 700 CDL Whelen is pretty light and I've never found it lacking on elk. With the right set up it'll reach to 500 with very little problems.

I would think that the 150 in a 270 and the 200 in the 30-06 are going to be about equal in penetration.

If you want a Partition to penetrate deeper consistently, you can circumcise them at the top of the partition. This weakens the jacket enough at that point that the entire top will always break off after mushrooming, leaving a smaller diameter shank to penetrate deeper. Ross Seyfried used to write about this.

You can use a little tiny grinder wheel on a dremel. Or much easier, get a nice new sharp small-diameter tubing-cutter, and you can spin it around the bullets to circumcise the jacket.

I would think that the 200 Partition in a 30-06 treated in such a manner would be about the ultimate do-it-all at every range bullet.

The 180 NP from the 30-06 will out-penetrate the 270 150 NP according to Finn Aagaard's excellent tests, so I kinda doubt it.

The 200 NP from the 30-06 is in a different class than most anything from a 270 I believe.

Not that a 150 NP won't get about anything done... and with less recoil.