Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting What - Rifle,Scope, Caliber, Bullet Are You Taking For Elk?

I love that combo as well. Excellent all the way around. Good choice in rifle, scope and bullet...

BSA, for the 3rd year in a row, I'm going with something smaller, a 250...grainer that is! memtb

Geez memtb, you and your wife pack a lot of lead.... .... I had my 338wm out of the safe yesterday, a buddy wanted to check it out. He's talking about going to Idaho for a cow hunt this December. He was telling me a story about losing a nice bull last year, while using his 308win. He said he shot, there was no sign of a hit and the bull ran off. He went to see if he could spot blood, but there was nothing. He looked around the area for a few hours. The farmer (who witnessed the shot) that owns the property told him he didn't hit the bull and to keep hunting, so that's what my buddy did. The next day, they saw birds circling the same area and they went to investigate and found the bull about 300 yards from where my friend thought he hit him. Now my friend is a little reluctant about using his 308 for elk and wants something that will "leave a blood trail". I'm sure the 308 would if you use the right bullet, but he's convinced he needs a "magnum" now.... I told him my 338 isn't for sale too!!!

Did he fill you in on the actual shot placement?

This year I'm using a Fitty Cal!

TC Muzzleloader with a Redfield 2-7.

I had originally planned to take my 300 Win Mag but have decided to take my CZ 550 American 9.3x62 instead. My backup will be my Ruger M77 358 Win. Both are topped with identical Leupold VX II 3-7x33's. We are hunting CO 3rd rifle season near Pagosa Springs and depending on where we end up, the 358 Win may get some use. I am very comfortable with both rifles.

I am in the process of working up a new load using 250 gr. Barnes TTSX's (just can't find 250 gr. NAB's) for my 9.3. I will be trying MD's reloading formula, or a close approximation thereof. If for some reason the Barnes don't shoot well, I will stay with my 286 gr. Norma Oryx's. I'm sticking with 225 gr. Nosler Partitions in my 358.

BSA, I've kinda been a larger bore enthusiast most of my life...started reading Elmer Keith articles when I was pretty young! when I met my wife, she was an avid hunter. So, we started talking of Africa and Alaska. I was already shooting a .375H&H, so we stepped her up to the .338 WM. It took her a little while to get comfortable with it,but it is now her "only" rifle for hunting. I guess she's comfortable! Two or three stock market corrections later.....it doesn't look like we're going to make Africa or Alaska. But...those calibers still work here! memtb

Been monkeying around with smaller calibers.....

And the larger calibers.....

As compared to the .308 caliber...

Had better luck with the larger in a way.

I have been using a 300 savage with 160 grain FTX with good results.

But me thinks a 180 to 200 grain .308 is good elk medicine.

Remington 721 30-06
165 gr NPT
Vortex 2.5-10

Man, I love that #1 in 375. Mine is not so classic.

I killed my last two bulls with this #1 in 7mm STW. It was loaded with the Hornady 162 gr BTSP at 3200 fps MV over H1000. The scope is a nearly forty year old Burris FF II in 4-12x42. My new load is similar with the 160AB.

While I might admire the 375 with the RN bullets. I would not be comfortable using it in my favorite terrain. Both of these bulls were killed right at 400 yds, terrain lazered in advance. I only need to hold a few inches high on the chest for the heart shot. They fell about 200 yds apart during the same week of consecutive years.







Not me, that's my hunting partner Rex with the bull I killed.

98 Mauser in .280, 150 LRAB, Cabela's Covenant scope.
May take 6.5 Creedmoor for backup, if it comes in soon, otherwise, a 1903 Springfield .280 with 120 B-Tips and a Vortex.

Idaho Shooter, I've thought for years that the Roger #1, Laminate, Stainless is one of the prettiest rifles ever produced. memtb

Thanks, evrything I use came in SS and laminate or has been restocked in laminate and/or rebarreled to SS. They would be in Mcmillans if I could afford it. I think the plywood's greatest beauty is in its function. Nothing is as pretty as natures own fine walnut.

On the snowy elk hunt shown above, my buddy was carrying a Belgian Browning BAR in 7RM, blued and walnut. He is a rifle user rather than a rifle lover. And, of course the Browning was blue and walnut. Five days of constant snow took its toll on his rifle. The next year he took another new looking Belgian BAR, in 30-06. We ßpent ten hours horse packing in driving rain and sleet. The wind even drove the rain in throuh the zippers of my vynal duffle bags and soaked the spare clothing and my sleeping bag. His BAR was in a leather scabbard which got thorouhly saturated, and I failed to think about telling him to pull it out of the scabbard in camp. That rifle spent 48 hrs in the soaking wet leather. I have not seen it since, so I do not know if he was able to do anything for the rusty finish.

SS and synthetic or laminate does have its place.

Idaho Shooter: Thank YOU for sharing those outstanding pictures of your Hunts/Rifle!
Good for you.
Congratulations on the dandy Bull Elk and for finding that "honey hole"!
Posts and information like yours are why I enjoy the Camp Fire and put up with the few "buttfubarkis that troll our ranks.
Again good for you and thanks.
Good luck THIS season.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I cannot take much credit for "finding" the honey hole. My family has been killing game from this ridge for seventy years. I was first shown the way in, toddling along behind my Dad's horse when I was six and my five year old sister grabbing my coat tail on every hill expecting me to pull her to the top.

This particular canyon filled our freezer each fall for many, many years. And produced saddle galls on numerous horses packing the meat home. I can not begin to count or relate the number of deer and elk my Mom, Dad, several Uncles, cousins, and I have killed within a few hundred yards of where these two bulls fell.

It is that long pack out with the meat which preserved the sanctity of the location, but wolves scewed it up in short order.

Main gun,
Tikka 06 168 ttsx 3.5-10 vx3 CDS
Back up
Tc venture 270 130 ttsx vx2 3-9 CDS
Next year I'll have my 9.3x62 as main elk gun and the 06 as a back up.

Idaho Shooter: Wow 70 (seventy!) years - good for your whole family then!
Those kills back then I bet a lot of them were made with the good old 30/06 and other "non-magnum" calibers?
Wolves... don't get me started!
I hope your family keeps after'em for at least 70 more years.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Memtb: I have always kind of kept it kind of quiet from the "traditionalists" around here but I too GREATLY admire the looks of laminated stocks and stainless barrels!
I have several Remington 700's (LSS's and VLSS's etc) with the laminated gray stocks and stainless barrels actions along with two very beautiful Ruger #1-V's that have stainless heavy barrels and gray laminated stocks. One in 204 Ruger and another in 22-250 Remington.
And these two Ruger #1-V's shoot quite well also.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

If I was going, and hopefully someday I can go. I will take my M70 Featherweight in 6.5 Swede, and my BLR Lighting in 30-06. I don't have a scope on that one yet.

If a guy lives in central Texas, what would be the closest and most reasonable place to go?

I'll be using a Ruger Hawkeye M77 in 300WM with an old Leupold 2x7. Plan on 180TTSX at about 2950. Getting excited, season is coming quick! Wonder if the elk and weather will cooperate....