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

Combo worked great once again, this time on a spike shot in a fog/snow storm Monday morning at 9500 feet. Only 20 yards though so most anything would have worked...

Huntsman22: Well after all that you deserve an accurate Rifle and a good Elk this fall.
The Elk in my neck'o the woods started moving onto private ranches about 10-15 days ago.
Saw a great 6x6 on a ranch not 5 miles from my home last Saturday as we were returning from an Antelope venture..
Would have been a 400 yard shot from the paved county road!
I pulled over and myself and my two Antelope Hunting partners watched him and his herd (80 animals) for several minutes - some bugling still going on.
There were 4 branch antlered Bulls (the one nice 6x6 and 3 "raghorns") and 5 or 6 "spike" Bulls in that group of 80.
We began musing on what caliber to "take the shot" we would prefer.
The 300 magnums won out on that long "imaginary" poke.
Perseverance pays I am glad you got the Rifle operational.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy.

MikeS: Its rare in my neck'o the woods to get a 20 yard shot in Rifle season.
So you are probably right most any caliber would have worked there.
In my Elk Hunting areas though, the Grizzlies are becoming quite commonplace and have a habit of showing up at both archery and Rifle kill sites of recent.
So I stay with the "minimum" (in my mind!) which is the 7m/m Remington Magnum with 160 grain Nosler Partitions - in case of Bear encounters.
My other option this year is my 338 Federal with good game bullets - haven't heard of any of my cohorts who have shot Grizzly with the 338 Federal as yet but I sense it would be good Grizzly "medicine" with a couple of well placed shots.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Sako A 7 in 30-06

I have a week left to decide.

1. SS Classic M70 300Win in McMillan Supergrade shooting 200gn TSX's, I've killed 9 elk with this rifle, 7 of them w/200TSX's and 2 before that w/200gn Partitions.

2. SS Classic M70 Fwt 270Win in McMillan Fwt pattern shooting 140gn TSX @3050. This rifle is exceptionally accurate and dependable. I've killed a boatload of deer, 2 caribou, let my cousin kill an elk with it but I've never shot an elk with it. It's probably the last rifle I'd part with.

3. SS Classic M70 Fwt 270Win in Brown Precision stock shooting 140gn TSX @ 3050. I bought it used ~18mo ago and finally made the time have it ready for this fall. This rifle is every bit as accurate as the other Fwt, but, I haven't killed anything with it yet.

4. Kimber MT w/1:8 twist Lilja shooting 150gn ABLR @ 3050. This rifle worked well on an elk and 2 deer last fall.

and a report: one shot at about 120 yards, one dead elk. High lung shot, bullet exited. Elk ran about 40 yds. Both lungs were very well centered. What I expected.

Nice! Big holes in animals are very effective! memtb

Horse1: I would go with "option" number one - the Model 70 in 300 Winchester Magnum!
Proven "Elk medicine" that one.
By the way what caliber is option number 4 - 270 Winchester?
Good luck and enjoy your blessings with so many options.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

No more wondering for me. Work schedule has had me too busy to focus on elk and until yesterday I was thinking I had two more weekends at home. Nope, Leaving this coming Sunday. Have a Unit 3 second season cow tag, which will be worthless unless the migration is on, which is unlikely. Three days to hunt that tag followed before my cow tag for Snake River Ranch is good for 5 days there.

Plan to get to the range one more time with the Ruger MKII boat-paddle .300WM and 175g LRX, which will be my primary and stainless MKII boat-paddle .338WM and 225g AccuBond for my backup.