Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Success with sub 30 caliber non magnum cartridges

Rock Chuck, I also wonder how many elk are wounded are never recovered and how much long range blasting away contributes to those loses. Maybe we should start a new thread.

We've had threads on it before and they didn't change anyone's mind.

I shot a good size cow this morning with a 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tip out of a 280AI at about 60 yard. One shot, bang-flop.

Both of them are fine. I would go with a light mono in the 7x57 if you think 300+ yd shots are likely. My son killed a cow at 330 yds the other day with a 160 gr Accubond from a 280 Rem.

moose 7mm 25-06

The Federal premium 150gr Partition load for the 270 is poison on elk. My dad and uncle have 20 something sets of ivories to prove it.

I killed my first bull elk with 6mm Rem, though the cartridge wouldn't be my preferred choice for taking elk.

Even though it's a 30 caliber, I'm guessing my grand dad killed more elk with his .30-30 than most of us put together. My grand dad worked for the Forest Service then later a lumber company so he was constantly in the hills. Family lore has it that from the great depression through the war years there wasn't a needy family in Star Valley Wyoming that suffered from the lack of fresh elk meat thanks to grandpa's .30-30.

Shot 2 elk last year with 270 win 150 Nosler Partitions. Non magnums work fine.

4 one shot kills with B-tip 120s. 2 from 7-08 at 300-325 yds. 2 with 280 at 415-425 yds.

Yes. A miss or wounded will never be posted or put up on youtube.............

I't like every rifle for sale these days shoots less than MOA.

Forget the caliber, it's all about the bullet.

Also, when it comes to elk hunting you're most likely to find them at less than 100yds, but be prepared to shoot 400 yds. A "specialized' rifle is not what a guy wants to be carrying on most elk hunts.

One rifle--a general purpose rifle.

So far I've killed three critters this year--bear at 28 paces, cow elk at ~60 yds, and a bull at 40 yds--this is with a 270 and 150gr NPT's. A flat shooting cartridge in a bolt action rifle set up with short range, quick shots in mind.

The first elk hunt I went on I used a 270.

Sample of one, bull elk, approx. 200 yds, 6.5X55, 140 grain Core-lokt ammunition, one shot never moved. YRMV

Yes, of course you can be successful with a sub-30 cal non-magnum if you can hunt and shoot. That doesn’t make a 270 a better elk cartridge than a 338 by any stretch of the imagination though.

I don't have to 'stretch my imagination' to know I don't need a 338 for elk......

I've made several bulls quite sleepy with 140/150 bullts from my .280 Mountain rifle, on distances out to 550 yards. Not much to it if you put bullet in boiler room.

Dave

Hopefully not for lack of hunting/shooting skill. I've seen spectacular one shot elk kills with a 7mm-08 as well as elk shot with magnums and lost, but that doesn't change the fact that the .338 is a better choice if you can handle the recoil and shoot it well.

It's only better in YOUR eyes......

What, you don't believe in physics?

Physics?

Ok lets run down that trail a bit.


Lets say I have to move 1000 pounds of cement blocks to a location at the other end of my land.
And I have a Heavy duty pickup with a 2 ton rating.
I also have a Semi with a 50 ton rating.

Which one is "better" for moving the block,----------- and at what point will the block care?

You see no one is saying the 338 is not more powerful just like no one would say the Peterbilt is not more powerful then the pickup
But that has nothing to do with the job.

The pick-up is powerful enough and my be better for this job if you can maneuver it better.
The cement blocks will never know of care.

Once you get very fast or instant or kills and 100% penetration with good cavitation through an elk, what is to be gained by shooting a more powerful rifle?
I do hunt with more powerful rifles and I kill elk almost every year, as I have done many many decades, but I don't NEED a more powerful rifle. I just like them. If you like them, use them. I do. I love my 375, my 9.3X74R, my 9.3X57 and my 300 mag. But in my near 50 years of killing elk I have never seen any hit with my 300 mags or even my 338s that died any faster then those I killed with my 270.

I have killed a lot of elk with a 375H&H. In fact I have killed more elk with my 375 than any other rifle I own. But I carry it not because it kills elk "better" than smaller guns, but because I think it's a better option to ave in hand when and if I have a mad grizzly facing me when I am hunting elk. But out of the dozens of elk I have killed and the hundreds of elk I have seen killed I can't say a 338 is any "better" at killing them than a 30-06, 270 or 7 Mag, as long as the elk are hit with a good bullet in the correct place.

Please men, don't get illogical here and fall into "thing warship".

We all have our favorites. That's OK and that's as it should be. Right now if I had to name a favorite elk rifle it's going to be a toss-up between one of my 9.3s, my 62 cal flintlock and my 8X57 Mauser is in the running too. But for open country shooting I probably would still grab my 270 or my 300 mag, especially if I have limited time and I can't come back as often as I'd like.

I am to a point in my life that I enjoy the gun more then the caliber. If I have enough to do the job, that's all I care about as far as caliber goes, but the gun I carry has to please me in the hunting and carrying. So I don't really care what caliber I have as much as what bullet it's loaded with. This year my plan was to kill y elk with my 6.5X54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer but broken down vehicles cause me to miss all but 3 days of my own elk season. I have some days coming but time is short now, so I will probably take the 270 or the 300 out--- if I can get out again.

It is an insecure and illogical man that demands that others agree with him on his choice and things, thinks his chosen thing had special merit or virtue over and above the choice of other men's things.

That the way the liberal are thinking and acting today. We see this clearly when it's directed against us so why can't we see it is we start to fall for the same bait?

"Thing warship" is the height of illogic and demanding others agree is a symptom of it.