Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting "bullets matter more than headstamps"...

yet we chase platforms, cartridges, and velocities til the cows come home...

lol

I'm remnded of a guy sitting at home taking it easy but being bothered by a fly.....and instead of dispatching it with a fly swatter, he calls in a barrage of 16" shells from the USS Wisconsin

Wowsers....a read fly, and gets to the campfire to tout the awesomeness of the Naval assault.....

Are you guys snow bound?

Yep! memtb

I thought about this a good deal in the past few weeks. I decided that 3250 fps matters more than 2700 fps...

V means a lot to me...lol

Velocity is nice, but anything over 3000 is probably wasted, the bullet and accuracy to me are most important.

I've killed more bull moose with a .308 Winchester shooting high-quality bullets than most folks have ever seen. I've also killed bull moose with 375H&H, 300 WinMag, 30.06, and 7mm STW. Bullet design and placement is everything - velocity is secondary. If you prefer to shoot at long distances instead of hunting and stalking then velocity might gain some importance. But unless I'm hunting brown bear (I've killed two and have participated in the killing of three more) there's NOTHING a well-placed and well-designed 30-caliber bullet at reasonable (.308 Win) velocities won't do perfectly well on anything in North America.

In my older years I've moved away from anything "magnum"

I think a good balance of velocity and bullet makes the most difference to work well at all distances. Test them on animals enough and you will find this balance.

I doubt that, I've seen a LOT of moose.

But your point about the 308 remains spot-on. And further, elk really don't require more than a decent cup and core bullet at "standard" velocities. I've seen more elk killed with the 270/130 combo than any other... and all those were with factory cup-and-core 130's.

Back to the title of this thread, I'd change it to: "bullet placement matters more than bullets or headstamps"...

Disagree Brad, you cant tell me that a 110 grain Varmint bullet from a .300 ultra mag will matter more than a 180 grainer on moose...no matter where it’s placed.

I think they all go hand in hand.

Don’t bother Tom, Brad knows all!!

Placement: Eye ball.

Ok.
I’ll give you that.
Lol

Yeah, but that's just stupid. Hopefully you know that.

It should go without saying (seemingly not on this forum) that the bullet should be appropriate to the game and cartridge... bullets are so good today, any C&C bullet designed for BG will work at average velocities.

My criteria:

1) Placement
2) Placement
3) Placement
4) Bullet
5) Cartridge

But please, do tell your observations killing elk...

I am with John and 08, well hit and well constructed. BUT i have been fortunate to know/known and hunted with five serious elk" hunters" over my life time. Serious as in, hunters who kill elk nearly every year and sometimes in more than one state, All started out with a 30:06, using cup and core bullets, none use either now. . All moved up primarily because of range. In the days of my youth there were no range finders, no turrets, or scopes with built in datum lines. We studied the charts in the back of the loading manuals, went out to a clear cut and stepped off a distance and practiced over the hood of the truck. If we missed an elk (there were few) they were undershot because of underestimating range. All but 2 of these hunters, now shoot .300 or 7 mm magnums, with turret scopes, carry range finders and practice out to 600 yards. The one that doesn't passed away several years ago, another limits his shots to 300 yards. What our sample has found (some where around 200 elk) is that a premium bullet far exceeds the performance of a cup and core bullet from 20 yards out to nearly 600 yards. And that having the extra velocity/energy will in most cases make up for the less than perfect shot. We use Partitions, Accubonds, and Bitteroots, for our hunting. That's my .02 for this day.

Wow Brad your so smart you know everything.
Oh great one.
My argument was against your comment that bullets matter more.....period! That was your comment.
I posted an example where you would be wrong.
I guess I must have touched a nerve, oh well.
How do I go about worshipping your great vast knowledge of everything?
Please tell.

Damn, only you could twist something so simple...

I've killed elk with:

Partitions
Accubonds
Ballistic Tips
Hot Cores
Interlocks
Failsafe's
TSX's
TTSX's

Only problem I've ever had was with the TTSX and Failsafe, both which didn't open, but still got the job done.

Please tell me your experience?

“Please tell me your experience “

I knew that would be your argument.
Only because you can’t/won’t argue my point on bullets mattering more than the others...
I never said those bullets you listed wouldn’t work...I gave an example where your argument would be flat wrong and hurt your big ego.
Get over it and grow up