Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Can this Elk rifle be beat?

My elk hunting has been off and on over the years. I'm presently in my early 80's and plan on hunting this year. I did get a spike only tag for what may be my last hunt and it's for a unit in N.E. Oregon. My first elk hunt was in the 50's and was for a unit on the Oregon coast. I was carrying a Marlin .35 Remington loaded with factory 200 gr. soft points. I was successful and got a spike bull!. Other hunters in the group had .303 SMLE's and other rifles from lever actions to other surplus arms

It wasn't until years later that I resumed elk hunting. I used a sporterized Model 1903 Springfield 30-06 and was fairly successful with 180 gr. handloads. Later on later on I purchased a Remington Model 700 in Remington 7mm mag and developed a Nosler Partition load of 175 gr. which was accurate and deadly. I have been living in the eastern part of Oregon. I have found the 30-06 and the Rem. 7 Mag to be entirely adequate.

Happy Trails!

I know if might not be “real” elk hunting, but when I someday draw a tag for the unit my property is on, the .340 could be pretty ideal. For example, pictures paint the scenario better.

Here’s my camp:



When I wake up in the morning, I can walk about 150 yds west to this rocky mount (viewed east-to-west):



This is what it looks like from the other side below (west-to-east):

July:


January:


When I peek over the ridge in the early mornings, I often see elk and/or deer down below--anywhere from 150 yds away to infinity:


If a giant bull was standing 500 yds away and the winds were not crazy, I likely would be happy to quietly put that .340 down on its bipod and, in the prone, take a well-thought-out and calm shot. For that purpose, the weight of the rifle is irrelevant, and being able to put a 2,575 ft-lbs of whoop-a$$ on him with only 6 MOA of holdover would make sense to me. I know that’s not a common elk hunting scenario, but it might be for me someday.

Also, for you experts, how big do you think this guy would be? For reference, it is next to my size-10 boot, which is 4" wide. Can you tell much from a track like that?

Beautiful land!!!!!

It was a fairly common scenario for me and I loved my 340 for it. Love that kind of country.

I picked up a good deal on the 120 acres a few years ago when rancher, with a $6-million ranch died, and daughter was selling the whole thing, but she wanted some money to play in Europe—now!! Nice views:



Obvious predators on the land:





Big kitty cat visited:

If that rifle is so great and you don't notice the recoil, why did it take 3 shots to bring him down??

He was running fast for nearby cover that went on forever. He went 25 yards before dying. I don’t know if he would have gone an inch further or not if I hadn't given him the two follow-up shots I was able to make before he hit the cover, but in the millisecond I had to choose, I decided that I wasn’t going to try to find out. He was a pretty big guy moving pretty fast. He produced 950lbs of meat on the bone. So, you think, even though I can shoot the rifle accurately at the range, I was flinching from anticipated recoil with that big trophy in the crosshairs? I can't recall any recoil, and it certainly wasn't in my mind when squeezing the trigger. I hit him pretty close to where I intended with all three shots, but a 8"-10" further back only because I didn't lead him as much as I should have given how fast he was moving left to right.

Awesome pics Marinehawk. Nice piece of land you have there.. No flies on your rifle choice either. It's just a little bigger than I prefer, but dang if you can handle it and shoot it well, then it is damn good....

Thanks BSA. Among others, I have the lightweight 7mm Wby for tough backpacking, and also this 8-lb .308, which puts big holes in little things:

Like the New York Mets. 😎

Not with their power hitting.

Went to the range again today, primarily to help my son sight in his .243 Win., but also brought the .340 with the same loads.

This time, I never let the barrel get more than a little warm to the touch.

I shot four 3-shot groups at 100 yds. Here are my last three:

That’s acceptable! 🙂 Now to find a cooperative elk! 😉 memtb

That looks damn good. How's your shooting in different field positions?

I like that 308. Do you mind sharing the specs? I wish mine was 8 pounds sometimes!!!

That 340 packs a lot of azz down range! Nice critter pics too!

Perfect elk rifle? Not for me. I simply don’t feel the need to burn that much powder. I have an old M70 in 280 that goes well under 7 pounds before mounts and scope. About 7 1/2 all up? I’d not fret shooting anything with it, even big bears. I like a lightish, compact gun. On the occasion I get stuck crawling through thick brush or climbing over a stretch of blow downs, it’s nice to have a short and light rifle in hand. No way I would make it through slung.



Great looking land! Good luck drawing that elk tag. What state?

Agreed men, my 338 cal LR elk rig weighs 10lbs all up, doesn't bother me one bit, it's really pretty nice after humping 12-16 lb Sharps rifles around the hills, it fires 338 cal 300 gr Accubonds at 3000 fps, it's one of the ones I sent you a bughole target pic of Beretzs.

Running the numbers on a .7 bc at 3000 fps and 300 grains translates into some really good LR power/wind/momentum numbers.

Thanks BSA.

I practiced lots of field-position shooting for years in the USMC. I still do that when I can a few times a year when I’m on private land. Almost all of the game I have shot has been offhand because that was the only option I had. I usually have a shooting stick with me in recent times, and do practice at the range with those.

The 308 is a DPMS GII Hunter with a 20” barrel. It starts out at 7lb-12oz, and goes up in weight with whatever you add.



BSA, below probably is more information than you desire about it, but I hope you can skip over anything you find unnecessary.

I got it last year after accumulating a bunch of credit card rewards points (largely for reimbursable overseas travel) and converted those to Cabela’s gift certificates. See https://www.cabelas.com/product/sho...er-centerfire-rifle/2042285.uts?slotId=3 I have done that several times, and it feels almost like getting free guns.

I have settled mostly in on the Nosler-loaded 168-gr LRAB loading. My chrono gave me the remarkably-consistent string for that load out of that that rifle: 2,613 fps, 2,615 fps, 2,616 fps, 2,609 fps, 2,612 fps = 2,613 fps avg. I can get 1/2" to 3/4" groups out of it at 100 yds with that factory ammo. A couple reviewers in the Cabela’s link above say they get about the same. I have several semi-auto rifles, including a Colt 5.56mm HBAR and this free-floated M1A:



That DPMS shoots better than any semi-auto I ever have shot. I have not had any failures to fire with it, except when I tried some Hornady Lite reduced-recoil .308 ammo that I was going to allow my sons to shoot out of it. Not enough pressure to operate the system.

DPMS makes a lighter 16”-barreled one, but I’m not a big fan of 16” barrels on rifles shooting high-velocity rifle cartridges, as opposed to carbine or handgun rounds.

These reviews explain the fairly-clever way they got the weight down:

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2015/1/5/downsizing-dpms-gii-ars/ (“This GII Hunter I tested blew me away with its accuracy. I was primarily testing that rifle for our sister publication American Hunter and didn't even plan to include it in this article, but the performance is too impressive to ignore. American Hunter uses three, three-shots groups with three different loads as a test protocol. With the Black Hills 168-gr. load, the first group measured 0.30". That was the best, but the average of three groups was 0.47". The average for all nine groups was 0.80". From an out-of-the-box AR-L shooting factory ammunition, that is very impressive accuracy.”). That guy got the best results with 168gr bullets, which is my experience as well. For example, mine doesn’t shoot the 130gr TTSX bullets very well. I suspect that the author’s groups grew a bit over time from 0.3” to 0.47” because, as suggested above, that tends to happen as barrels get hotter.

https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gun-shots/gun-review-dpms-gii-hunter

https://gundigest.com/reviews/dpms-gii-rifles

This one discusses the same as to the 16” version:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2017/10/jeremy-s/dpms-gii-compact-hunter-gun-review/

Thanks MadMooner. The land is in Colorado. I am going with an OTC tag this year in a nearby unit. And will keep trying to get one for the unit in which my land sits. I did get a bear tag for the unit where my property is.