Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Taking my 6.5 Creedmoor for elk...am I crazy??

Hunt elk with confidence with your 6.5. It's about a tough deep penetrating bullet "Properly Placed". We have been taking elk for years with the 6.5. Never a problem. The biggest problem I have seen with new elk hunters is being very rattled when elk are sighted. Try to remain as calm as possible & make sure your brain is squeezing the trigger & that your emotions are not jerking it....

I've killed one bull elk with my 6.5-06 AI at 200 yds. I was shooting 140 Berger Hunting VLD's at 3220 fps. The bullet performed well as it went through both front shoulders and the bull dropped in his tracks. There was more tissue damage than I like typically but he was dead so.....

With that said I wouldn't recommend a 6.5 as an elk rifle even though it obviously can work.

Chalk up one more for the ELDX. My nephew killed his first buck this morning. 7mm-08, 150 ELDX, 250 yards. Double lung and exit, no bone, 9 yard recovery. A piece of lung was poking out the exit hole. I took a pic of the lungs, there’s a hole about the size of a quarter you can see through.




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I think I've taken 8 elk, 5 wolves, and maybe a half dozen pronghorn with the 143 eld-x out of a 6.5x55. The first load I used was slow at around 2680 the new load averages 2815. Ranges have been from about 50 yards to right at about 400. I have been pretty happy with performance and am using the same bullet again this year. I think all but 2 bullets exited. I don't think I would want to push this particular bullet much faster, but at the speed I'm shooting them they perform well and shoot wonderful.

Any luck 300 MAG?

I don’t have any experience with the Creedmoor but the crowd I hunt with generally sneers at the prospect....

Would not think twice about using the CM . Go for it!

I know several hunters in the past who have done quite well with the 260 Remington and the 6.5X55 swede. The 6.5CM is going to do the same thing.
Use a good bullet that will hold together and you will be fine.

Maybe, maybe not but this is just one more reason I don’t own a 6.5 Creedmoor...

“This is one more reason...”. What reason?

I can see many reasons to have one and use it for elk.

It does something really well as it was designed. Shooting elk is another thing. The fascination with the 6.5 has been overblown and although it can kill elk, there are better choices. It still divides people in it’s value as a big game cartridge, and if you disagree you are some kind of crackpot. I continue to shoot elk and will kill plenty with a cartridge better suited for that purpose...

Ok

300 Mag, I have a few 7 mags and one custom 6.5 creed.

The 7 Mags are all rem 700's, custom stocks, bedded, tuned triggers, bedded, freefloated barrels, muzzle breaks on all of them. These remignton 700's are extremely accurate shooting 2.5-3.5" groups at 600 yards.

160g Accubonds with 70-71g of Retumbo, Rem brass, Fed 215, bullet touching the lands shoots clover leafs at 100.

Having said that, We hunted off of mules in Az. I shot cow elk with a 243 loaded with 100g Partitions and H4831 at 3050 fps, Rem 700's. Shots were not long, and all the cows hit the ground within 20' of being hit...they were not scared of the mules and never saw the man sitting on the mule.

With the fascination with the 6.5 along with TV shows that are heavily edited, I would not like to see guys get sucked into a worst case scenario. It is a very hollow feeling to know that you have to chase a wounded elk down into the roughest, rockiest canyon that you could imagine. I could not even get my mules down into some of this treacherous terrain.

Before you pull down on an elk, think of how you are going to get to that animal, and what happens if you make a bad hit. Know your trajectory on up and down hill shooting, especially if you are quartering up the animal and packing them out on your back.

Some broke dicks could not even pack out the meat you will bone of a bull's neck, must less both of the back straps. The same broke dicks will probably bring a leatherman on their belt to help butcher what they shoot! Hind quarters are 200 lbs plus.

Dam, use enough gun! All this internet schitt is just mind blowing with all the minimalist bull schitt! The average joe can barely hit a bull in the azz with a base fiddle! Who are you kidding!

If you are a city guy with a hunt scheduled with a decent guide, pick a 7 RM or a 300 win and get proficient with good elk bullets. City guys with out access to long range shooting, will not shoot like TV EXPURTS!

I wonder how many [bleep] posting this BS have ever trailed a gut shot elk, cow or bull?

Quality ramble there...

Lol on both counts... Merry Christmas.

I'm pissed. I got to thinking about some of the work I had to do because of bad shots. I almost lost a darn good horse because he cut his hock bad in loose rock after he went down the mountain side, I grabbed a tree limb from above and slid out of the saddle.

Had a bear cover one bull with limbs and schitt all over the carcus, that we could not get to until the next day, it goes on and on.

Use enough gun, only take shots at distances that match your shooting skills and distance you want to shoot.

Practice, practice, and Practice

Lighter recoiling rifles = better shooting. Be pissed at yourself maybe?

Folks who use marginal cartridges for elk are akin to fly fishermen who use the lightest tippet possible, except there ain’t much catch and release with poorly shot elk. Short rant.... LOL!

That said, I won’t be using any 6 or 6.5 mm rifles for elk hunting. To each his own conscience. Happy Trails

You really believe the 6.5 CM is “marginal” for elk?

Please explain why, and your experience with 6.5’s that has led you to this belief...

Where did you read that rear quarters are 200# each?