Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Minimum Elk Cartridge

As a hunting partner and guide, I have seen just that situation many times when the shooter was subconsciously afraid of his gun and made a less-than-perfect shot as a result.

What Jordan said.

Have guided some for elk myself, both bow and rifle. Placement and penetration counts a LOT more than "power," however power is defined.
Though have often found hunters rate a cartridge's power by how much it hurts them.

Take a big enough and flat enough shooting cartridge, that will match the longest shot possible where you will be hunting, and allow you to make a clean kill.

Tha factory ammunition nowadays are like the garanimal clothes marketed for kids.

There will be pictures of animals on the boxes of cartridges.

Buy the box of ammo with a picture Cervus canadensis on it.............money.

Generally you would like in cup and core bullets a sectional density of about .25 or greater. Sectional density is a predictive value of penetration.

You would also look for 2 foot pounds of energy at point of impact. Cup and core bullets use both hemorrhage and " Shock" to harvest.
So a 700 pound Cervus canadensis would require 1400 foot pounds at point of impact.

Bore would most likely be .25 or greater. Just a guess. I am sure a .243 will suffice.

Monolithic bullets require less sectional density perhaps as low as .200 They penetrate more due to keeping their original mass during the path through the animal.

Less foot pounds of energy also is suggested for the monolithic.. Because they maintain mass, they do not loose energy as easily, and depend on hemmorage more than " shock." To harvest.

But velocity to allow the monolithic to " open up" is most likely desired. Opening up makes a petaled almost arrow like broad head projectile moving through the animal. At or around a minimum 1800 fps at point of impact is what most monolithic bullets are published as needing to work to my knowledge.

I also believe monolithic bullet guidelines suggest a .25 caliber or greater also. ( But just a guess)

Certainly these guidelines like any law is meant 2 b broken.

Certainly shot placement trumps speed or power.

I'm confident that anything I own from the .257 Roberts on up would be sufficient with the right bullet, range, situation, etc. If I had unlimited time to hunt and weeks of opportunity to get the right shot, I'd probably use my .257 Roberts or 6.5 Somethingorother that I don't own or my .308 Win. Since that is not the case and often times my one and only elk opportunity happens at a fleeting moment with a poor angle, in the wind, at a longer range, or near a property boundary; I'm likely to use my 7mm Weatherby or .300 Weatherby, both of which I shoot well with confidence. I'll never have to second guess myself as to whether I brought enough gun. That said, poor marksmanship is seldom overcome with a bigger rifle. Happy Trails

My wife’s first elk (1974), was with a .243 Win. Her thoughts were .....more luck than skill. The next year she graduated to to a .270 Win., which she used until 1995. She then got her “Masters Degree”, by moving up to a .338 WM. She has “zero” desire to “go back in time”! memtb

Very true! memtb

The pictures are there to help guide the potential hunter....however, I personally know some people that apparently are still confused even with pictures. Maybe “grail” is the logical next step for the ammo manufactures! memtb

My .340 Wby ammo came in a box with a picture of a giant 25-foot-long presumably-prehistoric armadillo battling an almost equally-sized mutant opossum next to a lagoon with several purple dolphins watching the action. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

As a guide and hunter, I have also seen plenty of flinching with a 243 and 22-250. The real test is to have them check their rifle before hunting, then hand it to them with an empty chamber and watch what happens...

Good point! Maybe pictures are “not” the answer for suggested game!

Maybe it was the “color” images that add to the confusion! memtb

How does the probability of a hunter being scared of his 270 Win. compare to the probability of a hunter being scared of his 300 or 338 Win. magnum?

Quit bringing logic to the conversation... all that's needed here is raw emotion and non-empirical biases.

Shrapnel, that’s a great training procedure for folks having “flinch issues”! Reduced my son’s ( he was about 14 at the time), by about 50%....in one shot (actually “no” shot). I told him he was “flinching”, which he “adamantly” denied. The major flinch on an empty chamber, was extremely embarrassing and enlightening, to a young man. memtb

I totally agree with shrapnel!

I had a friend tell me that on the range they would put a coin on top of the action.

A friend would hand him a cartridge, sometimes it would be a dummy round. If the coin fell off the rifle after he pulled the trigger and the gun would not fire, it would be a good sign of a unsmooth trigger event.

As a sarcastic side note......I often live in fear of the wife.

But to fear a firearm? They ain't gonna take half!

Like Cramer says on Mad Money. Sell, sell,sell!

I know a few fellows who use the .243, 6mm Remington and .240W all the time. Some have taken huge bulls. I'm of the 6.5/284, 6.5/06, .270 ( I put a properly loaded 7x57 in this class too) crowd with good bullets for minimum. I much prefer my 338 WM. I have used the Barnes 185XLC with perfect results. I like the 210xbt in 340W and would use the 270 TSX in the old 375 H&H today. ( I used the Sierra 300 sbt on a cow elk, it was very destructive. Shot a lot of game in South Africa with the old 270 FailSafe with perfect results.)

I've shot far less elk than some here, mostly because drawing tag here in AZ literally take an act of God. Finally said to hell with it and do a cow elk cull hunt on a ranch in New Mexico. I've taken one elk with a .300 Win. mag, one with a 30-06 and six with a .35 Whelen. I'd probably try my 7x57 given a reasonably decent shot but on the ranch, draw blood and it's yours, win or lose. So usually I take the 06 as back up and use the .35 Whelen. I prefer to hunt cow elk.Mostly because they taste better and second, there's no place in my home with a high enough ceiling to hang the head of a decent bull elk.
Paul B.

I've taken nothing but cows PJ! I really like the late season hunts on private ranchs....much less people and snow everywhere!

Don't skip the part that says, "consider recoil/rifle weight.....be brutally honest with yourself".


My 300 Win. isn't very heavy. It is the top of my recoil tolerance, probably too much.

If I didn't mind weight/recoil, a big 338 would be my "The one."

But, I know my limitations.


It just does not make sense to intentionally ever choose the tool that is taxed for the job.
I will always want more truck than I need, buy a heavier duty hand tool......reserve ability is never bad.

The same applies to recoil. It just does not make sense to intentionally choose the tool that taxes your ability to use it to maximum affect, in other words a gun that kicks too much to consistently make proper hits.

Just like I don't use a 32 ounce framing hammer and prematurely wear myself out, I don't use a rifle that kicks too hard to shoot well.