Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Larger 30 Cals for Big Game...Still GTG?

Elk, I owned one for several years...Made my farthest one shot on a nice bull with it. 842 yards with a Barnes 180g TSX. I actually sold it after putting almost 460 rounds through it - thinking barrel life might be getting close to expiration. 😎

Barrel life or shoulder life?!

Shot plenty of targets and game up to and including elk. I used 200 grain AB's, Partitions and TBBC's , all resulting in nice dead bulls with one shot. Closest was 48 yards, longest was 250 yards. Not a single case of bad or marginal performance ever.

For deer I used 180 grain AB's and thile they performed well, their terminal performance suggestedtgat I might be better suited with a faster opening BT. We have large bodies whitetails here but still, I didnt need anything more than a BT in my 300's.

My most recent experiment involved trying a 190 grain VLD in my Colt Sauer 300 Win Mag. It really liked that bullet on paper and I wanted to see what it would do on whitetails. Most of my shots with this rifle were in the 300 yard range on our large agricultural fields. Last year I had a "contract killing" for a large doe at the end of the season. A lady in our church loves deer meat and her husband was recently deceased. I was glad to help out. 390 yards away is a big ol nanny goat doe, about 180#. A head on shot put the bullet right where you tie your bow tie. She runs maybe 50 yards and falls over. Make my way to her and she appears gut shot....guts blown completely out. What? I found that the shot was placed very good, with the bullet riding just under the backbone and lodging in her right ham. It was the hydrostatic shock that "gutted" her. The shock of the VLD impact, and traveling through her, had unzipped her belly along the way. Crazy what bullets will do sometime.

I have never lacked anything using a 200 grain Partition from my 300 magnum. In fact, not from any of them 2 of which were 308 Norma's.

The idea that because a few companies bring out bullets with higher BCs that somehow the old tried and true "gold-standards" that worked so wall for 60-70 years or more, suddenly stop working is just idiotic.

But never fear, there are a LOT of idiots to carry that flag forward.



You will do just fire Beaver10. Just like about a million other hunters who used the flat base Noslers and other older bullets........ that never gave any problems.

Barrel life or shoulder life?!

I'm in the medium to medium large 7mm camp which is as big as I'll ever get....

I'm into shootable rifles with manageable recoil and medium to light weights. They kill stuff up to elk plenty far out there no issues...

Elk, I owned one for several years...Made my farthest one shot on a nice bull with it. 842 yards with a Barnes 180g TSX. I actually sold it after putting almost 460 rounds through it - thinking barrel life might be getting close to expiration. 😎

The big Lazzeroni .30 cal is the .7.82 Warbird.

Just a quick search of the ballistics,the Warbird is just over 100 fps faster the the Wby. The Warbird sends a 180 grain bullet at 3550 fps and the Wby is 3420 fps.

I had a warbird for awhile. I never got those speeds.. in fact it ran a bit behind my 30-378. I had a 30/378 load for the old 180 XLC that was north of 3500,it was a Barnes published Load at the time.

I had a warbird for awhile. I never got those speeds.. in fact it ran a bit behind my 30-378. I had a 30/378 load for the old 180 XLC that was north of 3500,it was a Barnes published Load at the time.

Barrel 💋 You my friend could shoot a 30/378 off your face and not find it unpleasant in the least...I wonder why you haven’t owned one yet? It could be in your near future. Bunnies beware! 😎

You all have fun with those fire breathing magnums. I've had magnumitus, and enjoyed it, but those days are over for me.

I'll continue killing elk with my 6.5X284, plus the occasional one with my .300 H&H.