Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Best Elk Cartridge in the World??

The devil is in the detail. Did the animal die from sepsis or on the spot..

300 Win Mag with 180 grain Partitions. Ruger Hawkeye FTW

On the spot, of course. I shoot an elk with a 6.5 creed, bang flop. You shoot an elk with a 338 Ultra Kick Ass Mag, bang flop. Which one was most effective?

But that's not the bet you made. It's $29. If someone shoots 10" groups without one like you described above and then goes hunting with that, they're as dumb as a 7-yr-old driving a Corvette at hyper speed. It's not the gun that makes someone incompetent, it's the person who is incompetent. Why argue for a weak rifle that collectively, with rifle, scope, ammo, and time costs $thousands and would be worse than a better rifle if the same person had spent $29 on a pad?

I've shot my .375 Wby and .340 Wby for hours without a single bruise with the $29 pad. Bet lost.

Marine’, out of curiosity, what do you consider the minimum cartridge for elk?

I don't have an opinion on that. It wasn't the topic. Or I would not have weighed in. I'm not sure there is such a thing, unless legally.

Yes, it is. When talking about shooting rifles and how much recoil is too much, we generally assume no artificial recoil reducers. No rolled up towels, Past recoil shields, no Type-3 body armour placed between the buttstock and your shoulder. It’s simple. Flop down prone, fire 50 rounds from a sporter-weight .340 Mag with no muzzle brake, no recoil shield, no rolled up towel, and you’ll probably end up in some discomfort and be left with some bruising. If you want to use artificial recoil reducers, that’s fine, but that’s not what I was talking about when I mentioned the bruising.

How would a less over-powered rifle be “worse” if it produces equally acceptable results on game? If you want to use rifles that are too much for you, where you need a recoil shield just to manage the recoil, that’s fine with me. But don’t try to tell me that a guy needs a recoil shield and a giant rifle to be “better” at cleanly killing NA’s ungulates. I’ve seen too many critters hit the dirt from a variety of cartridges to buy that nonsense.

When hunting I really try to shoot less than 50 rounds! memtb

Bottom line is that shot placement is critical, but as we all know there are lots of elements that can affect that shot. A gust of wind, an unseen twig or branch, the animal moves the same millisecond that you pull the trigger. Not every shot will the perfect shot. That's impossible. No one goes into the woods planning to make a marginal shot, but it will happen eventually, and you will have had a greater chance of tagging that animal and a clean kill, if your cartridge is well over the minimum required to get the job done. The more energy you can effectively bring into the equation the better. If you were to be shot, would you pick a 380 Auto, or a 50 BMG. I know what my choice would be.

It's a bitch dragging the leadsled around the mountains.......

Funny thing about magnums, when you are young they are cool.... as you get a little older and wiser not so much. I have never been injured by magnums before.
Yesterday I shot a full house 500gr 458 load and holy crap, it actually hurt.... just a couple years ago that was no problem

Who's "we"? And no we don't. Anyone who assumes something illogical in a bet can't change the bet afterwards.



That's how I shoot from the bench. I'm not talking about laying it some lead-sled or something. I'm talking about holding it normally and simply putting a cheap pad on that radically reduces felt recoil but doesn't change anything else. If your clients are afraid of recoil and shoot poorly, why don't you recommend that simple solution instead of becoming an enabler to their recoil terror?

Assuming a typical behind the shoulder shot placement you wont get too many bang flops with a Creedmoor. You may also not get any indication the animal was hit.

I've never used a lead-sled.

When my father was in his 40s, he shot my 300 WM a few times and swore that he would never do it again. Decades later, in his late 60s, he did it with the very same Cabela's pad my son is using in the pics above, and he was amazed by how comfortable shooting the same rifle was. That was eleven years ago, and he mentioned it again on a phone call last week. He sighted in and practiced for a hunt with a couple boxes of ammo; never shot over a MOA group; and most were half of that. No one is going get "beat up" by a hunting rifle in the field. If you haven't tried the simple cheap pads that cost less than a box of ammo for range shooting, you'll never believe how much of a difference it makes. If you do, you then will know.


Here's my friend on an elk hunt with me a couple years ago.



We had shot and sighted in together beforehand; he had never shot with a pad before; and was amazed at how it made his 7mm RM seem like a .223. He bought one for himself soon afterward.

Here's my younger son with his Past-brand version:

Lot of truth to that. I'm crowding 45 and find myself wanting to deal with a hard kicker less. Chalk it up to getting soft in old age.

The older I get the more I appreciate lighter rifles, cartridges that will get the job done with no fuss and lighter recoil.

This year I hunted elk with my 280 Rem stoked with 150g ABLR @ 2898fps. At 7000 feet altitude, which is near the lowest we hunt, and MPBR zeroed for a 6" target, max rise above LOS is 3", MPBR is 398 yards and zero is at 252 yards. Recoil is calculated to be just under 18 ft-lbs. My 338WM uses a 225g AB @ 2770fps with a calculated 34.5 ft-lbs recoil. Granted, the 338 delivers more energy downrange, but do I really need it?

The longest range at my local club is 600 yards. I practice at it regularly and set my personal max range to 600 yards accordingly. At 600 yards the 338 retains 2065fps and 2130fpe compared to 2173fps and 1572fpe for the 280. While I like my 338WM and have taken multiple elk with it, the 280 will do the job with almost half the recoil and it is lighter to carry. It is a Win-Win-Win combo.

My Ruger "boat paddle" .30-06 shoots a 168g TTSX @ 2841fps with a calculated recoil of about 22 ft-lbs. At 600 yards and 7000 feet altitude it delivers 2019fps and 1521fpe. Another Win-Win-Win combo.

My 16.1" barreled Ruger Scout 308 Win weighs about 6.5 pounds sans scope and launches a 150g BT at 2699fps with a calculated recoil of 17 ft-lbs. Actual recoil is much less because it has a muzzle brake. At 7000 feet that load delivers 2110fps and 1483fpe (close enough to 1500 for my purposes) to 400 yards. Considering that in my 39 years of hunting Colorado big game only 3 of my shots have been past 350 yards, it is another Win-Win-Win combo.

The current shortages of reloading components, particularly brass, has put my plans of barreling a Savage 111 action/stock on hold. While I've looked at a lot of options for both standard and magnum cartridges, including things like a 28 Nosler, 300PRC and .375 Ruger, the more I think about it the more a 6.5PRC or 280 Rem AI makes sense. Both couple relatively low recoil with plenty of range for my needs.

Okay you win. Your elk is more dead.

Fact of the matter is I've seen way more critters lost to big calibers with more powder than to the opposite. Does this mean bigger is less effective? Of course not. Its because the more experienced we get the more we realize that more powder is not needed. Experienced (better) shooters/hunters use less powder, on average.

That does it. You have convinced me to hunt elk with a 223.

At 68, and getting pretty soft, I’m pretty much limited to around 20 rounds from the bench (rifle to shoulder) and still maintain good groups with my rifle at around 60 ft/lbs. recoil. Yes, I could shoot more with a lighter kicking rifle.....but, 20 rounds from my hunting rifle should be more than sufficient for any day of bench shooting. If I feel the need to shoot a lot of rounds from the bench....then a lighter recoiling rifle would be in order. But.....what is being accomplished by shooting hundreds of rounds from a bench, unless you shoot bench-rest competition.

With a “hunting” rifle.....ammunition expenditure is much more useful, when fired from field positions! memtb

Or you could get real crazy and stick one with an arrow.

338 winmag?