Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB, what are your top 3 cartridges for Elk hunting?

Hi antelope sniper

Thanks for that, a very good answer about the mix of conditions. Spectacular scenery in that photo too.

FWIW I'm a fan of spinal shots, and I've used them to very good effect on a variety of game, usually either through the shoulder blade or base of the neck If the opportunity is there it tends to put them straight down, even from full gallop.

A S

Thanks for that fantastic PIC.




I've never had the pleasure or privilege to even hunt let alone kill an Elk. We have an Elk Hunt drawing here in Ark. and I've entered it for 22 yrs in a row ---NO joy.

Having said that, I've been planning & prepping for an Elk hunt, even had one planed in 1986 for Co. Didn't get to go.
My ideas have changed quite a bit -- SINCE participating here and 'listening' to the experience of others.

MY, personal pick TODAY for any Elk hunt IS the 7mm Rem Mag and 160 N P or better bullets.
I'm confident using it and have killed numerous WT with it.

I'm 71 y o and have a long history with rifles and cartridges. I bought an 8mm R M yrs ago, the product of reading hunting and rifle magazines. I've been a LONG TIME fanatic of the 300 WM - have had several.
I've learned the 270 Win is plenty capable with good bullets and good marksmanship.

HOWEVER in the last few years I've decided that - for me - the 7mm RM is nearly the perfect BG cartridge for North America.

I like your post as well as the PIC.

Thnx

Jerry

Mr. Dan

In response to your question in another post:
"I get the impression from some of these answers that people are planning for long shots. Is that typical of elk hunting? Or do conditions vary, and perhaps rifle choices vary to match?"

My pick is the 7 mm RM - for Close 12' (feet) to 400 yds. I've killed WT at 12' and it was with the 7 RM.
So for me the range & conditions don't matter.

I also like your posts as well.

Thnx

Jerry

Is the .30-06 and .300 mag too close to matter, especially with a range finder and elevation turret?

Same with the 7 mag?

Sako

IMO - yes....IF you have time to use them.


Jerry

Winner, Winner... Based on an unscientific tally of responses to the 24HCF thread "What rifles have you used to kill elk?" back in early 2019, rank ordered:

1) 30-06
2) 270 Win
3) 300 WM
4) 7 RM
5) 338WM
6) 308 Win

Those 6 chamberings covered almost half of the 450 responses mentioned in that thread...

6.5 Man-bun not included in the list?

From the survey....

"Those 6 chamberings covered almost half of the 450 responses mentioned in that thread..."

the 'man bun' wasn't in 50% of the responses.


Jerry

7mm-08.

Elk ain’t armor-plated.

30-06
300 WM
375 Ruger

Your post was sounding very nostalgic JB, don't go sunset on us.

Generally the 300 Mag will net you an additional 200 to 250 fps over the '06 with a 180gr bullet. If you move up to 200 gr bullets, you're looking at a mv of 2650 vs close to 3k. In my experience keep around a muzzle velocity of 3k provides optimum bullet performance for the ranges where most of the killing get accomplished.

In general, I do not like heavy for caliber lower velocity loads behind traditional spitzer bullets, or even the old Nosler partitions, before Nosler softened the front portion for shooting elk. Elk are big critters with lots of real estate so you want a big bullet that opens quickly so the work performed is proportional to the task at hand. To illustrate this, let me tell you one of those elk hunting stories you never see on the internet.

This was about 25 years ago, before the current iteration of the .284 160gr Nosler partition. My cousin was shooting a weak load of H4831 behind said 160gr NPT. As I recall, it was below book minimums and I doubt it reached 2900, I but can't be sure because he never let me chronograph it. You can't quite see where this happened in the picture above, but you could if you faced about 40 degrees to the left. We were on our evening hunt, he was hunting one ridge with his brother-in law, and I was hunting a couple ridges over with Dad. We hear shooting, followed by the "I got something" sequence. We headed over to the trail there were on and met up with my cousin and his BIL. My Cousin had hit a cow, and they were trying to work out the trail and find it. It was a decent, but spotty blood trail. We followed it as far as possible with flash lights, but had to call it and come back and resume in the morning.

We picked up in the morning and found her just as the fresh of the morning air began turning to heat. It turned out the hit was an angling shot, it caught the lower back portion of one lung and exited through the guts on the other side. On lower lung hits, elk lungs tend to not to fill up with blood as well as center punched or higher lung hit, since the blood drains out the bottom. This lets the rest of those massive lungs continue to carry them a long ways, in this case close to 2 miles before she laid down at edge of steep drop.

As for longer distance elk hunting strategies, I feel a lot of that grew from the observation that elk don't like to stand around as much as deer. When observed in daylight hours, they tend to be moving, do you better know your dope and be ready to get on the cross hairs and trigger. If however, you can observe then in the distance beyond the range where they can detect you, that can provide enough time to actually plan and set up your shot. Just make sure you hit 'em well, and put a second shot into 'em, or be prepared to track 'em for 2 miles.

Keep in mind, by the time Rifle Season rolls around it's after the rut, and the elk have been bugled, poked and smoked for two months by the archers and muzzle loaders. The dumb one's are already on the grill, wrapped in bacon. Those that remain are magnificent, cunning beasts on full alert ready to bolt at the first sound or smell.

That's all the time I have for now...

Interesting - I always like to hear (and follow) MD's comments/recommendations on hunting and shooting!

I have hunted elk with 350 RM, the 338 Win Mag - both with 250 grain partitions, the 7mm RM - 150 grain partitions and the 308 with 180 grain Grand Slams (I don't recall if anything else.)

Living in South Dakota getting an elk tag here is a once in a life time event, if ever. So, I have not had near the hunting elk experience as many, I've hunted in South Dakota (once), Colorado a few times, Idaho and Wyoming. I've applied several times for New Mexico - no luck in NM so far.
I've shot more with the 338 and 250 grain Nosler Partitions than anything else. But I'll not carry the 338 again as I've sold my last one! I think it is more than needed and I have arthritis, bursitis and am getting old as dirt.
I've hunted in thick timber and I think my 350 RM is very good choice for that. In Colorado and Idaho, the distances were greater on average than other places, though I stumbled upon a nice bull at about 40 to 50 yards once on a mountain top in Colorado - up to 300 yards was much more of a possibility.
I don't think I'd ever go smaller than a 270, a 308 was on par with a 270 I think. I'd feel fully gunned with a 270 and a bullet that would penetrate and expand - maybe a 140 grain partition or maybe a TTSX? But I'd have no issue with some one who'd use a 6.5 or a 25 caliber with enough experience, correct bullets and with a cartridge with enough power.
One thing I've noticed is distances possible in sighting elk due to the change of hunting area/state... Mostly in Colorado the distances were longer than other places. Where I've hunted in Wyoming the distances varied from 75 yards to 300 yards. The bull I shot in South Dakota was perhaps 60 to 75 yards, I stayed out with my brother during that hunt and if I had not filled, I would have had opportunity to shoot a different nice bull at maybe 300 yards or so.

I've applied for elk license in several states as usual and often have drawn nothing, at least on first draw. I did draw a cow license in Wyoming on a second draw this year. The rifle I'll use may well be what I consider good for 300 yards this time. I'm in a quandary as to what rifle I am leaning to, a 7mm RM with 150 or heavier partitions which may win out, but I really like my 300 Weatherby with 200 grain partitions. But a 300 Win Mag, 35 Whelen, a 300 H&H, a 30-06, a 280 or a 270 is possible. The area where I'll be hunting is fairly open with short pines, a few draws and some low hills (no mountains this time).

(300 yards or there-abouts is my self imposed limit. Bringing a shooting bench has never crossed my mind - though I saw some blow-hard dude from back east bring one out and set up in a camouflaged tent once in Wyoming. He bragged that he was going to shoot a bull at 1,000 yards - he went home empty handed.)

I think if you want to be an elk hunter, live where they licenses are plentiful.

West Texas, no draw ,free range, all you need is a Texas hunting lic. no Elk lic. required no limit on the # you can take, you may have to pay a rancher to hunt their place, or get a outfitter that has access to were the Elk are. Rio7

We have a few on our deer lease, never had a desire to kill one. They are way the hell bigger than they puny whitetail deer we have.

+1

This is exactly my choice, in both calibers and bullets. I'd have to add 338WM to the list of cartridges. My wife and I both hunt Elk in Colorado where we live. I started with the 338WM and then years later switched over to the 35 Whelen. My wife started with the 7mmRM and has also switched over to the 35 Whelen. I could use the 30.06 and be very happy, but I'm a big bore/heavy bullet kind of guy, so I like the 35 Whelen. I have just bought a 338-06 and intend to use it on my next Elk hunt just for the fun of it.

I use 250 gr. Nosler Partitions, and my wife uses 225 Trophy Bonded Bearclaws. Those two bullets plus Swift A-frames are my choices for game larger than deer. I've only used the SAF on Moose here in Colorado, but would have been happy with any of the three. We've never used the SAF on Elk. Very early in our Elk hunting we used 250 gr. Remington Core Lokt with no problems.

I have a couple of female friends who hunt Elk here in CO with their 25.06s, and they are generally successful, so no knock on lesser calibers than what we use. To each their own!

,340 Wby

.338 RUM Both loaded with a 250 grain Nosler Partition.

.30/06 loaded with the 180 grain Nosler Partition.

I live in SD and had 5 elk tags and if guys like Bugger quit putting in maybe I could get another. 2 bulls with the 300 win mag and 180 gr NPT's
1 bull and a cow with the 35 whelen 225 npt's. Next one will drop with my old 7 mm mag and some old screw machine 175 NPt's. 30-06 or 270 would have killed any of them. Mb

My top three for elk are the 280AI with 160NP, 30-06 with 180NP or 300WM with 200NP. Swift A Frames and Barnes TTSX are also great choices. Where I do most of my hunting the Grizzly population is pretty healthy so I don't want to carry anything too low on the power scale. I've taken elk with the 270, 06, 300WM and 9.3x62. Have yet to connect with the 280AI, as it's fairly new to me. Hope to take care of that next season.

Most of the elk I've taken have been with the 270, which is what I started out with at 12 yrs old. With that rifle I mainly used factory ammo 130 or 150 gr rem core-lokt and then started using 150NP when they were available.

I've never felt like any of these cartridges were lacking in any way to kill elk. Hit one in the boiler room with a 270 and it's going to do a lot of damage. Even a smaller cartridge like the 270 is no pop gun. I like the 9.3x62 but I hunt in mixed terrain where I often see elk at some distance and usually want something with a bit flatter trajectory. Also not a real fan of the stock on that rifle and don't like to cart it around the steep mountains much.

Never hunted elk. They were hunted to extinction here in Missouri with muzzle loaders in the 1860s. Apparently a .58 Minie ball is adequate.