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

...if you get some of the private land tags available here in Colorado, a .257 Roberts is more than sufficient for shooting a cow off the ranchers alfalfa field, I just don't suggest if for more challenging conditions. Most guys who hunt wild public lands will tell you a .270 Winchester with a 150gr Nosler Partition is about the minimum for such conditions, with the edge going to something in the 300 to 375 WM range.

To a certain extent, but the possible presence of grizzlies tends to affect my choice more. They're far more widespread and numerous in Montana than when I started hunting--which is another way locale affects the choice!

What’s the deal with grizzlies during elk season in Montana? At what point do they start hibernation, if at all? Are grizzlies located throughout Montana?

The cow Eileen killed with a .257 was taken on a damage hunt on a local ranch, because the local herd was coming off of public land to raid alfalfa fields at night. But they only came out at night--and though we were the only people hunting during the period, there had already been 3 hunters ahead of us. That's the way the Montana department often arranges damage hunts: One hunter gets to hunt the place until killing an elk, then the next person on the list gets called.

Consequently by the time Eileen got called it resembled hunting public land more than private. It took us 4 days to get her a shot during legal light, because they were on public land most of the day--where her hunt wasn't legal. Only near dark did they start filtering down toward the fields.

On the 4th evening it finally came together. We found the narrow draw through thick timber they were using, and managed to get within about 100 yards of a cow that stood quartering away uphill on the far side of the draw, There wasn't time to wait for the "ideal" broadside shot, so Eileen aimed for the far shoulder. I expected the elk to go 30-50 yards before keeling over, but instead it dropped right there, flopped its head a couple times, and lay still. It turned out this was because the 100 TTSX cracked the bottom of the spine on its way to the shoulder--where we found it under the hide, close to 3 feet of penetration. In fact, it was a LOT like most of the public-land elk hunting we do.

Five years later she killed a huge old cow--as big as many mature bulls--in a cattle pasture on another damage hunt. But that time she used her "big rifle," a custom lightweight .308 with the 130-grain TTSX handloaded to around 2900 fps. This time the cow quartered toward us at around 250 yards, and Eileen put the bullet just above of the big shoulder knuckle. That cow did manage to go about 20-25 yards before falling, but it was obviously dead on its feet. The bullet broke the thick leg bone and, again, angled through both lungs before ending up under the hide in the middle of the far ribs.

3. .338 Win Mag 225 gr TBBC HE (yes, I still have some)