Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting I found out that elk...

...sure are tough, thick hided critters. I got the opportunity to take my first elk in Idaho a couple weeks ago. Shot was at exactly 200 yards with a Tikka 7mm Rem Mag and a 168 grain Nosler Accubond. Double lung shot, broadside, bullet lodged on the inside of the hide on the far side. My buddy shot his elk with a 180 grain Winchester Ballistic Silver tip out of his 300 Win Mag at 75 yards. Same scenario, broadside, double lung, bullet was in the same spot as my elk. I have shot my share of whitetail and back bear here in NH, often resulting in complete pass throughs. I'm glad my buddy and I chose the calibers we did, as both elk we shot were one shot kills. I'msure there are plenty of other bullets in plenty of other calibers that would have done the job, but I discovered on my experience, elk are tough critters.

99

They're incredible animals. I've shot 4 with center fire rifles and 10 with a 50 cal muzzle loader. They generally fight against dieing, and aren't too quick to lay down unless spine hit. One time we'll off season hiking. I came face to face with a big bull on a narrow trail. He took off straight down a boulder strewn cliff like a bulldozer. I've also watched rutting bulls charge up and down monster hills like a fast train through a Kansas prairie.

Congratulations on your hunt!

99 in 22/250: Congratulations to you and your buddy on your Idaho bulls. Unless you like two holes in your game animals... what happened was the best bullet experience. All your bullets energy was dumped into you game animal with not exiting, but passing through the entire chest cavity and stopping just under the far side hide. Happy for you... hope he eats well ! HH

Elk are pretty easy to kill but their hides are very tough and stretchy. I've had my bullet trapped by the hide like that many times, even with a 300 WSM. It's a pass through other than the hide. I once saw a slo-mo video of an elk's hide stretching out when the bullet hits it. It must have stretched out a foot. Ab's mushroom a lot and the hide often catches them.

At 200 yds a double lung shot should have passed through with a 7mag and definetly a 75 yd shot with a 300 mag. I've shot numerous elk with a 270win, 150gr nosler partition, 2800fps and had pass through several times. The last one was a small 5x5 at 325 yds and the pass though blew blood and lungs all over the snow bank and elk dropped in his tracks.

If a bullet misses all the bones, it will usually break the hide but bones will slow it down enough for the hide to catch it.

While a bullet may have more energy when it hits the target closer, as opposed to further out.....it'll also generally expand more due to that extra energy (I guess). Less frontal area aids penetration and more frontal area hinders it. Kind of door opens both ways scenario.

I'd have to think about it, but I suspect I have observed more exits on elk at 3-600 yards than I have at closer ranges, with the same bullet, muzzle velocity and hit location.

I agree and I'm wondering if the Accubond expands more than the partition? All my kills with partitions the penetration has been great. I've never loaded Accubonds so its hard to say from actual experience. So comparing them may be apples to oranges.

Elk aren’t so tough in my experience.

Don’t get me wrong, you have to hit them hard, but they ain’t armored.

Details on muzzle velocities of the 7mag and 300 Win Mag with those bullets.Pics of bullets and retained weights would be nice to know too.

I have killed elk with a 30-30, 44 mag carbine, 30-06, 2 different 7mm mags,. 2-3 different 50 cal muzzle loaders.Mostly double lung shots. A few I clipped the scapula. I can't remember many, if any, that were complete pass throughs of the 50+ I have killed. Most bullets were found under the hide on the far side , some were never recovered inside the animal as I don't make habit of digging thru blood and gore to find a bullet

Most bullets were std C&C, except the ML being Power Belts or Maxiballs, the 7 mags being 160 gr GK..Only on the last few elk did I use 180 gr Partitions after SPS were selling over runs for $13/box.Before that, 220 gr RN in the .06. Distances ranged from as little as10 yards to 400 yards.

I have been elk hunting for about 57years .I never found elk all that hard to kill. Probably won't be doing it much longer.

Saddlesore - did you find the 180 partitions more likely to exit?

If you want pass-throughs, shoot a mono bullet.

I have not recovered a Barnes, either the original X, XLC TSX or TTSX, from an animal, yet, and I've been using them since 1992. They will take the abuse of a very close, high velocity impact, and still perform way out yonder.

Nope. I recovered most of them. Others were still in body,but I didn't look for them

The more a bullet expands and messes up the insides, the less energy it has left and the less likely it is to get through that stretchy hide. Energy that's used up inside is a good thing.

Maybe Oregon elk are soft skinned critters? I've never had trouble killing them either. Finding them may be a different problem all together though.. As for the guys saying their elk have caught 180gr partitions. BTDT. That's why I stepped up to the 200's.

Any pics of recovered Powerbelts or were those left on the mountain with the goo?

I have a few I'll post later.


Here is 295 gr PB. 90 gr of Black Powder, , 50cal, TC Black Diamond. Cow elk, 70yards. Found under hide on off side

There are only a couple of Idaho rifle bull hunts this early.
Did you have a special draw somewhere or were you on one of the early backcountry general hunts like in the Selway maybe?

I think it's worth going to a deeper penetrating bullet to get the pass through - makes tracking much easier if (when) they run some. And I've seen even double-lung/heart elk run a good bit.

The 200gr Terminal Acent and 200gr A-Frame in .30 bores seem to work well. The 7mm 175gr A-Frame is good too.