Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Bigger than 30-06 on 30-06 Action

Also going to the Brown Precision stock that was mentioned should take out some weight without having to change out what is probably a perfectly good factory barrel.

I would leave the 30-06 a 30-06 and just go kill elk. If the max range you are shooting is under 500 yards, you already have a fantastic elk cartridge.

You ought to look up the thread "deceased by Scenar" and see just how effective the 155 Scenars, when fired out of .308s and 30-06s are.

A 155 Scenar at 2900-3000 fps would certainly be plenty.

In spite of what neophytes and flatlanders say and think, you don't need cartridges that often get used for African dangerous game just to shoot an elk. The are really not that hard to kill in spite of BS spouted.

I will check that thread out.

I kiled my first elk with a .308 pushing 180 grain Nosler Partitions. He was dead as can be 75 yards away. My issue was no exit wound, no snow and elk tracks everywhere. Blowdown was so think I heard him fall to the ground with a loud thud and saw which way he ran. He was only 70 yards away and it still took me 30 minutes to find him. I was kind of panicing until I did.

Bullet went through both lungs, no shoulder hit, just lungs and balled up against the far hide. Just a trickle of blood from the entrance wound. I decided I wanted full penetration after that and grabbed the .300 WBY, used it all over the west and two plains games hunts in RSA and Namibia and never looked back...until this year. I realized that I was carrying way to much gun and scope (and binoculars and cloths and body fat) than i needed in that blown down timber.

So I just got back from an elk hunt in Wyoming where I carried my old standby, a .300 Wby 24" barrel with 3x18 Leupold VX-6HD. I have killed elk in 4 states and about 20 head of African Plains game with it and love the gun. I practice regularly out to 450 yards (as far as I can get where I can practice here in Michigan. I took a pretty good 6x5 bull.

The problem was that this was a new area to me and found myself not glassing and looking at elk in a distance and planning a stalk, but instead all the hunting was in timber, mostly navigating around and crawling over blown down timber. Only time I could have even shot 200 was in the valley's on the way in to each morning's hunt but the elk were not in the valley's...they were up on the mountain tops in the timber/blowdown.

So I was prepared to kill my elk out to 450 yards but ended up killing him at 30. Blew a hole through both shoulders with the .300 Wby pushing the old 180 grain Jack Carter Trophy Bonded Bearclaws at just under 3000 FPS

Point of all this introduction is that I plan to hunt this area again and another that is similar and when I do I don't want to carry a 24" in barrel I want to carry a 22" barrel gun. And I don't need to be shooting 450 yards so instead of my big optic on a 30mm tube I will be using a Leupold VX3 2x-8X 1" tube that I have laying in the safe doing nothing that weighs 2/3 (or less) what the scope on my .300 Wby weighs. I want something that will punch a big hole in an elk at less than 200 yards (of course the first time I hunt with my new gun I will see a monster 6x6 at 400 yards LOL)

I have a Pre-64 Model 70 (1952) in 30-06 that I am thinking about making my "timber elk" gun. I want to carrely less weight and shorter barrel am planning on putting it in a Brown Precision Stock and putting a Krieger 22" barrel on it. I want a cartridge that functions effiencently in a 22" barrel that is bigger than the .30-06.

I am considering having it rebarreled to:

.338-06
.338-06 A-Square
.338-06 AI
.35 Whelen

Am I missing anything that I should be considering?

What would you build?

I’ve only taken one elk, but I’ve hunted for decades in heavy brush in Washington State. Even though you plan to hunt the same area next year, don’t handicap yourself with a brush-gun cartridge—the ability to reach out and touch something is never a handicap. But instead of choosing a cartridge based on muzzle velocity, look at impact velocity at the longest range you plan to shoot, then look for bullets that will expand there. That may limit your choices somewhat. Then crunch the numbers on recoil--a light 35 Whelen can easily kick as hard as a 338.

Brush hunting is an offhand shooter’s game, so mount the scope as low as you can get it. Weaver mounts are as low as almost anything, plus they’re light. That matters because the finished rifle should balance at or very close to the front action screw, and every ounce you add aft of that point pulls the balance point aft as well.

The best way to get the balance right is to take the action, stock, scope, and mounts to your smith and tell him what cartridge you want, then let him pick the barrel contour, etc., required to make that happen. Ask for a recoil pad that's rounded on the heel and toe so it doesn't hang up on your coat on fast shots. A slightly shorter LOP than you’re used to using can be almost like cheating on fast shots, so wear your hunting clothes when you go and ask him about it. Resist the urge to set the trigger too light—three or four pounds is about right for a rifle that you'll use in a hurry. Crisp is more important.

Finally, shoot a LOT of offhand before the season. Focus on getting the safety off as you mount the gun, and on working the bolt hard and fast for your second and third shots. Also work on the post rest, since you may be able to lean up against a tree. I spent a lot of time on the Jeff Cooper Snaps exercise before I went hunting. I also shot double- and triple-taps with my 338, and I dropped my elk with one fast offhand shot at 110 yards.

I know it's blasphemy to say it around here, but if you do this stuff, then the cartridge you choose won’t really matter.


Okie John

I need to look into that....

Love your tag line....that is being demonstrated daily in "The Swamp" right now