Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting New rifle for 1st Elk / Mule deer hunt

Always interesting to hear how bigger, badder bullets work better on shots that are somewhat misplaced. That has not been my experience on elk--or any other elk-sized animal.

A good friend has killed more than a few elk with the 257 Weatherby. He "stepped up" to the 7mm Remington Magnum for a while, but more recently stepped back down again--to the .25-06, and killed a 6x5 bull this fall.

Not that I would contradict Mule Deer when it comes to killing elk. But mathematics is my friend here. An excellent 100 grain bullet starting at 3200FPS at 450 yards placed well will kill elk all day. How far that big bull runs is hard to predict. That same excellent bullet weighing 180 grains starting at 3200 FPS at 450 yards will produce a very audible thump and a shorter run almost every time with the same good shot placement. It slso allows you to take shots through the shoulder if that is all you’ve got.

My 25-06 is perfectly capable of killing an elk, but I use my 300 Weatherby because I only get one elk hunt a year and I want every advantage.

I have shot many elk with a variety of cartridges and with a few hit and lost. I doubt that many hunters can hunt their entire lives and not have one or two get away. I have never had one, not recovered with a 300WM. I have lost one hit with a 7mm Mashburn, two with a 50 MZ and two deer with bad hits with an 06. The 300 WM has always been my first choice.

I have been lucky enough to recover all the elk I have hit about 20 using a 7mm RM and a 300 Wby. But a 600 yard trailing job in the snow convinced me to change to Barnes & then to the Weatherby. They aren’t bulletproof and will die from a lung shot but if you at 200 yards from a boundary they may not die soon enough to easily recover - permission to enter, wait for warden, prove blood trail & hope the rancher doesn’t choose to tag your animal.

I’ve stopped a bull & a cow shot by other members of our group that would have gotten away (had the tags so legal) both would certainly have died in a steep canyon on private and the bull had one through a lung top of heart & shoulder. If you hunt on a big ranch where no other hunters will potentially shoot your fatally wounded animal & you are an expert tracker who limits their shots to 200 yards - by all means use 243, 257, 6.5 they all kill elk. I’m not in that situation & want my elk dead and on the ground in less than perfect conditions.

The no apparent reaction to the shot is extremely common with elk shot through the lungs. Lots of hunters have shot an elk twice watch it walk over the hill and think they missed. When you get there see the blood & dead elk a hundred yards from where it was hit there is a big relief but no reaction or walking away is fairly common in my experience so following every shot to make sure you missed is essential.

Rusty75,

Game animals act differently, period. We have all seen weird things. Nobody here would say a 270 Win is an inadequate rifle for cow elk. I had cow elk take 4 rounds of 270 win 150 grainers at 150 yards all in a 6 inch circle of the heart lung region. It just stood there and then walked off. I was out of ammo. It walked about 50 yards then fell down.

I was the "guide" on a moose hunt. The bull was shot at 65 yards with a 7mm-08. Dropped at the shot and died, complete pass thru behind the shoulder.

The next year, I shot a moose 308 win 168 grain TTSX destroyed the heart. The bulled ran about 80 yards before it collapsed.

Do not base your rifle choice on one event.

That being said, my preference is something 7mm or above.

In thirty years of being around elk hunters from near and far, I am thoroughly convinced that the biggest mistake a hunter can make, is to buy new, more powerful rifle to bring on a first time elk hunt.

I’ll fall back on that Scandinavian study that showed on a LOT of moose, there was almost no discernible difference in how quick moose died from the 6.5 Swede to the 375.

Elk are not bullet proof.
Shot placement and at those velocities, proper bullet construction a must..
but you can’t go wrong with 7 or 300. Plus it’s a great excuse to buy a new rifle

Start practicing shooting, using your rifle, and RF out to 400 yards or so off your pack, kneeling, sticks etc .. Lots of off hand shooting out to 150 200 yards ( whatever your comfortable distance). With elk, based on my experience, shot opportunities come and go quickly. So if shot opportunity comes up better be quick to react and shoot. Just as important as your rifle. Plus side I like 30 cal and heavy bullets for shoulder and high shoulder/ neck shots if want to try and minimize running longer distances. You'll be fine with 257 for heart lung area type shots and good that you're comfortable with this rifle

While a poorly placed (for whatever reason) shot into the guts certainly will not be an immediate kill on elk sized game....a hit from a larger, heavier, fast large caliber rifle may slow the animal enough to provide the hunter with a “mulligan”! A lesser cartridge may not provide that extra few seconds.

The above comment was derived from “empirical data” as an “eye witness”! 😉

A perfectly placed knitting needle will quickly kill an elk, poorly placed.....may take a while! 🤔 memtb

I’ve harvested dozens of elk and seen at least that many shot. My elk averaged 300+ yards so I was set up for longer shots. I’ve seen lots of elk shot with 243 to 30-06 rounds. When properly hit, they died. However, very few ever gave any indication of being hit and all ran off. Because bullets rarely exited, blood trails were not ideal. Most of my elk were killed with 210 partitions out of a 338 or 340wby. Everyone was visibly rocked and most were bang flops or only took a couple shots. Those 210 partitions almost always exited leaving racquetball sized holes and impressive but unneeded blood trails. I killed several with a 300wby, 300win and a 7mmSTW. When using cup and core bullets, they killed very quickly. The rub with the cup and core bullets is their performance at timber ranges becomes an issue if shoulder joints are hit. When using partitions or accubonds, they performed nearly as well as the 210 partitions.

I never go a non-local hunt without taking a back-up rifle. With premium bullets your 257WBY will function very well as a back up for elk and as a primary for mule deer. As far as a new western rifle, I’d look at anything from the 300wsm and bigger otherwise there’s just not a lot of step up from your 257.

FWIW, my longest shots on deer and antelope were with the 210 partitions (500+yds) so if you jump up to 338/340, you’ll have a hammer on deer and antelope as well. Although the magnums with proper bullets do better on marginal shots, your first priority needs to be your proficiency under field conditions. If the magnum recoil is impacting your accuracy, you’d be better off with a 30-06 shooting 165-200grain bullets (this assumes you are a handloader and am getting full potential out of the 30-06). Bullet diameter and mass matters on big bulls if you need to take quartering shots.

I guess I’m missing it. IME on elk and oryx, I have not seen where a .338 Win.mag. misplaced shot was any better than a .308 Win misplaced shot.

I think some people see what they want to see.

I have posted before that the .300 Weatherby is the King of elk cartridges, if you can shoulder the recoil. Any of the other big .30’s will do just fine also. Choose a good rifle and practice.

It's called confirmation bias - this thread is rife with it.

I'm betting that was a classic case of shock. I had a smallish bull do the same thing, 4 rounds through the lungs and it just stood there. Your 1st round probably hit a major artery and the blood pressure plummeted, throwing her into shock. Her brain shut down and she just stood there bleeding out inside. Shock is when the major organs don't get enough blood. It can be caused by many things but bullet holes are a good cause of it.

The go to combination, in our household, is the 300 win with 200 grain accubonds. Bull and cow elk, whitetails, mule deer, antelope, bear, and oryx have all been taken with that combo. Ranging from up close, to 528 yards (the wife's NM oryx). Bullet performance is boringly consistent, and to date, no animals lost and very few requiring any tracking.

While the wife and daughter use this as their primary set up, I have often used other cartridges....that are more specialized to the hunt I'm on. .308, 30-06, heavy 35 Whelen, 375 H&H, various 338 win and 338 rum, all have come into play. BUT, everything that I've done with them, in the continental US, could have been done with the tried and true 300 win/200 ab combo.

Andy3

Very interesting. I have killed more elk (including my biggest bull, in both body and antler) with the .30-06 that any other cartridge, usually but not always with 200-grain Nosler Partitions. None has ever gone over 50 yards before falling.

Have seen the 210 Partition from a .338 Winchester Magnum stopped by an average-size Montana whitetail buck. It was a quartering-away shot, and the bullet entered the left side of the ribcage and ended up in the right shoulder. We found the bullet while skinning the buck a little white later, and the guy who shot it wouldn't believe it was his bullet until I put a caliper on the base.

Indeed.

Have shot several elk with my .257 weatherby. Partition bullets work great.

Based on my experience, it seems very suspect that this observation is caused by a difference in caliber or bullet weight, as you are implying. Large animals getting rocked or DRT by shoulder-fired rifles is strongly correlated with the bullet hitting or passing very close to the CNS, IME. Bullet placement and performance have been far more reliable predictors of the reaction of large game to getting shot, compared to any other factor (including bullet caliber and weight).

I would have no hesitation in chasing ~1000 lbs game animals with the .257WM if loaded with something like a 100 gr TTSX. Of course, something like a 7RM or .300WM is also very effective with the right bullet selection and placement, but there's no reason not to use your .257WM if that's what you want to do.