Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Honest elk rifle opinion.

If you aren’t using a .358 Norma are you even really taking this seriously…



Just kidding, mine has never even seen the elk woods, let alone an elk.

The reality is that the more I shoot a variety the more impressed I am with the .30-06.

In .30 cal I have a .30-06, .30 Gibbs and .300 WM. Inside 400 I would gladly grab the .30-06 everytime. My .300 is a tad heavy but accurate and reliable, my .30-06 is lighter and shoots a wide variety of bullets boringly well, my .30 Gibbs is light, accurate enough with a handful of good elk bullets and has a quirkiness that the other two vanilla chambers do not.

Which I grab would largely be determined by where I hunt and my mood for the day versus any real or perceived differences in performance.

Couldn’t have said it any better myself. My thoughts exactly.

And that 358 looks sharp as hell.

You guys complicate it by having to many rifles.😂

Dandy Jud!! Got any full pics? Love me some stainless/wood 👊🏻

Thanks! Glad I put it in the wood stock. Had to add a 1/4” spacer and a 1” decelerator to make the stock work but it fits me perfect.

Judman, we must have been posting at the same time, lol

Damn I like that. That is a elk hammer. 👊🏻

Exactly……one rifle, cartridge, bullet, load, and zero! I try to adhere to the KISS system! memtb

There's no difference to 400yds, is there? Imagine an old 200gr Nosler Partition or even an 220gr Hornady roundnose hitting an elk at 400yds. Those have been around for a long long time but I'd wager they'd slam dunk an elk really well. I'm sure someone here has taken larger game with the awesome 30-06.

Damn elk are so tough to kill you need 2 rifles now. I remember when you needed a 30cal to kill the enemy, now a squirrel rifle gets it done better.

I’ve answered this earlier, but after some consideration:

Some people seem to shoot the 700 NE accurately. I’m not in that crowd! But I find shooting the 300 Weatherby with 200 grain partitions not an issue.

The reason I mention that is some places I’ve hunted there’s very deep and steep ravines and I carry everything such as meat, and if I’m lucky head and antlers, on my back to as close as I can get my pickup. I am in my 70’s and have steel knees and carrying lots of weight out of those ravines is difficult to say the least.

The other thing is bulls will often have a lot more muscle mass than cows. If I had to take a shot other than a standing broad side shot and I want the elk to drop where it stands or to travel only a very short distance I believe that I would want to carry a rifle with power and yet one that I can shoot accurately.

Finally the distance I’m willing to shoot comes into play.
As for me shooting a game animal at long range is just wrong. 350 yards is the longest shot I’ve taken on elk and I only did that as I couldn’t get closer. I was lucky as the cow dropped where it stood.

All these things come into consideration for me. Some places a cartridge like a 270 Win, 7x57, 308, etc. works for me. Other places I’d pick the 300 magnums in H&H, Win, or Weatherby. Further, like I wrote before if I knew there were Grizzlies in the area, that would influence my decision as to what rifle I choose.


Actually asking what is the best elk rifle is similar to asking what’s the best deer rifle. The answer is adult diapers - depends.

Agreed. Better than wasting my money sitting in the bank for retiring or something silly like that

There are shooters and there are hunters. Some are both.
I used to spend lots of money on new rifles and still do to an extent, but these days I would much rather spend that money on fuel and plane tickets, as well as tags.

To the OP: My honest opinion is that a 6.5mm of some sort is as good as it gets for elk, assuming adequate bullets of course which is a whole ‘nother discussion.

Regarding just how tiny of cartridge a hunter can possibly get by with…

The bull, whose rack is hanging over one of my benches was shot with a 338 Win Mag and 250 grain partitions. That bull was walking into the thick dog hair when I pulled the trigger at dawn; he made it about 25 steps. That bullet entered the Texas heart hole and ended up in the neck. That bull was the largest bodied old bull the butcher in Belle Fourche ever saw and he had been a butcher for about 60 years. It had been kicked out of the heard by a younger bull. Carrying it to the butcher, it was hanging out over the down tail gate on an 8 foot box pickup. All the meat was made into hamburger per the butchers strong recommendation.

Yes, I know a guy who killed an elk with a 25-35. He was pretty sure that was the perfect elk cartridge - didn’t ruin any meat.

The "best" elk rifle is whatever the best elk hunter has in his hands.

Pretty much. The 270win is the most available in ammo and components in my location followed by 308win and in the distance is 30-06. A person needs one of these no matter what is chosen just for logistics purposes IMO.

Or two.

I used to be laser-focused on the 30-06 because of this idea. Then I stumbled into a shop that only had one box of 30-06 ammo--and it was FMJ. I added a 308 to the stable very shortly thereafter.


Okie John

In my experience bullets make more difference than cartridges.

A friend of mine retired early and started going on dream hunts. One was an Alaskan moose hunt, and he took his trusted old .30-06 with Federal factory ammo featuring 180-grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claws. The hunt was for 10 days, and on the 9th day he finally found a legal bull (in at least that part of Alaska they had to have a certain number of brow tines, or at least a 50-inch spread).

But it was splashing up the middle of a creek 100 yards away--going away. He got excited, and at the first shot the moose stopped and shook its head vigorously. Before it could start walking again he put one in the same place you did on that bull elk--and the moose splashed over to the shore and fell over dead. He and his guide found the "little" bullet just in front of the bull's heart--and Alaskan moose are a LOT bigger than the biggest bull elk. (The first shot put a hole in the left antler.)

Oh, and the antlers got him an invitation to the annual Boone & Crockett convention for an award as one of the top trophies taken that year.

I know a guy, since passed, who killed 18 bull moose with an Interarms MKX. The MKX was chambered for the 243 Winchester which he always fed whatever was cheapest jn 100gr loadings. These were Alaska Yukon bulls too, roughly twice the size of big bull elk.

I also have killed a bull elk with a shot up the rearend. I missed the Oring and hit the hip socket. But the 130 Nosler out of my 270 made it all the way up to exit behind the shoulder. He didn’t even make it 25 inches as he fell straight down.

Shoot what you can hit them with, use good bullets, and go kill stuff.

There are two separate, different hobbies: Elk hunting, and then there is talking about elk hunting rifles. There is some overlap.
In thirty years of living around elk hunters, a smattering of my own elk hunting, lots of deer hunting, and including a few years selling guns to elk hunters and guides, I am convinced for the hobby of elk hunting, physical conditioning and the ability to place a reasonably accurate shot quickly are the two most important factors.
I don't think there are many elk killed that couldn't be killed with a minute and half rifle, in about any cartridge from the 260 on up, a Nosler Partition and a four power scope.