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

Haha. How bout draw tags, auction tags, governors tags etc? I got very poor hunting skills, but I’ve killed a few bulls in the toughest state to kill elk in. Just curious.

For conversation, didn’t include Arizona, New Mexico or Nevada as they’re all draw states high higher success rates, guess Arizona has a few open units? Anyhow most will get the point.

j names for boys

mule deer has forgotten more stuff about rifles, load, calibers, hunting than most on here claimed to know

No substitute for actual hunting in the field and he has decades of it.

Kill a few elk in W WA and I listen to your advice. Tough to do consistently

Exactly, some of us do. Gotta put your time and know the animal. 👍

Is knowing his name enough?

These days that question is a assbackwards approach to fill a need or want. Search needs to start with the bullet to be used for the job. Fair number of people pick the rifle and cartridge first then want to use some inadequate for elk wonder bullet. Never more evident than reading some of the replies on the fire...mb

IMHO.,

Right? You can kill an elk with anything. I've shot them with everything from a 375 to a 280, meat in the freezer. I've seen them killed with a 243 more times than I care to count, and a 243 in elk camp always makes me nervous, but I've seen it done. Even had a buddy kill one with a 223 after he got pissed shooting over the top to get them to leave the hay field and they didn't. They did when she went down, lol. When my girls were first and second year hunters, they packed a 6.5 swede. That was as low as I would go for elk. I guess the question I have is??? Do you have to justify the reason to buy a rifle? If you want to try a high bc combination, then buy it, and don't look back. I love the 6.5 caliber, but no one will sell me a Creedmoor unless its way too cheap, lol. But, lots of folks did cause it suddenly made them a sniper, lol. If ya want a new rifle and caliber, buy it. If ya want folks to tell you an 06 won't kill an elk at 400 yards, ill call them a liar, lol. If the wife asks why, "cause I was interested in it"!

Is that an honest elk rifle opinion, or are you pullin' our leg?

All 3.

It would be awfully hard to not pick the .30-06 though.

I went with a 338.06 myself

They make some great .338 bullets in 200-210 grains that make it worthwhile.

An old friend who had lived in Colorado a lot of years and changed job's from time to time, guiding Elk hunters in between the every day job's. Later he repped for Ithaca for 5 or 6+ years , moving to Atlanta and Dallas with Ithaca , where he went to work at a large wholesaler in Dallas, where we got together as outside road reps, before I went to Stoeger & SAKO. All he had kept to hunt with was the Browning Safari Grade 7RMg he'd used in Colorado...and yes it was loaded with some really stout reload's by one of his denver dealers for him. As heavy as the Browning was it still left an "respectful" Impression on me that I remember commenting on. He laughed and told me if I wanted to hunt Elk in the Rockies I needed to get used to something with more punch than the 243's/ 25/06's 270's I was used to using in Texas for White Tails.and made a believer of me.

Over the years I've never been able to schedule an Elk Hunt, but I've learned to respect the "Elk rifles" I've learned to shoot from the 7rmg's, and became used to a couple 300Wmg's I usually paired with a 270 as they have almost the same drop patterns at distance, but my 9.3x62 CZ never got to go to Africa as planned ...but it does nail a 200lb+ hog DRT at way past 200 yards with ease.

The funniest story about having to shoot for proof of accuracy at a TXParks & Wildlife Axis hunt was when the Hunt Manager said I've never seen one of these, what do you plan to shoot with it .... we don't have any elephants in this Park .... and stuck his grading pencil thru one of the small cluster of bullet holes in the paper target and said I guess you can shoot straight with it all right. and stamped my target as "Passed".

Today my old friend is in failing health and tied to an air tank ...but he still won't sell me his Tikka 30'06 that I had put him onto when a big local dealer closed them out at bargain basement prices 6-7 years ago.
Ron

You mentioned 400 yards as your limit for shooting an elk..............at that range, even to 600 yards, you absolutely do not need a "high BC" round, whatever that term means to you.

270, 280, 'o6, 308, 7-08 are perfect at that range with good bullets that have more than sufficient BC................you will realize real BC gains only past 600 yards or so with, the "high BC" rounds.

Probably more elk have been killed by a 270 & 'o6 than all else put together' I've killed more with a 270 than anything else to ranges a little over 500 yards.

JME, YMMV

MM

No, you must do the hero worship thing also . . .

Not even arrow proof. So as long as your legal hunting area extends at least a mile in all directions, there is snow on the ground & nothing funny happened to your bullet & you are an expert tracker. Nothing to worry about go small with your cartridge choices that are marginal.

Howdy all! New to the forum

New high-BC cartridges aren't necessary out to 400 yards imo (6.5 Creed/PRC, 28 Nolser, 300 PRC, etc). Any standard 270/308/30-06/338 will easily kill elk out beyond 500 yards. I dropped a cow elk in her tracks at 500 yards 17 years ago with a 338-06 and 210gr Partition. Both bullets stopped at hide on opposite side (heart shot). Since then I enjoy tracking in the dark timber and shots are rarely past 100 yards (Bringing a 300 BLK with a red dot this year shooting Barnes 120gr).

I don't know if I was impressed or disappointed that it took 8 pages before even sniffing a pi$$ing match !

I went back to pages 8 and 9 and didn't even smell the faint aroma of a pizzing match. A lot of good comments about the 30-06. Did those turn you off?

Great post.

Just being cheeky bsa, I am always pleased whenever we have good camaraderie- like a campfire is supposed to be. So I was impressed- not disappointed we got through 8 whole pages.

So two shots dropped her in her tracks? They never did while levitating. I think the black out is just the gun for you.