Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting What do you consider minimum cartridge for elk?

Another well stated post.

I have killed at least one elk with each of the following rifles:

.243 Winchester
.25-06 Remington
.270 Winchester
7mm Rem Mag
.300 Savage
.308 Winchester
.30-06 Springfield
.300 Win Mag
8mm Rem Mag
338 Lapua Mag

Some were with handloads, others were with factory ammo and at various distances. The bulk of these were taken with my .30-06 Springfield.

I have personally witnessed others kill elk with all of the above cartridges and each of the following rifles:

6mm Remington
.250-3000 Savage
6.5 Creedmoor
6.5x284 Norma
6.5 PRC
.264 Win Mag
7mm-08 Remington
7x57mm Mauser
.30-40 Krag
.300 WSM
.300 RUM
.338 Win Mag
.375 H&H Mag
.444 Marlin
.450 Marlin
.45-70 Government

My personal preference is for at least a .270 Winchester minimum, but as I just said, cartridges as small as the .243 will do it given the bullet going into vitals.

Good post Scotty

I’m going to bet that there are more answers to the question than there are elk killed…

+1000

Yeah and probably the fewer the elk, the more adamant the opinion. ....grin....

If I cant find grenades then I rig up a sort of a claymore right beside the trail.

I killed my last with a 284 Win which is a 270-class cartridge. That would be as low as I would go generally because I’m from the Midwest and my elk hunting was always limited to 5-7 days and then I’m finished. Rarely have been able to pick my shots.

But like MD I would like something bigger where the grizzly’s tend to be impolite. And for years I carried a 340 Wby with 210-gr TSX’s. Perhaps. Whether falsely or not, it did give me a feeling of reassurance.

As to using the smaller cartridges, I’m sure many have been used to kill elk DRT (does that mean where he finally dropped? 😉). That always reminded me of a comment by Jim Carmichael about “cocktail time calibers (cartridge)” meaning something out of the ordinary enough to yack over a drink later on.

In big, broken and rough country,, use enough cartridge. They deserve it.

A friend of mine filled his cow tag with a magnum.

A .22 WMR while grouse hunting.

You have done a LOT more elk hunting than I have my friend. Thanks for your help with the cow elk in January. 405 yards, 30-06, 178 grain ELD-X. Heck it broke her leg, shattered it really, then went through her heart and she still ran a couple of hundred yards before I could finish her at much shorter range. Wow...







I've only taken three, two with the 30-06 and one big bull with a 7mm Rem Mag using the 175 gr Nosler Partition. All worked. That last one was a bit of a stretch, couldn't have done it without you guys. May well look for another Oregon elk, January 2025. Freezer is still pretty full.

Regards, Guy

Personally, I have slayed elk and mule deer with the following cartridges. Not that it means boo…
.30-06
.308 Win
7mm Weatherby
.300 Weatherby
.35 Whelen

Great pics Guy!

Thanks! Although 30 years older than the two sturdy fellows in the photo, I wondered why I was having such a hard time getting up the big ridges with them.

Had my heart attack a few weeks later... That told me why I had troubles on that hunt.

It was a good hunt and the cow has been delicious. I'll be back!

Regards, Guy

Glad you’re on the mend buddy. You’ve got some more to do!

It was a great hunt! Love to have you back anytime!

30-30

I have used a .308 Winchester, .30-06 and .338 Win mag to do the described tasks. A .308 or .270 Winchester with 150's would make fine minimums.

Though I don't shoot one, I have three hunting buddies who have used .270 Winchesters to take many elk.

Given the right distance, angle, presentation , and a perfect shot , you can kill them with about anything. BUT, that doesn't always happen, in the real world. Neither myself or my partners have ever hunted with anything less than a 270 nor will they. Two years ago my SIL, took several shots to get a big cow down in the middle of a field shooting a 7 mm Mag, sandbagged on the top of his 4 drawer tool cabinet. Not a long shot just a little inside of 300 yards with a 160 AB . After a few days later he put the rifle back on the bench and found a loose mounting screw, which when tightened back up, moved the scope back to dead center. Anything can happen I believe it was Robert Ruark that stated "bring enough gun". My personal minimum, 7 mm AI or .308

So, the size of the cartridge had nothing to do with the cow taking several shot to get down, right?

Sounds like that could have happened with any cartridge.

My late Brother was a guide and outfitter/wrangler for fifteen years in Western Wyoming but he made his living working as a driller on gas wells North of Rock Springs/Green River. He showed me an old newspaper article about a guy who’s pickup truck overheated and was steaming and hissing so he pulled over to let it cool down. As the article said he had no idea there were elk near the road but he was wrong and a young bull charged his truck and speared his left front fender then got hung up between the tire and fender. He jumped out the truck on the shotgun side and grabbed a crowbar then beat the hung-up bull to death by breaking its neck. Unfortunately I don’t know what caliber the crowbar was but is was enough and the article said he wasn’t cited and reading between the lines kept the meat. Wow

Rick