Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Is the .308 a 300yd. elk cartridge?

A mule deer. Hell, I've taken out camels past 500 yd with the 308. The ones I saw sure are a might bigger than a mule deer.

Uh.... details?

-jeff

elkcreek...sounds like we shared the same sandbox back in 1990.

elkcreek: My point was not whether the cartridge was sufficient, just that I was not familiar enough with the trajectory at that distance to chance it; plus it was late in the day,and a bad hit meant a disagreeable chase on a rugged mountain with darkness closing in.I figured it was best to let him walk.

I have it figured that a camel is bigger than a mule deer, but thanks for the advice. When I'm going camel hunting, I'll give you a call..........

IMHO
Shooting anything up the rear end with any weapon is not something I support -- unless you are trying to stop an already wounded animal -- or you are in a fire fight.
again, just my opinion
mrk

During deer season, I get called a couple times a week to help people cut up their deer. It's amazing how many people don't know how to do that. I hate it when someone gets the urge to try a Texas heart shot (why Texas?). It makes green oatmeal out of the guts and spreads it through the meat. They smell and the meat has a smell to it no matter what you do. I don't like gut shot venison either for that matter. It usually winds up sausage.

I also have a comment about the "enough gun argument." I helped three people look for wounded deer this season. All three felt good about the shot, immediately found blood, and couldn't find blood after a few dozen yards. We lost all three deer. I only found 1 deer I helped look for this season. I hunted N.C. for 18 years. In that time, I've only had to look for 1 deer, which I found the next day. It was the only deer I ever shot in the neck. If you're shooting a round with enough energy to penetrate the body and destroy the vitals, you're good. Guys wounding deer are shooting at deer, not vitals. Moving deer, off hand snap shots, nerves... The shotgun slugs the guys were using would kill a moose, so it's not the cartridge's fault, just bad shooting. I can't imagine a .308 with a thick jacketed heavily built bullet like a Swift A Frame or the Speer Grand Slam wouldn't do the job. I've loaded the Speer 180's for guys moose, bear, and deer hunting.

Brad,
You don't know [bleep] about me..I have been hunting elk in Idahos wilderness for over 25 years now, my garage is full of horns...Where do you come from, Flame hill...

Don't feed the trolls, they are becoming too abundant.

Sure Ray, whatever you say... could be your garage is full of dead elk but the only elk pic I've ever seen you post was one you shot behind a high fence. You know it's true.

I suspect your "dark timber elk hunting" is about exactly the same as your legendary gunsmithing...

Aww heck, it's time for the oral diarhea.

Trying to put the thread back on track again. I just read a couple of posts this evening from the likes of Mule Deer and Aussiegunwriter extolling the virtues of the 7x57. John said something like you could hunt a lifetime and not tell the difference between a well pointed 7x57 and a 30-06. Now that carries a lot of weight coming from him! Aussie with his culling experience and John B. with his hunting travels.

Add to that all the kids and women who routinely hunt elk with non-magnum cartridges enjoy elk roast on a routine basis.
I guess what the "experts" are telling us is that a combination of a quality bullet, great bullet placement at sane ranges will put the great animal on the ground - for good.
Carry on.

From here, the debate would go towards whether, say, the .308 will put them down as decisively as, say, a 338 Win Mag. With anecdotes a'plenty about the country elk live in and their predispostion towards diving into the deepest hole they can find to die, if given that option...

Just warning you about the can of worms you just opened up <g>.

-jeff

Since I put my 7x57 together it has become the first rifle I choose for many tasks. I could have done the same with a 308, in fact I recently had a 308 barrel put on a Mauser 24/47 along with having the bolt bent, drilled and tapped. All I need now is a Bueller safety, a piece of wood, paint job and a tough scope. In 18 years of elk hunting I only took one shot over 400 yards. 450 yards with a 338 using Barnes x bullets. I'll never again take a shot that long with a 338 or ever use an X bullet again. I got the elk though.

long ago I learned to not even use a X bullet for a shot across the living room....

That bullet was some piece of work, IMO most of the proponents of it were as well.......


Dober

"the .308 will put them down as decisively as, say, a 338 Win Mag"

What matters is shot placement. If you have acceptable shot placement at a good angle using a top-grade bullet within 300 yards, I don't think there's a statistical difference in the kill percentage between the .308 and the .338. A well-placed shot is going to anchor an elk at that range with either chambering.

On this subject, I think we can learn something from economics. As cars become more safe with advanced safety equipment, people have more accidents. Why? As people feel safer they tend to engage in riskier behavior. The guy who will drive 20 mph down an icy road in his old beater may run at 40 mph in his brand new Hummer. The economist Stephen Landsburg half-joked that if we want people to really drive safely, we should pull out seat belt and mount a spear on the steering wheel pointed at the driver's chest.

I think the same thing happens with magnums. A hunter with an ultra magnum might take a shot that he would pass if he were packing a rfile chambered for a .308 or a 7x57 or some other "modest" cartridge. While not universally true, I think the hunter who carries a "modest" rifle is generally more likely to 1) shoot the rifle more often, particularly in the off season; 2) know and understand the limitations of the cartridge; 3) pass on shots where the range, angle or conditions are suboptimal. Now, there's really no way to prove this, but the same phenomena occurs with driving and other human activities... so I think it reasonable to assume there is some degree of this occuring in hunting and shooting.

In the words of F. Lee Erney, "A rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills." From where I sit, it is the good hunter that kills, quickly and cleanly.

+1 on that.

Hampstead,

I agree! How could an elk discern whether its vitals were to be destroyed by a .25-'06 Rem or a .300 RUM?

A bullet of a .308 Win through the vitals of an elk will kill it just as plainly as if it were struck by any other round in the identical place.



Merry Christmas,


Mando

We quit calling them "X" bullets years ago... "F" bullets described them better.