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

I'm not sure anything I write should ever be called "required reading" nor do I want to rain on anyone's parade. Talking about guns is a hobby, just like talking baseball or trucks. Guys will have the same heated arguments over obscure baseball statistics or the amount of horsepower in Truck "A" versus Truck "B." A rifle is a tool like any other. A master craftsman can make a poor tool do fine work; a poor craftsman can do shoddy work with the finest tool. Personally, I don't have any problem talking guns, as long as the folks doing the talking understand that we're just whittling wood and wasting time. Unfortunately, some guys talk guns like the Pope talks theology. There's nothing written about the .308 that is the Revealed Word of the Lord our God... although I would like the think that had the Lord hunted elk, he would have packed a pre-'64 Winchester chambered for a .270.

30-06!

-jeff

So why are you wasting your time? The pope believes in absolutes and so do I.

The truth is out there and by god we'll try to uncover it on this forum. That's what I'm here for. The 308 is a 300yd. elk cartridge or it isn't, I don't see the grey area. In fact, before I spend 6k on an elk hunt I need to have done my homework.

Kindly hush up. some of us are trying to study.

I think a .308 is a 300 yard elk rifle and good enough for out in the Sage brush.

I don't like it in the black timber for shooting going away elk in the keyster, that's when I want my .338 or 375 with 300gr. Woodliegh bullets. I hate it when an elk goes "down" one of those steep drainages several miles deep!

I'm starting to see the grey area. I think the original question is wide open to interpretation and therefore points of view. In my mind the poster was asking if the 308 is a good 300 yard cartridge, good for every circumstance and shot presentation with available loads, good for a few yards beyond if needed, flat enough to counter misjudged distance, etc..

Craig Boddington dropped a bull cleanly with a 270 at 400 yards. IIRC Jamison rated the 270 as a 340 yard cartridge. So my answer is a qualified.. yes... the 308 can get the job done; if that's all I had I'd pull the trigger.

But, my mind is drawn back to what I'd pick off the rack for my first elk and the 30 hour drive to elk mountain. I've got better 300 yards guns. I'd be the untested newbie with the magmun. The exception being that I'd arrive with the skill to shoot one.

That right there is funny!

Brad:He probably based it on some "minimum energy requirement" or some such.

This is an interesting thread. The question in my mind is "how many elk are 300 yard elk"?

absolutes in a world of dizzying variables is drooling on yourself at best.....

woofer

I've been in on skinning a couple of elk hit in the "keyster" with the decrepit 30-30 at very short range. Penetrated a ham and broke the pelvis allowing a finisher. Didn't damage much meat either. 170 grain Power Point factory loads. I don't see "Keyster" shots needing to penetrate all the way to the heart/lung area just that they break the pelvis. The 308 with 180 grain Partitions can easily do it. This all said I prefer my Whelen for timber and my 7MM Remington magnum for the sage.

Depends where you hunt... I've shot them at 300 yards but most well under that. Before I got a rangefinder and dots I'd had 500 yard opportunities but wasn't set up to take them. Where Dober hunts on the opener, most shots are long and I know he's taken several bulls with the 270 out to 500 yards.

So I guess the answer is "it depends."

Brad: 500 is a fur piece!!

The 308 Win can certainly handle cow and bull elk at 300 yards. With 165 or 180 grain loads it retains significant velocity and energy (in the realm 2,000 ft-lbs)at 300 yards. Is the 30-06 a 350 yard elk cartridge? Me thinks so. Most of this thread is full of personal bias one way or another. Putting it all aside, a quality projectile out of a 308 Win is plenty provided you hit the animal in the vitals. This whole discussion about azz shooting an elk always interests me, as if a 270 Win or 30-06 is going to be a better azz shooter then the 308 Win. Truth is, you better be pushing a 250 gr. 33 Mag if you plan on rump shooting elk and putting them down at distances greater than 200 yards.

"It depends"...

I shot a bedded antelope at 548 yards last year... the conditions were ideal so it was a one shot kill. A bedded antelope is a lot smaller target than an elk. Under the same conditions a bull elk would have been an easy kill.

I'm with Brad on this for sure. I mean it all comes down to practice and preperation. Practice teaches you a lot of things. Like what kind of a rest do I have to have to do this, and how to find that rest and get set up right now! It also teaches one when you cannot get it done and when not to drop the hammer.

If I can say consistently take out a pd that is balled up at 500 from field positions (not some flaky shooting table) and if I can consistently shoot sub moa @ 500 from similar postions then I really do not worry about an elk/deer/lope etc.

Long range is really a person to person kind of thing. I can well remember playing ball in college, to some a 12' shot was a long range to others 19' 9" wasn't long at all... it all comes down to practice.

Under many conditions I feel quite comfy I could stick my bullet out of my Mashburn in a bulls ear at 500. So, the old arm pit shot isn't too tough at all. Range, set up, pick the dot and drop the critter.

Oh and b4 someone gets all bent about taking shots at range my old Mashburn is having its 9th tube put on it this year so I kind of feel like I've put my time in.

Bottom line, I have learned that to the practiced and properly set up person 500 isn't very far.

Dober

Bought my 11 yo son a .308 (Remmy SPS youth w/ VX-1 2-7x33) for x-mas last year, Grew tired of the single shot .243. It's made 5 shots this year, with handloaded 150 HDY SP's at 2700 fps. 2 deer, 2 bobcats, and 1 coyote. Everything dropped where it stood. My 8 yo daughter killed her 1st deer with it this year also. The .308 is much more impressive than it's stature would have you believe. I've killed whitetails with my .308 well past 350, treated 'em the same as those longer cartridges. The .308 gets my stamp, for what it's worth. My only Elk is a large 6x7, as pictured next to my name, was killed with a 7RM at 200 yards. After skinning and disecting, I would fully trust a .308 to carry the mail on my next Elk hunt.

Wanna find out how a couple of hundred fps DON'T matter? Haul a good cross section of oak out to 300 yards and shoot it with 'yer magnum, turn it 90 degrees and shoot it with a shorty. I've done this with rifles out far and muzzleloaders up close. Tears your bullets all to he11, but proves that magnum does not equal armor piercing. A few buds and I did this last year, does it prove anything, not really. It just makes all those guys that scream '7mag' and 'my 3-hunnard' take a pause. My friends did. They are much more shorty friendly these days. Are they equal? Heck no! Just made them realize that a .308 isn't just a glorified .22 mag.

Your right Big Whoop, you don't want to go around shooting elk up the keyster with a .308 or any medium caliber cartridge..That is when smart hunters pick up the 338 Win or 375 H&H and venture into the black timber...the medium calibers are for open country and broadside or slightly angled shots..The Mountains are full of carcasses because some jerk stuck a 150 gr. Bal. Tip or Silvertip up a big bulls ass...It's foolish...

Ray, you're so full of prunes it's amusing. The only elk pic I've ever seen you post was a high fence bull...

Brad/Dober: I can understand the practice issue real well. You have to know the rifle and load.

I let a very large mule deer walk year before last at 550;just did not like the opportunity....