Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting What is your rifle of choice this season

Always have used my old boring Remington 700 in 338wm with Barnes 225’s that a gunsmith buddy built for me years ago. Hasn’t failed me yet.

It worked just fine, 1 shot, 1elk!

Didn’t get drawn this year but it would be a Ruger 77 and a Tikka T3x both in .30-06

Fierce fury 300wsm shooting terminal ascent 200 gr.

Has taken enough elk and deer now, there's not really another choice.

Dang, looks as if Im all alone with my custom Mauser action, with custom walnut stock and custom barrel in 257 Roberts caliber. It has 2 elk to its credit and better not tell how many whitetails. Inherited this rifle from my brother who in turn received it from our cousin. If I miss, its all my fault.

Been wanting to get some blood on my dad’s ruger. So I Ended up taking the tanger 06. Vx1 4-12 with their version of BDC? Had the tikka in the cabin as a back up or if weather got nasty.
She was Loaded with 180 game kings. I Had small stash of moms and dads ashes with me that I was going to drop off in my honey hole as I want to be have of my ashes there. 15 minutes into sitting down waiting for my daughter to come up from The other side. I Had a heard of good 70-80 head of elk come out from behind me to my right . They walked in front me and kept on moving through the clearing until the whole heard was up. I had the second half of the heard in front me feeding.
It was a spike season and the only spike in the bunch was in the first half that is now feeding in and out of the trees where my daughter was suppose to be set up. This was About 100 -120 yards to my 10-11 oclock.
Heard no gun shot so I knew she wasn’t at her spot yet. Tried to find that spike on the other side but couldn’t and with the nearest cow maybe 40 yards from me, I couldn’t make too much movement. Every time I came across a cow looking at me I had to stop moving and wait untill she looked down. After 10 minutes of this my arms were on fire and no spikes. Just few rag horns, one solid 5x and the biggest branch bull Ive seen in this unit. I’ve hunted this area for 15 years now. When they finally started moving out I got up and by the time I got to the clearing my daughter ended up running into them and bumped them across a clearing.
I never spread mom and dad’s ashes, and I’ll be hunting with them more often.
* Few weeks later a guy posted a pic of this bull shot on private late season tag.

Got a cow with my Wby Vanguard 270 Win and handloaded 145 Eld-X bullets. I carried my Howa 300 PRC a couple times but did not see anything on those trips.

That's a helluva bull.

MM

What dreams are made of right there, congratulations!

1 vote for .300 Win Mag here.

Getting too old (or lazy) to pack or put up with a heavy rifle or one that has a lot of recoil.
So picking a rifle out of the safe has been pretty easy. Since about 2017 I’ve been using my Kimber 6.5CM and whatever 140’s I’ve got loaded up. It’s taken an elk each year since purchase.

It’s not so much what you hit em with as where you hit em.
The hardest part of elk hunting is finding elk......

It is!
too bad I only had a spike tag, otherwise that would be me behind that stud.

I killed 2 elk this year, one with my 338 Norma, one with my 6.5-284. Both elk never moved 5 feet.

Would have been a Tikka 6.5 Creed ... if drawn.

Won't be using that combo again. What a chit show. Took 6 shots to kill this funky looking bull. First shot right in the pocket at 200yds, second shot just a bit back but still in vitals as he was moving out about 250yds, 3rd shot clipped the right rear hawk as he was really moving out and dropping out of sight at that point. Searched around for 20 minutes (full expecting to find a dead bull) then found where he had dropped down crossed a road. He left skid marks on the frozen ground where he stopped and got ready to jump a fence. Found fresh hair on the fence so we knew it was him - but, he had gone onto private property. Made a big loop out and around to stay on public land and finally caught his tracks again. Saw him at about 50 yards - frontal shot between 2 tightly spaced pine trees. Popped him again in the neck/shoulder area and he ran off again. Caught up again and put 2 more in him from 50 yards broadside before he finally dropped. 143gr 6.5mm ELD-X's will be reserved for deer bullets from now on. Bummer because they shoot tiny groups out of my Tikka.

Bob Hagel once wrote a few words that should be engraved in the mind of every big-game hunter. He stated, “You should not use a cartridge that does the job when everything goes right; you need one that works when everything goes wrong.”The late John Wooters felt the same way about elk.Yes you can kill an elk with a small cartridge and light weight bullets,but if you don't put them down right away and run,your gonna play hell trying to keep up with them for follow up shots.A bad hit is a bad hit with any cartridge used,but a bigger cartridge can make a bigger wound channel on those big animals and make a difference in some cases of being able to recover the animal or not.

My friend…….we have the same signature line! As you stated, a lot of wisdom in that statement! memtb

I am using the rest of my ELD X bullets at the range (7 PRC). Had a similar experience on a cow last month.

I believe it's enough gun, plenty of elk killed with .308 Win's or it's offspring (or similar) to know it works. I don't think it's the right bullet for the job. And it pisses me off that it is advertised as such. FWIW: That was elk #17 for me.

Too bad because they are very accurate. If I ever use the Creedmoor again I'll use good old Interlocks or Partitions.

Yes I agree,bullets make a big difference no matter what cartridge your shooting.