Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting which bullet recommended

I've dropped a few elk with a 308. I'm a fan of ttsx at any distance.

168gr ttsx I think around 500 yards or so. 1shot

I've only shot 8 or 10 elk with my .308's but experience with .308 and other similar cartridges would lead me to suggest any of those bullets are OK choices for most elk hunting. 165's seem to be the "sweet spot" for .308 bullet weights when hunting critters bigger than deer. I've had good results with the Speer Grand Slam bullets, and it's the one I have the most confidence and experience with, so that's my recommendation. Speer Grand Slam 165.

I have an Afrikaner friend in South Africa. Way back in the mid 90'she used the 180 Mag Tip in his .308 for "culling jobs". He always tried for head shots, but often he had to shoulder shoot them. He killed all kinds of game including Cape Eland. For one thing, then they were cheap and he would buy them in cases, ha. Only problem was that South African powder he used was very temperature sensitive. He made a trip to the Drakensburg Mountains and it was ice/snow/very cold. He shot an Eland twice on the shoulder before he got a head shot. On inspection, they barely went through the Elands skin and were very slow. He had some Military Ball ammo and finished his cull with head shots.

Any mono bullet. You want the smallest wound channel possible and none of that scary lead stuff.

It may with Hammer or Cutting Edge bullets.

DF

Yeah, a TTSX will just pencil through from a .308 Win...

More than likely a one-off. The bullet hit the shoulder, didn't open, and was found facing backwards on the off side. But, it was enough to kill the elk. 168 TTSX supposedly open at lower velocities than the 150 TTSX, so if I wanted to use a mono in the 308, that's what I'd be inclined to use.

Lovely bull! But I'd not use a mono in the 308 beyond 500... I just don't think it has the gas to open mono's reliably much past that range.

Past three years I’ve killed four elk with my 308 and 150TTSX. All four broadside (I’ve never killed two broadside elk in a row until now), three of them 80yds or less, one at about 250 yds.

Naturally all four exited, all four left very moderate exit holes, as usual with broadside armpit shots none fell down on the spot, three ran 30-50 yds. The fourth took a couple steps and her front half was covered by several tree trunks, so I had to wait, and wait, and wait some more until she finally took two steps forward and I shot her in the neck.

Unless Barnes intends for the 150 TTSX’s to be used exclusively for the 300RUM, they don’t need to be as tough as they are.

I have a bunch of them, and will continue to use them until gone because two exits will always keep a critter from going very far, but have a bunch of 150 and 168 E-Tips waiting in the wings…….

A friend and his sons have killed several elk with the 150 E-Tip and says they perform better than the 150 TTSX’s used previously.

Good stuff Casey, thanks for sharing. I'll pick up some 150 e-tips when they show up on SPS.

^^^ This……

What’s wrong with the 165 grand slam?

If they’re anything like the original Grandslams you make a good point…….

Nothing, other than it's hard to find. Flatbrimmers don't know what it is since it isn't an alphabet bullet. Of the four bullets the OP listed, it would be my first choice.

155 Scenar

Brad, i have over 500 165 grand slams and 300 180 mag-tips. also have 3 full boxes of ammo of original gold box federal premium 308, 165 gr trophy bonded bear claw

I may be in the minority but I like the Sierra HP. I use them a lot in my 30/06s and have always had good luck with them. They can be a little hard on meat and the BC isn’t anything special but they have been easy to get to shoot and they have given good results on game. They’re kind of a mix terminally between the destruction of a match bullet but they are a bit harder and penetrate well for exits.

I’m trying to recall but I don’t think I’ve ever shot an animal twice with them, the two big bucks I killed this year were one shot deals and straight down.

I've read that newer Ballistic Tips perform very much like Accubonds. The 168's shoot very well in my rifle. Thoughts?

Go the Nosler website and look at the cutaways of the AB vs the BT—the AB has a lot thicker jacket, especially in the back half.

Interestingly, Nosler shows the Silver Ballistic Tip having a jacket thickness somewhere between the AB and BT.

A couple of years ago I did some water jug testing. The 165GS from a .308 penetrated more jugs than 210 partitions from my .338-06.