Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting ideal deer or ELK or both, rifle sellection, and experiance

Hard to argue with your first paragraph (or whole post), 340M .....

I've worked as gun clerk and hard to steer a beginner wrong by sticking with the .270W - .280R - or plain ole vanilla '06.

For alternative choices (or short-action rounds) the .308Winnie deserves to be included along with the 7X57 (O'Connor's wife's alledged favorite round) and 7mm-08Remmie (1980yr-version of the 7X57Mau).

We're talking D&E rounds, right? ("deer & elk")

For a dedicated "elk rifle" I've had friends who had 7mmRemMags or .338RM's ...... I'm possibly going to have built a .338/06 as a dedicated elk gun, or I might just stick with a .30/06.

When I first started hunting 35+ years ago, I was told and also read in several books/magazines that most (90% or more) big game shots would be at ranges of 100 - 250yds. This has proven to be true for me, and all other big game I witnessed other hunters kill.

Of course placement - placement - placement is the biggest criteria to quickly and humanely dispatching a "big gaminal," along with selecting quality ammo with appropriate bullets stuffed in 'em.

I'd be confident following your advice.

Whatever floats your boat will get the job done within reason as long as you are familiar with it's capabilities and use it within your ability. For me my go to is a 7 Rem Mag, handloaded 140 Ab's, has accounted for a small pile of elk on down to coues deer, yotes, stink pigs etc and everything in between the last 3 years I've owned it. Very flat shooting, is a teddy bear to shoot, extremely accurate for me and plays he11 on anything you shoot with it.

The last 5 years used a few different cartridges for moose elk and bear.All were good..Guns and ammo used are

270 Win...150 gr Winchester Power Points
7mm STW...150 gr Nosler Partition
30-06 180 gr Winchester Power Points and 165 Sierra Gameking
300 Win Mag..150 gr Power Points..165 and 180 gr Winchester Failsafe.
338 Win Mag..200 gr Winchester Power Points and 250 gr Barnes X.

340mag, I agree with what you say- though I'm amazed the folks who advocate very light calibers have not showed up yet- and my only comment is that, of course, a guy needs to know their limitations with regards to recoil and how much rifle they want to hunt with. A cannon you can't shoot is a very poor elk rifle; a smaller rifle you CAN shoot is a good elk rifle.

Personally, from what I've seen of elk and elk hunting so far in my limited elk career, I want a cannon <g>. I enjoy shooting my .338 and .325's, so that's what I use.

-jeff

I wish I could figure out why it is so important that some have to tell others what they have to use on elk. Especaily the ones who start off saying "I haven't hunted elk much or I have only shot a few"

SHEEEEEESSSH!

Sorry Saddlesore. I hear you. I've just seen a .338 drop two elk on the spot. The two I've seen that were killed with a 30-06 ran a ways. Small sample- nothing like your experience- but it's what I've seen and, since I really like my .338, it leads me that way.

I always try to make clear that I'm not speaking as an expert so that people can weight my opinion appropriatly. They should give yours more weight- no argument from me.

-jeff

I think having confidence in a certain rifle can trump slight ballistic advantage. I have a 7mm RM Mauser that just fits me right, comes up like a shotgun and whatever I shoot at falls dead. Though I have about five other suitable big game rifles, unless I take the old 300 savage out for sentimental reasons or something, I just grab that old Mauser for everything from coyotes to elk.

Not saying I've never missed with it, but misses are pretty rare.

Sorry Butthurt, I guess nobodies experiences other than your own amount to a hill of beans, I'll just go crawl back into my dark little hole now.

CenterMass. I don't care what anybodies experience is or was. I just want to know why some guys feel they have to tell what others should use. Seems to me, anyone with a small smattering of grey matter can figure out what he /she should use to kill and elk or a deer and the heck what evey body else thinks. As for a hill of beans, the bigger the hill,the more it counts. If someone starts off and says I haven't killed an elk, deer or what ever,but you should use a xxx, that prtty much sums up the value of the advice. There are a heck of a lot of posters on this forum that have more experince shooting paper and reading ballistic tables than they have of actually killing a pile of animals. On the other hand, there are quite a few that have the actual killing experince on here also. I happen to place myself in the latter category, but don't presume to tell others what they have to use. Yes,my opinion is the only one that matters to me

It sounds as to me this was aimed at degrading several peoples input on this thread, forgive me if I'm wrong and this wasn't meant as just a 'snide remark'.

Looks like people have shared whats worked for them on this thread without reading the entire thing word for word I don't see anybody on here telling someone what "they have to use".

Obsessing over the perfect elk rifle was a time comsuming hobby for friends and myself, when we were all running around chasing elk all over the west,along with mule deer and antelope,etc. We had fun and learned a lot.

One friend, Paul, was lefty and we walked into our local firearms emporium one night to see a gleaming,left-hand, Weatherby Mark V chambered for 340 Weatherby.This was about 1984-85. Everyone gave him a hard time, but he bought it, sent it to Brown Precision for a stock, and I got to watch the rifle in his hands roll some nice bulls,up close and far out.It has a lasting impression on elk, but he did not shoot enough of them to experience the elk staggering around...the ones I saw him shoot collapsed like dynamited smoke-stacks. I don't remember a lot of staggering....or twitching...just bang-flops.

The various 300 Weatherby and Winchester mags I used did the same.Along the way I was on the scene when the 30/06, 270, 7x57, 25/06,7 mags,etc have been used on elk, as well as all the above and more on mule deer and antelope.I used a bunch myself, but mostly 300 mags on elk.

Much as I love the 300's today I am down to one, and don't know how much action it will see.Everyone has their notion of what is ideal for them,and for me, right now,I would pick a magnum cased 7 as "perfect" for me, as a one gun solution for these 3 animals. Others work as well, but in a rifle under 8 pounds it is tough to beat the combination of flat trajectory, accuracy, terminal performance,and moderate recoil of the 7Rem Mag/Weatherby class of cartridges. While not as potent as the big 30's or 338's, they still put big game down decisively without the recoil of the larger calibers, and the bullets naturally penetrate a long way, and fly flat getting there.

Smarter, more experienced guys than me came to the same conclusion and figured the big 7's cut a large swath as general-purpose big game rifles: two of them(there are MANY others) were Warren Page and Bob Hagel,with the 7mm Mashburn. Hagel, of course, also liked the 340; and Page the 375 Weatherby.

Biggest thing I noticed is that the tired, old proverb about hitting them well with a good bullet is true, regardless of caliber, so long as it was reasonable.If you shoot well, it is pretty hard to be undergunned.

Everytime I start thinking about adding a specialized Elk rifle in a 338 something or other, along comes a sensible argument like BobNH's, and I remember why I like trusty my old 7mm Rem Mag so much. Thanks Bob, now I'll concentrate on building that .257 Bob.

Centermass. Wasn't meant as a snide remark. You could put in about any subject and some will chime in with the " I haven't done it, but".

I also wasn't degrading any ones post specificly.

It's been proven pretty much a gazillion times that it isn't so much what you hit them with,but where

Glacier:Sometimes the quest for the "perfect big game rifle" ends right under our noses.......

Ain't that the truth.

I remember struggling with my rifle the first few tears and everyone agreeing it was a lemon.
After much practice, finding the cartridge it liked, working through a few problems, it has taken many elk and become a highly coveted rifle in my circle.

Funny how much 'the rifle' has changed.

+300

I see way too many guys that don't practice enough, and taking a magnum to the range once before the hunt darn near makes it worse.

Spot

Nobody should hunt with a rifle they cannot shoot.

Most people need to practice regularly with a rifle to be comfortable with it.

Many people won't practice with a "large" rifle for whatever reasons. Therefore, they should use a smaller rifle rather than carry something they cannot shoot.

I love my 338 and practice with it all the time and shoot it well. I think it's an excellent choice for elk- given the above disclaimers. I've seen it work extremely well firsthand, and talked to many other hunters who have also seen it work extremely well.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Well, except that I'm hunting elk with a .325 this year. :-)

-jeff

Writer Wayne Van Zwoll has hunted elk for many years and it looks like he's made a progression like many of us with some or a lot of experience have. I know he's hunted with the various 300 magnums, the 308 Norma to be specific, the 35 Whelen, and I'm sure many more of the bigger mediums than I'm aware of.

Of late though he's written about taking elk with the 32 Special and the 30-30 with Hornaday's new "pointy" loads in these lever guns which is just fine. There are many cartridge/rifle combinations that will work including some handguns and muzzleloaders. But this offhand comment that it isn't what you hit them with but where is only partially true and a little simplistic because what you hit them with can also make it easier to hit them where you need to.

And everybody just needs to make that decision for themselves and be comfortable with whatever limitations that decision imposes.

Gdv

"But this offhand comment that it isn't what you hit them with but where is only partially true and a little simplistic because what you hit them with can also make it easier to hit them where you need to."

WELL STATED,.... I think thats one reason IM so comfortable useing a 340wby with 250 grain hoprnady bullets, I CAN effectively reach the ELKS vitals from almost any reasonable angle , something not always something that you can reasonably expect to do with some of the smaller calibers

That is the old and tired argument that I can shoot an elk at any reasonable angle if I use an magnum. I think the poster was alluding to the fact that with less recoiling rifle, putting the bullet where it needs to go is easier for most shooters. I may be wrong though. Maybe guys that travel far who invest big bucks in a hunt feel they have to take those shots. I am closer and I can wait for a better presentation

It is not an off hand comment though. Put a bullet through the heart /lungs and the elk is going to die.I don't care if it is a yearly or a 700 lb bull. Experince has shown me that guys who cry that a lung shot did not kill an elk right away and found it after long tracking job found that the shot was a little too far back and only clipped the lung. I have shot elk with a 44 mag carbine up though a 7 mag and can't really say any died any differntly when hit right. A lot of studies have shown about the same results. Reference the 10,000 moose study asone