Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Head shot on an elk?

2 years ago I was supposed to go on an elk hunt in Canada,trip got cancled, any way.......the only scoped rifle I own is a Mod 7 in 308.
the outfitter told me I couldn't use it for elk because it wasn't enough gun,I told him I knew how to shoot it well and I planned on keeping my range max at 200 yds,and that I would be only taking head shot's.
he and my friends that were going all freaked out,saying it was the wrong thing to do,that head shooting an elk would be stupid as all hell.
when I asked why, they said it's just wrong.

any thoughts?

Nothing wrong if you can make the shot. You need another outfitter because the 308 is plenty of gun for Elk if you use a good bullet and you can shoot.

I personaly wouldn't take a head shot unless it was the only shot I had and probably not then either. I saw a guy shoot one in the head and just blow the jaw apart, luckily he was able to get another round in the vitals a few minutes later. Watching that elk run around with it's jaw hanging has made me rethink that shot. The vitals are a much bigger target and just as deadly.

You're 308 is plenty of gun for elk. I don't know what those guys are thinking. I down load my 06 with a 165 tsx to 308 levels for my wife and she has killed elk out to 270 yds, no problem. A 150 gr bullet would be fine also.

Being in Canada, maybe they want you to have something bigger for personal bear protection.

Kent

If you can make the shot fine.The only down side I see of head shots is that the animal does not bleed out a swell as a lung shot

First, the outfitter is a nitwit. The .308 is plenty of cartridge for elk, since it basically duplicates moderate .30-06 factory loads--and anybody who says the .30-06 isn't enough for elk is a double nitwit.

A guy who claimed to shoot everything in the head, because he was such a fantastic shot, moved into an area I often hunt in Montana maybe 15 years ago. For the next few years, local hunters kept running into animals with their jaws shot off, or holes in their ears. The claim that many make (including his particular guy) that head shots either kill clean or miss clean is not true.

Well, I'm with the outfitter and your friends concerning head shots. (I think the caliber is fantastic and ridiculously more than adequate) A lot of folks here CAN do it, but few (note I said few) do. Don't be a hero. Put it in the boiler and be freaking done with it. No one will think you're any less of a man, nor will they think you're any less of a hunter or marksmen. Mule Deer's logic above suffices just fine and I'm in total agreement.

Yep....any outfitter that says the .308 aint enough for elk is sayin something about his or her shooting skills, or questioning yours. The .308 is plenty....

Other than that....as for head shots, well if you can make it then go for it. Personally on elk I like takin out the lungs and blowing through a shoulder if possible.....

Animals are always moving their heads around--it is part of their defense/awareness behaviors. It would be a tough target to hit. Even if you can shoot 1/4 inch groups at 100 yards, the target may no longer be where your 1/4in is at.

If you can blow balloons up to about the size of an elk's brain (a little bit bigger than your fist), and tie then on a string so that they can move erratically in the breeze, and hit them 95% at a given range, then in my book you would be ready to go for head shots at that range. But having shot a lot of blowing balloons, I doubt I could do it at much more than 50 yards. But I can hit chest sized balloons at 200 yards plus quite readily.

I think a .308 on a standard chest shot would have a high probability of being fatal at a far greater distance than I would have any hope of hitting small blowing balloons.

I guided for elk hunters for several years. By far, my finest hunter was a retired postman who shot a .308 Winchester. The rifle was an early-Remington 700, his scope was a 2-7 Leupold and he shot either 150-grain Remington Pointed Corelokts or, later, 150-grain Hornady Spire Points.

This was pre-lazer days, but my hunter knew how far 200 yards was and he steadfastly refused to shoot further. So every year I would set him up for a shot and every year he cleanly killed his elk.

He'd double lung the elk ... no fancy stuff ... just a single shot through both lungs that usually holed the aorta and the elk tumbled off the slope.

More importantly, the man could walk and was not afraid to dive into canyons with me.

The most important things in elk hunting are being able to walk, patience, being able to go where the elk are, being totally familiar with your rifle and scope, spending lots of trigger time and being able to take the time that it takes to place that ONE SHOT precisely on target.

The magazines have to sell print and the factories have to sell guns. Regardless of all the promotion and chaff, most good deer cartriges do a very decent job on elk. I've killed elk cleanly with a .25-'06 and have killed lots with a .280 & 280 Ackley with 120BTs and 140BTs. And the .30-'06 with 150-grain Hornady Interlockeds is stellar.

It does not take a 300 Ultra Whiz Bang. It takes a hunter, a rifleman and a decent rifle/cartridge.

Yeah, your outfitter is mentally challenged. But then, so was the rancher I hunted with for so long in Alberta ... according to my friend Philip, the .308 simply bounced off of deer, elk and mooses, yet his .25-'06 killed them perfectly. And most of the local guys used Browning BLRs in .243 Winchester for moose ... and they worked perfectly.

Being a hunter and taking the time to place the bullet perfectly is the most important thing in any hunting. Period.

Steve

There you have it!!

Ain't it a bitch that the most important things in hunting is stuff that you cannot buy????

Being able to walk, patience, marksmanship, trigger time, knowing the animal, scouting, waiting for the animal to position himself for the shot, perfectly placing that ONE SHOT.

All of it is stuff that you cannot buy ... and it is PRICELESS!!!!

All else is total bullshit.

Steve

No one has ever said it better.

BMT

dogzapper, perfectly said.

Kent

The only good head shot is the one with the animal either facing directly toward you, or directly away. That way, if you hit a little off of your intended POI, but still on hair, it's a kill shot. Otherwise, it's a miss. The only way you might wound the animal, as MD said, is if you shoot a hole through an ear.

With that being said, so far I have never had the need to take a head shot.

Oh, and BTW, load that .308 with a good 150-180gr bullet and it should work just fine.

Head shot?

Damn rights, when I'm up close and have an elk absolutely dead to rights, I'll bust them in the head. In fact, my last bull was a decent 300-point 6X5 and I was maybe ten yards behind him. I eased the rifle up and shot him at the base of the skull. LIGHTS OUT.

Actually, I had no other shot, but what I had was just fine and dandy. Made a great corpus delicious to work on because the .284" 120-grain Ballistic popped a carotid on the way out.

Not PC, but am I ever???? I don't write for the funnybooks any more, so I can do that.

Steve

You DAMN sure shouldnt shoot one in the head with a Ballistic Tip!!!! The nerve of some people!! Only thing better would have been to shoot that ol bull with a 243win and BT's...in the head.....

Hell, YES. A couple of years ago, I shot a buck near Jordan, Montana. I was working up a hillside in the early morning (OK, maybe it was pushing dark a wee bit ) and came upon a really heavy-horned buck that had his head shoved through a tree ... looking at me. The range was maybe 50 feet. I put a 120 Ballistic right between his frickin' eyes.

Hey, you PLAY DIRTY out there. If the shot is absolutely there and you ain't gonna blow it, take it!!!

Of course, you always take the time to set up the shot .... but sometimes you take your time incredibly fast.

Steve

a head shot is perhaps the most unethical shot you can take, and a tremendous opportunity for the anti's to get hunting taken away from us. none of you is good enough to make that shot. i will say it again NONE of you, myself included is good enough to take an ethical shot on game. too many variables involved- you may luck into it once but more often an animal will be horribly wounded and die a slow and very painful death. any responsible and worthy sportsman will agree. if you want hunting taken away just keep speaking of this type of action. no one is more pro-gun and pro-hunting than i am but to think of an animal walking around starving to death because someone did something so stupid as try to take a head shot...once you see it you won't forget it. i can not say it enough just let the anti's get wind of this or better yet get it on film and you will have given them more than money can buy. it is unethical and irresponsible every time. please think about this it is not worth it, besides do any of you know the size of a deer or elk's brain?

I will open by saying that, pending the unforseen, all elk in my crosshairs will be facing a 210gr tsx from my .340 Wby. If your outfitter liked the idea of larger calibers for elk I can understand but to simply dismiss a .308 as not being able to take elk is just silly, especially with the arrival of the new premium bullets. I've been staring real hard at a stainless T3 Lite in .308 of late. (didn't somebody mention a lot of walking earlier?)

I've never liked headshots on game animals. The actual target is quite small and the head is the most likely part of an animal to move abruptly at any time which can lead to horrific wounds. Put a good bullet from an adequate caliber in the vitals and you've got your elk.

I always wonder about outfitters that frown on things that make so much sense...like the 308 for elk....ditto Partitions. I venture most people would be better armed with a 308 than with a 338 for just about anything in North America and most other places as well. And, in general, a 308 would certainly be better for lethal body shots on most a game animals than would a 22-250, 30-06, or even 460 Weatherby for headshots. (That doesn't mean I am opposed to the well-presented head shots described previously.)

And I gotta love this:



...cause it contains so much truth...