Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Biggest .257 Game

Biggest was a bull tahr, longest was a bull tahr at 530 yards, both taken with a 100 gr. Barnes.

With regards to the 120 gr. Barnes: the biggest animal I shot was a cow buffalo with a .284 Winchester, in the head. It was a follow up shot for someone else that was using a MUCH larger rifle.

I got to agree with Ray, it has changed today. I've been hunting out west for about the last 30 years. I remember when I first started going I rarely saw other hunters, now days lots of areas look like back east on opening day a pumpkin patch. I guess its do to shrinking habitat and access to private property. Never use to have any trouble getting permission to hunt private ranches just for the asking, most are leasted now. I guess this is just a long winded way of saying taking a bull Elk on public land consistently is tought today. You have lots of competition not many chances. Sure you can kill an Elk with a .257, but why not use the best tool for the job. If you're a non resident you've spent a small fortune just on the tag, let alone all your other expenses. So after you've been hunting for a week and you get 1 maginal shot you'll probably take it. My hunt this year was over the first morning. I hiked early into the high tree line and my chance came at about 50 yards facing straight at me. I used a .350 rem mag & 200 Barnes straight in the chest. The bull went straight back on his ass and fell over on his side and was done. I don't have any other point of reference as all mine have fallen to that .350 or a .338, and I really don't like recoil.

There was a story years back in an NRA publication where the author described his witness of an Elk culling by a game dept employee. If I remember correctly 40 elk were to culled. The shooter killed 20 with a .30-06 and 20 with a .375 H&H. The authors impression was the .375 killed Elk about the way the .30-06 kills deer, and just about everybody has that point of reference.

There's nothing like walking up to your first Elk, why chance it, the animal deserves for you to use the best tool. Anyone can finance a second rifle just for Elk hunting.

No, it was a .270 Winchester with a 130 TSX. It was a cow bison, but fully grown and close to 1000 pounds nonetheless. My wife shot it through both lungs just over the top of the heart, and the cow went about 40 yards and keeled over.

I suspect the same thing might have happened with a .257 Wby., though we might have recovered a 100 TSX under the hide on the far side.

I remember that article. It appeared in the American Rifleman.
I was very disappointed in the performance of the Winchester Silver Tip bullets in the '06. Even on broadside shots, well over half of the 220 gr. bullets were recovered. Many of them had shed their cores. Very few of the 300 gr. bullets in the .375 were recovered.
Nowadays we have much better bullets from which to choose. That does make a big difference.
As far as the .25-06 and the .257 Roy on elk class stuff, it wouldn't be my first choice. But if that what I had, if it's all I could really shoot well, and I wanted to shoot an elk, I'd use it. Just based on what I've seen do on other animals of that class. But I'd make darn sure I used the heaviest premium bullets I could get for it. E

I've got a buddy running a 25'06 in a Ruger #1, he uses Barnes 100gr. TSX's in his reloads that approach 3500fps (tell me about it!)
His Father in'law, raises wood bison, and my buddy gets to help out with the slaughter of a few of them. He has yet to recover a bullet from any of the head shots he taken, in the skull just above the center line between the eyes, and usually out the back of the skull just above the Axis bone.

His wife even intentionally shot a bull moose at 250 yards right through both front shoulders, yup you guessed it, that shot even exited. Oh ya the moose dropped dead on the spot.

I remeber that article having a slightly different outcome. It did mention the superiority of the 375 but said that while both did well, the chief difference was in the distance traveled after the shot. I think they said it was about 40 yds with the 220gr 06. Does anyone have the article handy to check the facts?

i hit a possum once...
at least i think i hit 'em. i couldnt see thru the red cloud.

A .257Roy will handle anything in Vermont, and at ranges you're VERY unlikely to shoot up there (hunted there for a number of years).

Don't try this at home folks:

WDM Bell killed hundreds of Elephants with a 7mm Mauser and a 6.5mmMS

Roy Weatherby killed a Rhino with a 257 Weatherby

As I said, "don't try this at home"

well not a weatherby, but my uncles all purpose rifle for elk and mule deer is a 257 roberts. He has taken plenty of mule deer and elk with it

its all about good bullets and placement

Not a big animal at all, but a coues buck at 571 yards.

Too far. Last .257 Wby Mag I owned I loaned to a great old friend and rancher neighbor in southwest Idaho when we hunted mule deer in 1988. It was an old Southgate gun on an FN Mauser, Lyman All American 6x scope, shot like a house afire. I watch him get off his horse, pull the rifle out of a scabbard (I'm several hundred yards away on my horse), kneel, and shoot. By now I'm dismounted, and glassing, see no game. One shot, he observes through scope for a moment, gets up, replaces the rifle in his scabbard, rides over to me.

"What were you shooting at?", I ask. "That buck lying dead under that juniper on the ridge.", he replied. We ride down a small draw to the top of what I believe is the ridge in question, about 250 yards from where he had shot. He sees me looking around the scrub junipers there. "No, the next ridge.", he says. We ride over there, down a draw, up the next small ridge, every bit of another 200 to 250 yards. Sure enough, under a smallish lone juniper is a very dead buck, shot through the lungs.

I had sighted the rifle carefully at 3" high at 100 yards (100 gr Nosler Partition), just slightly low at 400 yards (about 6 inches), told him not to aim high on any shot. If it was REALLY long, hold on the backline at the most. He said that's where he held, bullet hit about foot below that hold. If I hadn't been there, seen it, I wouldn't have believed it.

"You're not getting this rifle back," he informed me. He still has the rifle, the orangatang horse he traded me for it is long gone, it's accounted for untold mule deer, antelope and elk.

I still banter him about the stolen rifle.

I agree with what Steelhead said. Hit anything in the right spot with a proper bullet it, and it will die. I also think that just because you can see an elk 500 yards away, doesn't mean you have to shoot at it. You should try to get close enough to make a killing shot with any caliber you shoot. I shoot a .257 Roberts and have had good success with it on whitetail deer in Wisconsin, and would not be afraid to use it on elk out west with the proper bullet and shot placement the elk will die. You need t remember they don't have steel ribs.

There's a big difference between what we can do and what we should do. I have a beautiful custom 257 Roberts. It is my favorite rifle. However, if I have an apportunity to take a nice bull elk, I will have "more" rifle in mmy hands. We just never know what shot we will have.

The wind blows in the mountains too--especially through the canyons........

That wind moves even the high Sd bullets enough as it is......


Casey

A friend hunts elk with the .257 in Idaho - has for several decades. Here in Alaska, he took a goat, a sheep, and a black bear with it. One shot each. out to 250 yards.

this guy at about a hundred yards, and several of his bros and sisters. I bought my .257 as a deer and pronghorn rifle, although I'm sure it would do elk just fine with TSXs.