Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting In defense of big rifles

Tonk, wouldnt put a brake on a new hunting rifle ive got one on my 338 win mag. it is a non removeable brake after the season its going to the gunsmith to be removed permanently.i dont hunt with ear plugs on.

68W:

Happy to reply to a PM.

KC

20 years of hunting elk with a 7mm RM convinced me I a) didn't need anything bigger and b) didn't need a 7mm RM as a .308 Win would have easily sufficed for every shot I've taken.

That said, I now have a .300 WM in the stable and it has proven as effective as the 7mm RM. For the really big and dangerous stuff, like backyard rhino, I have a .45-70 that will easily dispatch anything that walks - on this continent or anywhere else. Got a hankering for a fast .338, too.

What do the big boomers do that I can't do with a .308 Win? Nothing so far, but I ain't done hunting...

Big is OK, and I truly love my 9.3X62, but I'm always irritated when someone claims it necessary to use something bigger than a 30-06 for nondangerous game.

I know rifles and tactics have changed a lot since I first started hunting elk more than a half century ago. Then, almost all the elk we shot were in the thick, dark timber, and if you saw elk it was almost always going dead away at close range. The shot we planned for was a Texas heart shot, and heavy bullets were needed to break the pelvis and penetrate. The '06 with factory 220s or reloads with 200 grain Partitions ruled the roost, with the 348, 45-70, and the like working well too.

Now, and elk shot in the boiler with a 100 grain 243 is not going very far, but that shot was just not on the menu when the heavy bullet for elk concept was spawned.

Wayne

MM
I think you do make a good point. During the big "magnum" craze there were doubtless a bunch of people that were not good shots who thought that just touching off their cannon dropped game. The rest of us have more of a clue than that, even those of us that prefer the bigger calibers. Some people just get elitist about anything they do. Some people think anything less than a .300 Wby only shows your lack of manhood. Others actually think it "proves" their manhood to brag about taking an elk with a .243. I also trout fish and I've met fly fisherman that look askance at "gear" fisherman. I use the fly too...when it's catching fish. If conditions point me towards a spinning rod that's what I'll use.

cdhunt
.340 is a darn nice caliber isn't it? If you can find a lighter bullet load yours likes (mine digs the 210 TSX) it thumps hard AND shoots flat. That 210gr load is essentially a trajectory twin of my 7mm Rem Mag's favorite 150gr TSX load. Would that same 7RM load do the task the vast majority of the time? I have no doubt...but why settle for vast majority?

TNT is trinitrotoluene. Smokeless powder is mostly nitrocellulose sometimes combined with nitroglycerine and other stuff in small percentages.

It's nice to use a caliber and cartridge which allows the selection of many adequate bullets for a task. That's one of the beauties of the "more adequate" rifles. I have used rifles on a number of occasions where bullet selection was quite important and placement of the shot was more critical. What does that prove? Very little other than to myself. It certainly should not be a springboard for bragging rights IMO. Then again, I suspect many of the folks who hang out in places such as this aren't all that interested in hearing - yet one more time- how a 180 Partition from a 30-06 works on elk or other species.

I love my 8x57JS. It kills them dead. I love my 30-06. It kills them dead. I REALLY love my old Sharps 45-110. I kills them dead real fast and better yet, I can eat right up to the hole. My 45-70 seems to share that trait.

I guess most get smarter with age, including myself. Years of competition shooting in the .06 class ,I and my shoulder decided it did not needed to take such abuse.I was shooting 100rds every other week in competition and probably 200 rounds per week inpractice. Biggest cartridge I have killed an elk with was 7 mag, and a 45-70. If you don't think a 45-70 qualifies as a big cartridge,touch off a 500 gr slug stuffed to the max, with a brass butt plate on the tail end.
Now I practice with a 22 or .357 carbine or a 6.5 Swede. I shoot the.06 to check the sights and go kill elk.

I personnaly do not get a thrill of killing elk at long range so I do not need those big boomers that shoot flatter. Others do,but it's not my cup of tea

I am one of those who have hunted for alot of years and know the.06 class of cartridge is entirely adequate for elk. I don't see much sense in burning in excess of 80 grains of powder when 45-55 will do the job

Not that I disagree, but for devil's advocate's sake... Animals haven't developed much thicker skin than they had 100 years ago, but today's rifles are capable of slinging lead much faster and in heavier weights at higher speeds. That's fine for those willing to put up with the "meat at both ends" fix and for larger game it's definitely an advantage, but for deer and other true medium class game taken at the average distances the magnums are more than my ears and shoulders are willing to tolerate and in the hands of capable riflemen the 7x57, 270 ect have cleanly taken much larger game (not that I claim to be any where near the group who would successfully chase elephant with a 7x57).

I have never hunted outside my home state of Alabama, So whitetail deer and Turkey are pretty much it here in this state.
I have a brother who has lived in Idaho since he got back from Vietnam in 1973. We have all ways talked about going elk hunting together up there but never got around to it.I often wondered what I would take if I ever go on a one time humt with him, He uses a Weatherby Mark V stainless 300 WBY MAG,But I let him have my Stainless BLR 270 WSM for a saddle gun when he and his buds go riding in the back country. He has fell in love with the light handy little gun and said he might put a small scope on it and carry it instead of his BIG OLE WBY.
I have a WBY Mark V STAINLESS in 270 Roy that ain`t to bad on weight but I also just got a Kimber Montana 338 Federal from my wife last X-mas ,with my old leupie 1.75x6x32 it carries and shoots like a dream to my 47 yr old worn out legs.
If I get to go with him in the next few years which would be the best choice 270 WBY or the Little Sky 338 Fed. ?

Teh advent of premium bullets have changed the game. What was once marginal cartridges for say, elk, are now just dandy. Much of the "big gun" ideas, was more about a lack of bullet performance.

I can't speak for Cape Buff, but a 30-06 with premium bullets will do everything ever needed for North American big game based on my experience and observations with premium bullets, and do it very well. Indeed, many "smaller" cartridges seem to do just as well.

As JB has aptly described, "just shoot them in the front half".

I ahve rarely see somebody shoot a 340Wthby better than they shoot a 243W........

Casey

Amra, take them both to Idaho <g>! They are quite different rifles and cartridges and I could see circumstances where either would excel.

saddlesore:

Like yourself, I do lots of shooting with smaller calibers. Mine is a Savage .22 mag that I use on prairie dogs at the cabin. The trigger pull sucks, so it makes me really consentrate on a slow steady squeeze and beyond 100 yards those rats get pretty small in the scope.

KC

mathman:

Thanks for the chemistry lesson.

KC

Jeff O , I like both my 270 WBY and my Little Sky 338 FED.
But I would really like to try a Elk with my Winchester 1895
405 WCF ! If I could get close enough to have a good shot at one.
AMRA

AMRA,
In the parts of Idaho that I usually hunt(Southern to Central) shots can vary from 25 yards to 500+ yards, sometimes on the same day!

Personally I like shooting my 375 better than my 30 06. I also like the sound signature of the 375; a nice deep baritone of a rifle. I'm gonna hunt exclusively with the 375 for a while to explore its limitations er, rather mine with that rifle. It is, afterall, the only caliber ever specifically created for all classes of game. For the record, I shot the #11 Moose in Maine last year with a 30 06 so clearly it is "enough" gun with proper shot placement for bigger critters. I'm just on to the 375, nothing more and nothing less.

Why carry more than is needed?