Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Never hunted elk, have trip planned next year - Rifle Thoughts...

Any of those rifles will be fine in good hands. Go with your most accurate.

I no expert either but follow K.C. post and just be able to shoot well what ever gun you bring with you.

Guides...In some places you have to use a guide or outfitter to get you into areas with fewer hunters and into wilderness areas with no vehicles, or onto the large private ranches. Check their references. Most DIY hunters are only going to walk at most 3 miles into a real wilderness area, but on horses or mules you can go much further and hunt more area.

Fitness...can't stress it enough, be in the best shape of your life if you can, but at the same time, just be careful and dont exceed your limits. Start a slow workout and work your way into a good routine, the elevation is a killer for a flat-lander living near sea level. Drink more water prior to and during your hunt. Stop drinking soda a few weeks prior to the hunt or cut way back...most people who drink pop drink more pop than water, which is not good in any way. Vertical training is important (steep hills, stairs, stair steppers)

I'm no expert in Elk Hunting, only done it once, but much of the advice the guys here are listing is great advice, much of it common sense. Being over prepared is never a bad thing.

30-06 AMMO is priced right in most places but it looks like money is not too big a deal considering your selection of rifle calibers.

I am saving to buy one of these in 338 Lapua
http://www.accuracyinternational.com/aw_series.php
(yep...it's freakin overkill too, just like the half-inch guns we shoot at the FCSA shoots) It'll be a fun new toy to sight in.

I used a .260 with 140 gr Corelokts... no problem on a 150 yard shot.

Never-the-less, I'd recommend an '06 with 165 or 180gr. loads-they don't
have to be premiums, but if it makes you feel better....

I'd grab the 270WSM,the 270 Winchester,or the 30/06.If you handload pick a good tough bullet for each,and I'd lean toward 150's in the 270's and a 165 in the 30/06.

I'd stretch the practice sessions to 400 yards(just in case cause you never know).

Of the rifles listed I would take the .30-06 and the .338-06.

For bullets I would use AccuBonds, Partitions, TTSX, North Fork, A-Frame or, in Federal factory ammo, the only place you can get them, Trophy Bonded Tip bullets.

This year I'm taking my .300 WM loaded with 180g North Forks and a .30-06 loaded with 168g TTSX. My son-in law is taking his .300 WM loaded with Winchester 180g Power Points and a .30-06 with 168g TTSX.

Don't sweat the rifle choice too much - just make sure you can shoot what you take and choose a good bullet. Place a bullet well and you'll be breaking out the skinning knives.

Instead, focus on getting in shape - run up and down the steps a couple dozen times a day. Also study the area you plan to hunt using maps and Google Earth.

I would use the 338-06 with the 30-06 as a back up. With that said i personally would use Warne QD rings and just take the 338-06 with a extra scope sighted in and then if you crash the scope just twist the lever and switch them out. My favorite Elk bullet in the 338-06 is the Swift 210 gr Scirocco. Rel 15 is the powder to start with in the 338-06.

I like the .30-06 but your .270s or .338-06 will work great as well. I have a .35 Whelen that I love (very similar to the .338-06). I would take the one that shoots best and you feel the most "comfort" with and have a great time.

Thanks for all the tips and input... I'm very thankful of the experiences you share to make others, like myself, more educated before tackling such a task.

just don't shoot em in the back shoulder & you'll do fine.

I wouldn't take anything but a throughly known rifle on any serious hunting trip. A newly built custom may have a few bugs in it yet. Sometimes they don't show up right away.
I'd use a premium bullet load. Unless you have alot of confidence in your handloads, I'd use factory ammo. E

Factory ammo! Blasphemy!

Anything from the 30-06 class on up is a "real" elk rifle, assuming you can shoot it. Put another way, for elk use the biggest rifle you can shoot well.

From your list I'd be looking at the 30-06 and 338-06 and the choice would hinge on the rifle itself- how light or heavy, the scope on it, how I shoot it, etc ...

This is all just my opinion and I'm no expert...

270 first - The 270 takes tons of elk every year and will certainly do it out to 300+yards.

30/06 second - not overly fond of it but it will get the job done quite nicely.



That can be a veritable can of worms. Poll 50 people on the best elk bullets ant you will umpteen different answers.

My first elk was killed with one shot from a Speer 150 flat base spitzer fired in a .300 H&H. I am more of a 1 load per gun guy so for the '06 I'd say go with a good 165 grainer. And for the 270 a 130 grainer is a classic. I better stop right here and put on my flame retardant underware. For elk the premium bullets are not necessary for 99% of the situations you will find. I have not needed them yet and I live in the heart of good hunting territory. Most people want them for the perceived edge. If you want to that's fine. It is your hunt to do as you please.

Any would do. Take the one you feel most confortable with. If that is "all" I'd go for the 30.06 with 180 gr premiums.

If your shot placement is proper and you have a decnt bullet, it won't matter.

take the 30-06, buy/load some 180gr partitions. practice with some 180gr corelokts. final zero with the partitions. kills elk easily. get it physical shape.

Wyo-JOE....The only bull elk I ever lost was in fact because I was using a 130 grain bullet on my frist trip back in the early 1960's. Not a good choice in my book, 150 would have been better but the 160 Nosler Partition handload would be top choice with a .270 Winchester in a model 70 Winchester.

Premium bullets are the cheapest form of insurace for any Elk Hunter going to hunt elk in the high country. I have seen far to many results over the last 45 years of bullets that fragged on bone or simply slipped the jacket, especially out of those magnum calibers. So what's the big deal, about spending an additional $10 or $15 dollars, for a box of premium bullets to be used in your choosen elk rifle?

Call me crazy but why would you not take the .338/06 as your primary gun on an ELK hunt. Why would you be having the rifle built in the first place? I love all of the .338's and think they are good all around game killers especially on elk. I use a .338wm for 95% of all my hunting with .270's, '06, and .300's being brought out rarely for deer hunting.

I like shooting bigger calibers especially on public land so that shot angle is not so critical. The elk aren't gonna act like the ones you see the pros shooting on the hunting shows. Shoot a bigger bullet and don't worry about bone. I can't say I'd be comfortable doing that with my .270's. Another factor to consider is putting the elk down quickly to lessen the chances of the animal running into an area that will make for a dangerous and time consuming recovery. All factors to consider.

You are having a classic Elk rifle built CRF and all so it just begs to be taken. Shoot it and find that the recoil is not that bad. For crying out loud guys are telling you to leave your guns at home and take a .243 which I use for a varmint rifle. I just don't understand the logic around here. Maybe just don't even go for fear that you might not be able to shoot anything but a Red Ryder effectively. Good luck. It is too early to read some of this foolishness.:)

Hotsoup
Ya don't think he nees a 338 Lapua with a 6X20 scope with 50 mm objective, parallax adjustment and turrets, copupled with a calibrated crosshair, windage adjustable scope mounts, a rubber harmonic stabilizer, muzzle brake, and at three different premium bullets for short, medim and long range shats?
Hmmm... If that 30/06 with Partitions was such a good set up. you'd think that's what a lot of the serious local elk hunters would use... (Oh, that's right- The DO use that!)

LOL

Royce

I gues I;m a little puzzled with why everyone so far has assumed he's going to be hunting on public land with his outfitter, because he's never said that. Odds are he is (because those are generally the cheapest outfitted hunts) but maybe not.

A private land outfitted hunt is valuable primarily because it gains access to elk country other hunters don't have. I have hunted public land on my own for elk for 40 years, and have also gone on a few outfitted hunts on both public and private land.

He also hasn't said where he's going. Most of the really visious anti-outfitter feeling I've heard of comes from the Southwest, where apparently outfitters are trying to run off other hunters, or swarming the country. There is some anti-outfitter feeling here in Montana, but it is more due to leasing of private land than the stuff I hear about in the Southwest.

As far as the rifles go, any of them will work. Probably the .358 is least suitable for 300-yard shots, but it will even work at 300 with some practice. My feeling has always been the same as Townsend Whelen's: "The .30-06 is never a mistake," and most of his rifles are relatively minor variations on the ballistics of the .30-06.