Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 7mm mag on elk vs. heavier calibers

Any appreciable difference, near or far? Thanks!

Troublemaker.......

No.... I'm considering just retubing the Montana I've got (.325 to 7wsm). I've seen what it does to elk as a .325 and it's pretty excellent. Just wondering how much, if any, of a terminal-effect "hit" I might take by stepping down.

You and DoberDawg have said you think not much changes from 7mm through the .30's and .33's until you get all the way to .375. Just looking for more data points.

Though I'm reasonably certain there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth here... it won't be from lil' ol' me.

Just twistin' them....

Well, you could sure do that...keep the 8mm barrel and if you don't like the 7mm, just put it back on.....I doubt you'll be unhappy with it. Just use good boolits and have at it...I think it would be a really good rig myself.

I say you will never know the difference and neither will the elk. I have a shot a 300 ultra with 180 grain partition for alot of years. Most years I kill several doe's/fawns. I have shot many doe's/fawns that have run off even after breaking one shoulder (they all died of course).

If a 80-100 pound deer does not know that a fire breathing magnum is supposed to knock them down and out I don't think you could shoot a big enough bullet to impress a elk. If the bullet destroys vital stuff it will not matter if it weighs 150 grains, 168 grains, 175 grains or 200 grains. Just my opinion of course.

Dink

While old Bob doesn't agree,I think the .300 Win Mag does alot better job putting them down than the 7mm aka Remington Mag.One could ask if the 7MM puts 'em down better than the 270 Win.Not from what I have seen but the .300 WM with 180 Noslers just makes an impression on them I haven't seen from the 7MM.

But that's experiences as they go...

Jayco

Jeff-I can't even begin to imagine how many elk one would have to kill with the 325 and the 7 to ever sort out if there was any visiable diff as to how they killed.

Stick a good bullet in a good place and good things will happen is my motto..<g>

I personally feel (note I said feel, not sure it could be proven) that when I get to the .340 Bee (and at long ranges) that there at times is a bit more effect. Meaning the bull/cow reacts visibly more to the hit, but at the closer ranges I don't feel there's much for diff.

As well, even though the elk may react a bit more to the hit from the bigger rounds, I don't personally feel that they hit the terra firma any quicker than with a well placed round from my Mashburn and or .270...

The one problemo I face as I mature (ok I turned mid life 52 the other day) is that the bigger rounds aren't as much fun as they used to be in terms of recoil. Especially for a rig that I will carry and at a weight I'll carry where I hunt elk. I refuse to do brakes on a gun and I more and more want nothing to do with a 9 lb or more all up rifle in the locale where I hunt elk.

Fact is, I prefer it to be 8 1/4 all up at most and a 340 at that weight is a bit less fun than I wish to deal with anymore.

But....a 375 (H&H and or Ruger) can be all up @ 8 lbs and still be very user friendly, and capable. Plus with a 6x36 with dotz in it it's a complete rock star...!

Dober

Gracias buddy.

I've pretty much decided to give a medium "7" a run; retubing my .325 is the cheapest path forward but man oh man.... talk about messing with success!

I'd still have my excellent .338WM but, in the spirit of messing with success, it'd likely get bobbed to 23" to make it a more palateable carry as a general purpose elk rifle.

In essence, I'd go from:

30-06, .325, .338

to 30-06, 7wsm, .338

as my elk rifles.

The primary reason here is, as we discussed, to have a light 7wsm as a mule deer/antelope rifle for a few open country hunts I'm planning in the next two seasons.

SO I'd be taking a known-good elk whacker and making it a 7wsm which I'm thinking might still at least slow an elk down long enough for me to get a fang in him <grin>.

Could make the 325 a switch barrel

Would that .325 be the one that broke your Elk Jinx?

Elk were your arch-nemisis,No?

And you want to break up this proven winner..

Bad,Bad juju......

Spend more time hunting and less time crushing brain cells with this crap.

I have shot a few elk with the 7mm Rem Mag and could not tell the difference between it and the .30-06 that I had been using. That said, when I began hunting areas where I could actually choose which bull that I would shoot, I have found the .300 mags and the .338s to be more effective from my point of view. I have also taken big bulls with a .375 H&H, the 9.3x62 and the 9.3x74R. With these larger bores, elk tend to die where I can see them or at least within hearing, something that did not always happen with the '06 or the 7 mag. Maybe I have just become more deliberate in putting the bullet where I want it.

Recoil, as Mark noted, can be tolerable or not, depending on stock configuration. As I have aged, I find that I can tolerate a little more recoil each year, but I also don't shoot rifles with stocks that don't feel right.

Another factor may be my "bench". I used to have a bench anchored in concrete just off my front porch. After I left the ranch, I shot off of a number of portable benches, none of which worked quite as well as I would have liked. A couple of years ago, I built a surface that I mounted on my Polaris Ranger that serves as my bench for load development and sighting in. It is very stable and it requires that I shoot standing up, which helps a lot with rifles that push back.

Mudhen: thanks!

Kenneth: yeah, that'd be the one....

+1

Jayco

After 19 bulls taken with a 7rem mag, I switched to a 300 RUM. Killed two bulls with the RUM. I didn't see any difference in the kills and now I'm back to using my 7 mag.

Why switch when you know your 325 does a great job??

I won't argue with jayco, who knows more about killin' elk than I do ,

and I have slapped them down with 300 Wins and 300 Weatherby's myself. I know what those cartridges will do......

OTOH, I do have here a video of me shooting a bull with a 7RM that collapsed like an empty puppet and cascaded down the mountain......he was pretty loose from a 160 Partition to the shoulder...

And the next will be with a 175 Bitterroot at 3050 from the new 7mmMashburn....I already know the outcome.....

I admire your confidence Bob. I'm sure the mashburn will hammer an elk just like it did your buck this year.

Well Bob..This isn't a lawyer visions a couple weeks a year versus a logger's experiences year around, is it...

I say that with humor as I do like you and your post..Working in the woods from day one of hunting season and watching and seeing daily,Elk being killed by the crew or just driving by and helping out the flatland4ers that got in over there heads..I have learned a lot..When a guy walks up to the crummy/skidder/jammer or landing,huffing and puffing needing help getting his animal out..He ain't macho and is free mouthed for the help he always got.

Not arguing with anyone..Just saying what I have seen that goes over 100 Elk, that I never shot..Just helping out for a little meat for the effort.

I won't ad mine as I am a die hard Nosler man and for a reason as well as calibers.Of the ones I have personally shot,the 300 Win Mag makes more of an impression time after time than a 270 Win ad thats important in steep country.

I hope you don't take offense,Bob but thats hunting which takes me back saying we all need to listen to others with the experience and experiences they have had.

No one is above still learning and if they think they know it all about Elk hunting,there a fool.....

Just an opinion from doing it since 1952.

Jayco