Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Best Elk Cartridge in the World??

Ya, but what's the greatest elk cartridge in the world? Are you all just conceding that my pick of the 7 mag is correct?

The Best Elk Cartridge In The World is whatever resides in my rifle on any glorious day spent pursuing elk in the Northern Rockies of Montana...

Cobrad: Ya know....I wonder....just thinking out loud so as not to stir the masses,of course....but

If the 7 mag is such a punk elk cartridge,and the 300's and 338's are so great....then why have I seen several elk shot with all three collapse when they were well hit with any of them,and yet run off when not properly hit?

Like the 500 yard bull that hit the turf so fast from a Big 7 that you could hear the "thud",......or my last one that collapsed to a shoulder shot from the same bullet through the shoulders,sent cascading down the mountain in a blur of flailing legs and twisting antlers?(that one is on video)...

.....and seen them run off when poorly hit with either.....and not just elk,but little old black bear smacked a bit too far back from a 340 Roy and 210's,that gave a disagreeable chase before recovery....I might add there was not much for blood....

Or the elk that started to depart after a long angling shot from the 340,and required a second to "fini"....

Or the 450 yard 6x6 that collapsed at rifle crack from a 180 Partition and 300 win mag,to the shoulders,never to rise again.....

In sharp contrast to the bull that continued to run after a 200 gr Partition angled from the last rib to the offside shoulder from 300 Weatherby? He needed a second to the chest to finish.

Or the 350 yard bull hit too far back with a 30/06 and 150 gr WW PP,stood on wobbly legs and got a second through he chest,and collapse at the shot...

How about the BC bull last year,(anectdotal)knocked my friend,thrashing around at 400 yards, with a 300 RUM and 180 TBBC,that scrambled to his feet and dissapeared.....never to be found.

.....I could continue,but won't.

Please note that these are all mature bulls;no spikes or raghorns here...

Point is....that in every instance,regardless of caliber,if the bullets were properly placed,there was no difference that I could tell. And if the bullets landed a bit off course,the bulls were as firmly wounded with the 338's as with the 30's and the 7 mags...

And while on the subject of elk bullets, I have pulled 30 caliber and 7mm Bitterroots from the off side of bull elk that had greater frontal area and more retained weight,than many 338 bullets of lesser construction,widely acclaimed as elk bullets....

And why have I had world-traveled hunters,guys in a postition to know,tell me that a 175 Partition driven to 3000 fps,kills like a 300 Weatherby?(I have never used the 175 NPT myself).

I could go on but my point is that,after watching and doing all this,am I wrong in concluding that well constructed bullets stuck in the right place are what gives quick kills on elk? And that even big bullets of good construction,stuck in the wrong place,will have you chasing wounded elk over the countryside?

I would love to have this explained to me in a way I can understand,and see with my own eyes....can anyone here help me?

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8122723/

I think you could say the same thing about the 270 or 308 Win...

Wellll...maybe not the .270...

.270's can't kill chit!

At least Bob's cant....

I agree with Rancho......

I hate the 270.............sold all mine yesterday.

Dang! Thats gonna make it tougher to sell my 7x57...
Disposable income all used up.....

Ingwe:Stock market took a dip......

Price of 280AI brass went through the roof....

+2...with Rancho...the 270 can't kill chit...while it is in the gun safe...BUT...load it with 130 Partitions and take it into the game fields...and everything from deer to moose falls dead with well placed shots...including the elk...which some feel bullets of less than 30 caliber seem to bounce off of..

OU76 knows I didn't sell them.....haha we fooled Ingwe!

" A fool and his money are soon parted..."

A fool and his .270s.....not so much....

Bastids....

I'll trade you a SS 270 for it..............................













One more turd added to the pile in hell won't hurt

That was mean..


Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

Ain't this nice? Spirited discussion without telling the next guy he's wrong, can't, shouldn't ... And the best part is we appear to be in agreement that I AM RIGHT!!! HAIL THE 7MM, KING OF THE ELK CARTRIDGES!! BobinNH I couldn't say it better. My experiences and observations are just as you described. In over 30 years of hunting and guiding hunters in Colorado, I've seen this play out every year. Magnums in general are great and awesome tools... for the man that can truly master the recoil and shoot it well enough to use the extra range afforded. This is no small task. IMLTHO (less than humble opinion) most don't commit them selves to learning to shoot well enough to wring out all the performance the "standards" are capable of, much less the added task of mastering prodigious recoil to extend the range at which large amounts of energy and momentum can be delivered. That, IMLTHO, is what magnums really have to offer, extended range. The standards offer all the punch necessary to reliably kill elk to somewhere around 300 yards (actually a good bit beyond IMLTHO but let's not take the uninitiated there again) with proper shot placement, just as the magnums will wound animals at any range with poorly placed shots. I will say this though, on marginal shots, slightly marginal not I shot him in the belly marginal, the fast magnums may have some advantage depending on the bullet used. If one is using a frangible bullet, a cup and core or maybe a VLD or Nosler Partition with its' cup and core front end, that produces a tremendous wound this may, possibly, cause enough tissue damage and hemorrage to cause an animal to run a little less far so you might have a little better chance of finding him, if tracking conditions are right, and you are a good enough tracker, if... It's kind of like the thinking behind a varmint gun, blow hell out of them. My old '06 shooting 180 grain cup and cores did this about as well as a magnum within a certain range. Remember my comments about range? But wait, those bullets frequently don't penetrate as well as a premium. My experience indicates deep penetration is a desirable trait in an elk bullet. The Nosler Partition gives a pretty good compromise of both, but I have not found them to be as accurate as most other bullets I've used, though even that is no real argument at real hunting ranges. Isn't a 3 MOA rifle adequate out to 300 yards? The thing I don't like about Partitions, and all cup and core bullets, is that they tend not to penetrate adequately on bone, and the tear up too much meat! I want to eat this beast when I'm done! The magnums amplify this meat-destroying trait with their increased speed. Eventually I went to premium bullets in my '06 just to preserve meat. I hated to see my hunters show up with magnums and standard bullets for this reason, coupled with the fact that I had more wounded game from magnums than standards for reasons stated above. Whew! All this gun talk is getting me worked up to go hunting! So, where were we... yes, THE KING OF THE ELK CARTRIDGES! This is my choice because it offers all the power one needs to kill elk, it offers magnum ranges, and it is far more shootable, IMLTHO, than a .300 because it recoils less. That said I am currently shooting a .270 because after a 16 year affair I finally got tired of getting kicked around by my magnums, and COOPER, THE KING OF THE SEMI-PRODUCTION ANY ONE CAN OWN ONE FACTORY RIFLES doesn't offer a 7mm Remington Magnum... yet

RIFLE, CALIBER/BULLET

I've killed 31 elk since 1978. I have used only a couple of rifles. I started with a Remington 700 ADL 30-06, which carries a Leupold M-8 6X scope with Leupold Rings. Recently I bought a T/C Icon Weathershield 30-06 and mounted a Leupold VX-III 3.5 x 10 x 40 on it with Warne rings.

I use factory loads; Federal Premium HIGH ENERGY 180 grain Nosler Partition. I killed the first dozen or so using Sierra Game King 150 grain BTSP, which is scary accurate. I was satisfied until one day it took three shots in the lungs, at 30 yards, to down a cow elk. So I switched to the heavier loads with premium bullets.

For my son, I bought a Winchester M70 featherweight 30-06 and mounted another Leupold M8-6X scope on it

CALIBER SURVEY

A few years ago, I participated in an on-line survey of calibers used by elk hunters. There were over two-hundred respondents. The survey may not have been done very scientifically but the results are still interesting enough to include here.

Twenty-four percent (24%) of elk hunters responding to the survey used the 30-06.

Twenty-two percent (22%) used .300 Win mag.

Nineteen percent (19%) used 7mm Rem mag.

So almost 2/3 of respondents used 30-06, 7mm Mag or .300 mag.

The rest included just about anything that you might expect. The smallest was .243 and the biggest was .375 H&H. Others that appeared more than once included; .270, 30-30, .308, .338 Win mag and many Weatherby calibers (several indicated .340 Wby mag,).

What I got out of the survey results is confirmation that any legal caliber can kill an elk with proper bullet placement but most elk hunters prefer to use middle calibers.


2007-2009 B&C DATA (This survey is for all trophy animals, not just elk)

MISSOULA, Mont.�Although the venerable .30-06 and .270 remain among the favorites, Boone and Crockett Club big-game records show that hunters with a .300 Magnum are taking more North American trophies than any other caliber.
Surprisingly, the second-most-popular trophy-taker isn�t a firearm�it�s a bow.
Boone and Crockett compiled the data from its records book entries from 2007 through 2009.
Here are the most commonly used calibers (Note: Records do not distinguish specific variations, i.e. .300 Win. Mag, .300 WSM, .300 Wby. Mag., .300 Ultra Mag, etc.) across all Boone and Crockett categories over the past three years, along with percentages of trophy entries credited to each:

.300 Magnum�18 percent
Bow/crossbow�16 percent
.270�12 percent
.30-06�11 percent
7mm Magnum�11 percent
Muzzleloader/shotgun�10 percent
6mm�3 percent
.338 Magnum�3 percent
.257�2 percent
.30-30�2 percent
.308�2 percent
.375 Magnum�2 percent
Other�8 percent

KC

KC: Thanks for the records & taking the time to retrieve & post them for us !

JWALL

Wow KC thanks so much for the great information, very interesting read. I guess I am not the leper that I thought I was shooting the 300 bee (at least by B&C standards). After reading so many negative posts a guy starts to develop a complex. Long live the belted mag! If you don't want yours send it to me.