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

That's the quote I was referring to in your post.More coffee please.

Jayco

+1 Problem is some of these elk hunters that get a week off a year and grab the same box of shells that his Dad gave him 5 years ago. 20 cartridges should last -5years.

Expecting to hit something are you???

378/OU76: Yes, and your examples are exactly the type shooter/hunter I am talking about.....NOT the guys who keep a hand-in year round, never have to zero a rifle because their rifles are NEVER out of zero,all year......they have burned up the rounds and put in the range time to become fully accustomed to magnum level recoil.They do well with any rifle......

A big +1 on that Bob...on my 4 go to hunting rifles...270, 30-06, 300 Wby and 375 I will shoot no less than 400 rounds per off season...in hunting situations... if I add the 264, 340 or 338 it'll be closer to 500 rounds..the bulk of my shooting will be with the rifles I plan to use during the upcoming season...and really I should practice more...but just do not have the time...

I don't know what the best Elk cartridge is, but I had an old timer out in Wisdom, Montana tell me a few years back what he thought were the worst. The 7MM Rem and 300 Win mag according to him were the absolute worst, because a lot of the guys shooting them thought they could just shoot in the general area of an Elk and it was supposed to fall dead. He said he and his buddies spent more time chasing Elk wounded by them, than any others. He used a Swift with 70 gr Speers IIRC.

BobinNH I agree. It's not the magnums that aren't accurate, it's the folks who have not shot enough to master them that aren't accurate. I had a 7 mag that for several years was my favorite long range prairie dog gun because it was deadly accurate. That gun consistently shot in the .4's with 168 gr. Sierra Matchkings. I used to shoot ground hogs with my .300 Jarrett to practice for elk. 'Hogs from several football fields away make an elk look as big as a barn through the scope. I'm thinking real hard about another 7 mag for a long range marmot gun. My .270 is doing great out past 700 yards, but it's getting a bit sensitive to wind at those ranges. I'm beginning to look at 1K yards and this is a perfectly valid reason why I NEED another 7 mag to sling those super-high BC 180 gr. VLD's. I'm hoping Cooper introduces their magnum chamberings this summer. Seem odd, but I really have more use for a magnum to shoot little furry critters than I do for elk. It's all about the range.

Luke: Perfectly good cartridges get bad reputations in the hands of lousy shots......both the 300 WM and the 7RM are excellent elk cartridges,and their popularity is the reason they wind up in the hands of some people who can't shot straight.They both have a demonstrated ability to be one shot killers on any elk.....in the right hands.

The best elk cartridge is the one you can shoot best, no doubt.

More power is better, but only if pointed properly.

Foot Pounds don't make up for Poor Shooting...

what rifle do you shoot best? is it big game legal? stick with it. 257roberts or 416rem. just hold up your end of the deal.

Personally, I like Boddington and been reading his stuff for over 20 yrs. I also have his book North American Rifles and in there he states he would not use a .270 for elk if that was his primary game animal being pursued. He also talks about Bob Milek in the book, who is probably one of my all time favorites. Milek and family were big on the 257 Roberts and 25-06.

It seems though in the last few years Boddington is giving credit on rounds that recoil less but still get the job done. Maybe its age, maybe its experience but I know the older I get the less I like recoil and enjoy shooting more pleasant rounds and from experience see that they work with good bullets in the right place.

I also believe that guys from east of the Mississippi when hunting elk are investing a good chunk of change and are using bigger rounds to kinda of even the odds. Nothing wrong with that mentality if you practice and shoot it well. A good friend invest about $10k every two yrs hunting Montana elk or Newfie Moose and Caribou, he does it with a .300 Weatherby but again has had the rifle for 20+ years, loads for it and practices on a regular basis. He is a .30 caliber fan period and sure he can kill his animals with his little .308 but he has confidence and skill that when the .300 WM roars it hits where he is aiming.

Bob Milek was also a great fan of the 30-06...in his book Rifles & Cartridges for NA Game...he recommends adequate elk calibers to be 270, 30-06,7 mag and 300 mag...and considered the 30-06 to be the best fit for an all around NA big game caliber..if there is such a thing...I have taken 26 of NA 29 game animals with my 30-06..ditto with my 270...JY Jones took all 29 NA game animals with his Model 700 ADL 30-06 using 165 NP and 200 NP.....

BobinNH, I completely agree. I didn't agree with the old timer on cartridge merits, but did agree on shooting skills.

I haven't shot enough elk to know for sure, but I sure love the combo of a .338 Win Mag and a 210gr Partition.

I've never taken elk with the 35 Whelen, but that combined with the 225 grain Partition sounds cool too. I've wanted one ever since I saw Bob Milek posing with an elk and his Whelen. Never have owned one though. In fact, I don't even own a .338 any more, so next time I draw a tag my "best elk cartrige" may be my .270 Winchester. I've been wanting to see what those 160gr Partitions would do.

338 win mag. However, I was thinking about it today and thought a 308 win. with a good 165 partition or ttsx would of put last years bull down with no problem.

The "Best" elk cartridge in the world,(for me) would be light enough to carry anywhere I hunt elk but heavy enough to steady in a crosswind.
Fast enough to shoot 350yds without holding over the animal and slow enough that I wont waste a quarter to "blood mush" if I shoot at 60'.
Sexy enough that I won't be bored and buy something else, but common enough to find ammo anywhere if I leave mine at home on the counter.
That's why I shoot .308win-300RUM and 25.06-45-70 and several in between.

Best gun if the one you have in your hands when you see that elk.

I'd pick the .300 Win mag as the "best". The "best" is only opinion however and all of us have those.

Bob Milek has come up a couple times, I enjoyed his down to earth style and the fact he was out doing it every year. He used a 25/06 on elk quite a bit as well.

And about the fella investing 10K to go to Montana to hunt elk. It's my opinion that a fella spending that kind of ching has a way better opportunity to take a quality bull on a 5-7 day hunt than the local who gets to hunt elk 3-4 days a year on public land. Totally different situations and IMO if a case could be made for one of them to carry the bigger round I'd opt for the local each and every time. Point being, I don't buy the idea of the out of stater coming here and needing an bigger round. Elk don't care what state they persons from who's shooting at them. They die when the right equipment is taken out.

Dober

Mark,

Right on. One of the myths that we hear constantly (even on the Campfire) is that the local can use a smaller round because he has all the time in the world to hunt, and thus can pass up any chance that isn't perfect.

This is BS. Most locals don't get to hunt except on weekends, and often only one day of the weekend. Even with Montana's rifle season being 5 weeks long, this leaves only a few days of hunting--normally on public land with hundreds of other hunters. Thus local hunters are NOT likely to pass up a less-than-perfect shot on any legal elk.

A guided non-resident has 5-10 days of uninterrupted hunting. If a pricier hunt, it's also on private land with a lot more elk. The non-resident is actually the hunter with more reason to pass on a shot, whether because the bull is too small, or because the shot is iffy.

It depends on what the definition of local is?Local as in living in the State or local as living close to the area hunted.Someone can live in Boise and not know diddly about the Selway/Gospal Hump/Frank Church/Clearwater or St Joe but take someone living in St Maries/Yellowpine/Elk City or Dixie,and it's a different ball game.

I know tons of local hunters that take there vacation during Elk hunting that have jobs that give that.

I think it is about even as to odds when someone hires a Guide that spends his time finding Elk for his clients prior too, to those that live near the Elk,and do Guiding also and know where they are.

Our local hardware guy is a Guide for a Selway outfit and they took 5 Elk this year and more locals went without compared to previous years.The 5 Elk were hard earned also compared to last year and more Elk quicker.

None of it is a 100% sure thing.

Jayco