Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting .308 cal., 165 gr. Horn. Interlocks adequate for elk?

Anyone tried Hornady's Superperformance 308 Win. ammo. on elk ?

Only bullets I have ever killed elk with are ballistic tips and core-lokts. Seen a pile of elk killed over the years with core-lokts. It is the internet that decided you need a $2 mono to kill an elk.

To kill an elk, you need to learn to shoot well with what you have.

""I'm basically off the Campfire, but will surely answer your question.

As in all hunting, the hunter is doing the very best he can, given the situation ... and all situations are different. Ya just do the best you can.

As I've posted many times, when I was posting on the Campfire, the fist shot on elk is critical. Elk are relatively easy to kill with the first shot, but if you screw that one up you are in deep trouble.

Let me approach the answer from two aspects; Steve the hunter and Steve the guide.

Given Steve the Hunter: I typically hunted open country, stuff like Hell's Canyon of the Snake or the Imnaha. Generally, I'd spot a herd of elk around the end of a big ridge. I called them a "crown of elk" because that's what the strung-out herd looked like. Then, depending if you have a bull or a cow tag, you work as close as you can to the critter you want. Sometimes it's impossible, so like antelope hunting (they are quite the same dynamics), you back out and find some more elk or come back later.

I had a few hunters I guided for who taught me lots ... particularly about shooting long ranges. In short, don't do it. As a result, given Steve the Hunter mode, my average elk, even given the open country I hunted, was maybe 150 yards away and almost never 200.

Where do you shoot them? How the hell do I answer that?

Really close up and on a still elk, honestly I'd either brain the bugger or break the neck up high (medulla oblongata, if you know anatomy) and just kill the sonofabitch dead.

Given a 100 yard shot, broadside, I might still plant the bullet at the base of the ear; or from the back, in the middle of the neck, or from the front, just under the chinney-chin-chin. BUT, it depends, if he's squirlley, I'd hold tight behind the shoulder, mid-height and not too high, and hit both lungs and the aorta. Given an angle, I'd rather err and clip a far shoulder than shoot too far back, hit one lung and screw up the shot.

200 yards, I'd tend to do the same.

My last two bulls were really far for me both 400-ish and I took one in the center of the shoulder and the other between the shoulders (shooting kinda down), breaking the spine. Don't ask what cartridge, nor what bullet because you would not agree. BUT my last two bulls, both 6X6s died to a single shot each.

Steve the Guide: I only shoot after it is abundantly clear that my hunter has already screwed up the shot and/or I am asked to collaborate with the shot. Every guide hates that ... it is the client's hunt and the client's good time, it IS NOT Steve the Guide's to take that away from him. BUT given a total balls-up situation, Steve the Guide center-punches BOTH shoulders with no frigging' regard for meat. Or, given no shoulders, a high bunghole shot to break the spine or whatever the Hell it takes. At the time the crapola-hits the fan, only breaking major bones will stop the elk.

Anyway, I probably didn't answer your question to your satisfaction, but it would take being in the bush for a while and seeing a thousand situations to explain it to you.

I remember one guy from Connecticut who asked me once, "How much is my cow going to weigh?" My answer, perhaps not to PC, was "How the [bleep] do I know?"

It was the truth, just not the answer he was seeking ... mostly because nobody known until they been there.

Steve"""


Steve,
Wish you still posted here. This is the best thread I've read in awhile.!!!!!!!

I have only shot 5 bulls with the 150 grain Hornady. I shot them out of a .30-06 at about 2,800 fps. I used this load for a good 7 years, before trying something else. I never used the 165's, because the 150's worked so well on everything I shot with them. One of my best bulls was a 30 yard frontal shot. He also dropped at the shot and was dead. Great bullet for deer, elk, whatever. Flinch

That's because he's using the high explosive 308.



Yes sir.

A thought. If the 270 will work on an elk, and it has, seems to me the 308 should work too. it's all about a little thing called shot placement. And as Steve said, you want to make that first shot count. Because once and elk is filled with adrenaline, it takes a lot to bring it down.

Lots of elk have been taken with the 270, the 308, and similar cartridges. The problem is, the gun writers want you to think you need the latest and greatest super magnum so advertisers will support their shows or articles. Either that or they're lousy shots, and they want the extra knockdown power to make them look good on film.

Heck in the early 1900s, people were shooting elk with a 30-30 or even a black powder cartridge. People even hunt elk with black powder now. It seems these days, unless you're using a 50 Cal, people ask "is it big enough?"

In another two decades, people will tell you need artillery shells to take an elk with.

Actually, he used a 30-06...

I don't have much to add other than the 165gr Hornady BTSP Innerlock has been a staple of mine out of the 30-06 for years. If you put it in the correct place things die every time.

Amen, +1 .

Dogzapper, Thanks for the wisdom of a HUNTER.

quietman,

I am always amused by statements like yours: "...the gun writers want you to think you need the latest and greatest super magnum..." Which suggests that all gun writers say exactly the same things, for the same reasons.

This amuses me because I am a gun writer, and know a lot of other gun writers. We disagree just about as much as Internet experts.

Actually, the statement is flat out inaccurate. If anything, reading gunwriters has made me want mild-recoiling rounds utilizing premium bullets.

Dogzapper seems to have shown up on a number of the 'Campfire "best threads."

I've only killed 1 bull with 150gr Hornady's out of a .30-06. The bull went about a 100yds, leaving a blood trail that Stevie Wonder could follow. It didn't exit, but the elk died quick enough.

Can you imagine the following a magazine would get if you had guys like Mule Deer, Dogzapper, Haviland and Ross Seyfried writing? Say a quarterly journal? Fracking nirvana!

And I never watched Startrack!

Go back about 10 years in back issues of Rifle and Handloader..

I stopped subscribing to Wolfe Publications after they ran off most of their best Writers.