Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Whats your go to elk rifle and caliber ?

Wow... very nice.

The 30-06 is my favorite elk cartridge... it's the "every-man's elk gun."

Winchester Model 70 Classic Stainless,.375 H&H, Tasco 6X24X40 TR,
with custom elevation cam cut for the 300g. Sierra BT's drop table, Burris Rings, synthetic stock, full size KDF, barrel is top Ported (16 X 1/16" holes), Pachmeyer Decellerator Pad, Harris Bipod, dual biathalon sling, Trigger reworked @ set to 1 lb., 300g. custom handload of Sierra Gameking BT @ 2600FPS, shoots 1" groups @ 100YDS now. Cross canyon elk rifle that weighs in at 11.5 lbs. Wanted a weatherproof rifle that has 1000FT/lbs remaining at 800 yds for elk with a built in range estimation system (Tasco TR scope)to back up my Leupold rangefinder. Need a bigger piece of glass like a Nightforce 12X42x56 Precision Benchrest. Takes money. Considering a Canjar single set. Gun needs pillar bedding and more load work and the Canjar to try to get the accuracy down. Works for now.

M70 in 300 Webby

Rem 700 XCR SS in 338 RUM. 225 gr AB's does the job nicely.

35 Whelen ts Ruger M77 Speer 250 grains. New batch of IMR 4320 is pushing it at 2520 fps.

Mauser .375 H&H - Speer 235 grain at 2690 fps.

Terry

Ruger Mk-II RS in 338 Win Mag with Leupold 3.5 x 10 AO VXIII loaded with factory Barnes 225 TSX. Five years in a row, five dead elk from 65 to 411 yards.

Perry

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I'll agree with Brad, that rifle is about perfect for a wood stocked rifle in my eyes. The same in a 30-06 would suit me just as well. Any details available on the stock?

If I had to chose a bullet for under 300 yard work, it would be the Swift A Frames. They are better than old Nosler parts for both penetration and retained bullet weight and that is saying alot for elk.

http://bigfivehq.com/bullets.htm

Serious bullet penetration testing done on dead elephants. So the penetration numbers are for real, not on newspaper and boards. Bullet make and style regardless of caliber should perform the same regardless of caliber. Notice retained weight and penetration for Swift A-Frames.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=512074 Review of 180g Swift A Frame on elk.

M70 Classic 338 WM sporting a 6x Leupold

In recent years I've been buying some better rifles and adding optics suited to the quality of the guns.

What I am finding is that even with superior quality hardware I still can't shoot better than I can with the old average quality gun that I carried for 30 years and did all of my formative learning with.

A lot of muscle memory there. With 3 decades on my shoulder it has become nearly an appendage. The rifle is nothing special, a Model 81 in 7mmRM with an old 4X M8 scope.

I'm finding you can only buy performance up to a certain point. Many miles on foot and many seasons and kills and years of practice provide a certain familiarity with a firearm that I have not been able to buy with money.

7mm Weatherby Accumark with a 4.5 x 14 Leupold VX-3 or a 300 Weatherby stainless fluted barrel with a 3.5 x 10 VX-III.

Sage wisdom here.....Alamosa is obviously a veteran.

Bob, my experience with elk rifles is those with the least elk hunting experience often pack the biggest weapon. When I started elk hunting I was no exception!

Nowaday's I'm happy with most anything that requires less than 60 gr's of powder, uses a Fed 210 primer and RCBS no.3 shellholder.

Winchester model 70 in 270 winchester, Leupold Vari-X III 3.5x10x40, sits in a Featherweight tupperware stock and shoots 150gr Federal Vital Shok Nosler Partitions.

Brad, knowing what you can do with the rifle.....confidence...is the biggest factor I think.So long as it's reasonable,lots of things work well.

Ive been hunting now for 40 plus years mostly for elk, but a bunch of average size mule deer and a few dozen reasonably large hogs have also been collected,
I always see guys pitching the use of premium bullets and I can easily see why if your using a 30 cal or smaller caliber pushing a bullet to over 2800fps, but Id point out that I seldom see any need for anything more exotic that a common speer, hornady,remington or winchester bullet if you select a reasonable bullet design with at least a .260 sectional density and if you select a 338-378,375,.458 caliber rifle and keep the muzzle velocitys semi reasonable, in almost every case Ive seen where a bullet shredded on impact it was the result of some guy pushing too light weight of a bullet for the application to excess velocities.
my late hunting partner used a 358 win caliber BLR for years, Ive used a 35 whelen and a 358 win, plus a 375 H&H and 338/06, 30/06 and 340 wby, some of the guys in our camp use a 45/70 or other calibers like a 308 win, and what I consistently see is a good standard bullet placed correctly does the job regardless, of caliber if it holds together and they usually do just fine at expanding and penetration,if your not pushing them past about 2800fps at the muzzle and can place them in the heart/lung area.

Same here, mine's a Classic that I had Hill Country cerrakote and bed in a McMillan "Bridges".

Well, I doubt I can do anything remarkable with a rifle but I do know confidence is important.

There's no "right" answer for elk rifles. I say, as long as you can shoot it, pick something that makes you happy and work with it... they all kill elk!