Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk with a .260 Rem

I have found that those who like to quote statistcs of various chamberings and bullets on forums usually have less experience in killing elk than they do of shooting.

I have yet to meet an elk reading ballistic tables or bullet specs. I can kill elk effectively with a 2 2RF,but I don't.

Retaining energy and the ability to penetrate while placing an accurate shot is what kills game. The 6.5x55 [260 like ballistics] has been killing game a hell of alot bigger than elk for over 100yrs in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

There is a reason the 6.5 calibers win the long range matches. They are accurate beyond reason and easy to shoot well. Those are two major factors in killing game too. I do believe some gun writer posted a video on this very forum showing him killing an elk at 650yds with a 129gr Hornady SST superformance ammo in a 6.5 Creedmore.

I guess I didn't see what I saw on that movie.

DAMN INGWE!!! Old, grouchy cuss still won't paint me up a stock! Even tried to convince him it was for the mighty 7x57....that stock is cooooool Dober

I wouldn't hesitate a bit to whack an elk with a 260!

http://www.federalpremium.com/products/compare/rifle_compare.aspx

While i dont doubt the Rem. 260 is capable of taking elk comparing it to the 30-06 is like comparing apples to oranges.

The link above shows to identical bullets ( SGK's ) the 260 is 140g the 06 is 165g @ 300yds. the 06 still has 350 ft. lbs. more energy. The OP was comparing a 120g to a 180g.
The heavier 30cal,180g more than likely has a thicker jacket than the 6.5mm.

A 260 will kill an elk
A 7x57 will kill an elephant
A .22 mag will kill a whitetail............

some folks want to kill'em, some folks prefer to anchor 'em

Some folks know how and when to shoot, some don't.

Learning that is half MAJORITY of the battle.

Would I "like" to have something a touch bigger...SURE.

But am I going to pass up a reasonable shot opportunity, with a premium bullet and load/rifle that I know in and out because I have spent the proper time with it just because its a .260..not hardly! Same old argument...put it where it counts..when the times right...

Trickie- were you just wanting to let your presence known or what? IF so just get on and say hi. Maybe you did with your first post and I missed it. Welcome, but I gotta say this is one of the strangest postings. It isn't a posting, its an exclamation. Lot of 260 fans here- none bigger than myself. I doubt many of us need to read up on it thank you. No one disputes your basic premise but you tell us to do our homework in the same sentence you tell us to use a non hunting bullet to kill what could be a huge animal. You say the 6.5 likes hollow point match bullets best - well...so do most calibers. They call them 'match' for a reason.

Sorry to sound cranky and I do hope you enjoy this place. Feel free to PM if you like. I just think it works best when folks come with an attitude of gaining knowledge rather than distributing it. BTW- my last buck was shot with a 260 nbt. Nice deer , especially for this part of the country - but it didn't exit. Pretty sure a 180 grain out of a 30-06 - same bullet- would have.

then "they' are stupid and ignore the laws of physics.

laffin !!!!

It's silly to think a 260 can't kill elk...too may have been killed with it and similar cartridges to think otherwise.On the world wide front it's true that historically lots of animals have been killed with the ballistic equal of a 260 (6.5x55 and similar).It's also true that lots o fexperienced hunters stopped turning them against large truculent beasts because the bullets did not hold up under the stress of impacting heavy bones,and penetrate as they should...even solids were badly bent like bananas and even William Bell had to go to the 318 with 250 gr bullets late in his carreer because solid 7x57 bullets were bending over on him...you don't see that mentioned very often

What gets lost in the din and blizzard of ballistic equations is that they don't tell the whole story...bullet weight, construction,jacket thickness,and expanded frontal area (where energy is "used")are never mentioned....That you get more of these things with a 30 caliber and the right bullet design than you do with anything as small as 6.5 is pretty undeniable.For those who don't believe this,go chase bullet wound channels through 40-50 mature bull elk shot with 30 calibers and then do it with the same number shot with smaller stuff.Patterns will emerge.

It's also one thing to slip a bullet through the thin ribs of a cow elk (or even a big bull for that matter)on an open hillside at any distance,than it is to take a big herd bull through the shoulders at spitting distance in order to try and reach vitals, hold him there as he stands quartering on or away in black timber...While we all know that bullet placement is critical(do we need to even mention it any more?), it's also true that some calibers and bullets are better at this sort of thing than some others."Numbers" don't tell you any of this.To read some of the stuff on here, you'd think every elk killed in North America was sniped on open hillsides at lazered distance over a bipod.

Sort of makes me laugh when guys piously state, in shooting BG animals "...just stay away from heavy bones...." like they aren't part of the animal,somehow?

This is unreaistic....bones and penetration from reasonable angles are hunting "facts of life"...if you do any reasonable amount of it.

Killing elk with a 260 seems to me a pretty sure bet,but if the 260 and the 30/06 were true "equals", or the 260 were truly a better all round BG cartridge than the 30/06,people like Phil Shoemaker would carry 260's into alders after wounded brown bears...and people like JJ Hack on here whould recommend it over the 30/06 for the wide range of plains game over in Africa....I don't see them doing either one.

There are very good reasons for that not contained in any ballistics table.

BobinNH- good post. I love telling people that I get exit wounds by aiming between the ribs. They nod...look kind questioning at me....but don't ask. I know damn well some of them have then went off to expertly tell others to do the same.

KensJ: Yeah....what's that all about?

This a very true statement IMO .

It has been calculated by mathematical geniuses that to kill an elk at 300 yards requires a .249 caliber, 116.7 bullet retaining 2303 fps.

This bullet will bounce off an elk at 301 yards, but kills them DRT at 300. This has been proven many times by computer models, as well as super-models--but only super-models who can shoot AND know elk anatomy.

So JB -- A 257 Roberts at 301 yards using a 120 Partition would work?<grin>

Why use just enough when it's cheaper to shoot enough?

Why walk to your treestand when you can drive a golf cart?

Have the greatest respect in the world for bow hunters, but its just not for me as i dont care for the process to be drawn out..
have shot plenty of deer with 243, 270 and 30-06 that were "dead on their feet", but still gasping when i got up on them...never had that experience when i used a .340.. just getten softer as i age !Looken to get another one now, but no one wants to cough one up !!(or at least the one i want..smile ! )