Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk with 257 Wby?

I'd certainly use it if that's all I had. That doesn't mean it'd be my first choice, or even an equal to first choice, to purchase if I had nothing and was buying a new rifle.

I've had pretty good luck sticking 120 grain .25 caliber partitions into live things made of meat leading to dead things made of meat. It'd be my first choice in the Weatherby.

Tom

I have not but, have loaded 120 gr Partitions with IMR 7828 for a bud's wife, she has taken [IIRC] 2 cow elk, 1 bull elk, a bison, and a couple mule deer with that set up.

I shoot a 25-06 AI at close to 257 WBY speeds and would have no concerns using the 100 gr TTSX's at 3553 fps on any elk.

Gunner

Speaking of 120gr Partitions and 7828. That's combo I used with my Sako .257 Weatherby on this 6X6 at 385 yards. Missouri Breaks, 2004.

Damn nice bull and rifle Pat.

Gunner

Pat,

Obviously it wasn't accurate enough....

Beautiful bull!

Bet it was a lot of fun to dress, quarter, and horse that beautiful bull up outta that ditch.

I gotta go elk hunting, missing it bad.

Gunner

I get the feeling that Scenarshooter would make a 22 Magnum work- Suspect it might have something to do with some highly developed shooting and hunting skills.

Yep! Pat I really enjoy seeing that pic of that big bull in the hole periodically. It reminds me why I quit hunting them a few years ago!

I'm going to bet the first thought after walking up on the killer bull wasnt. ( Dam, thats a great bull ) I bet it was ( Dam, that is going to be a beotch getting him out of there ).

Couldn't agree more with rost495. Killed little critters with big guns that ran before giving up the ghost and killed Big critters with little guns that barely twitched before dropping. Hell, I've seen shoulder shot, bones crushed, Elk run far enough that they almost could not be recovered. I'm not a firm believer in the bone crushing approach to killing critters I want to eat. Especially Elk. My wife and I have killed a bunch of Elk over the years with guns ranging from the .257 Rob to a .50 cal smoke pole. The shots through the vitals work best and her .257 Rob did just fine out to 200+ yards. Although I was feeling a little insecure with that caliber, I have to admit of the 3 she killed with that rifle, only one did any traveling and only made it about 100yds before running out of oxygen.

As for the .257 Weatherby, I'd have no problem with it if you can place the shot in the vitals. Elk have BIG vitals! Go for it!

Thanks guys for all of the replies! The elk that I have taken in the past have been with a 7mag and a 338WM but I really want to take the 257 on this one.

Best reason of all...

DF

SHHH, dont tell nobody DF, but I'd love to whack an elk with my 6.5x55 SM. lol

Gunner

Gunner,

Those big boomers in your safe will surely revolt...

I have a 6.5x55 project at the smith almost completed. I sold the 9.3x62 barrel off that FN Mauser with the three panel, Oberndorf bolt handle, Canjar trigger and swing safety. Didn't need two 9.3x62's after trading for the AHR CZ.

I have Laupa brass, Redding dies and plenty of components, all ready to go. It's throated for 140 VLD's, loaded long. Have a bedded B&C Medalist, just waiting.

Will report.

DF

Sounds good DF, and yes, I'd have to sneak the Swede out quietly while the boomers were busy snoring loudly. <G>

Gunner

A few years back I saw the kills a young girl made with a .25-06. They included a very nice mulie buck and a big bull. Think she had a cow as well.

She used 117g bullets and I assume Hornady but am not sure.

John,

I killed my first bull elk when I was about 13. It was dusk and a quite decent 5X6 bull spooked our of a little canyon and ran broadside in front of me. The range was maybe 75 yards,

I was carrying a .30-'06 and planted two 180-grain Hornady Spire Points dead behind the near shoulder. Like your friends bull, mine ran into a tree ... in my case it was a jack pine.

It was really getting darksome when I approached the bull. He was quite dead and laying on his belly. And, of course, I moaned, "What the HELL have I done? And how the HELL am I going to take care of this huge critter alone?"

So, I figgered the best approach would be to roll him over and start cutting out anything that didn't look like meat.

I could not budge him.

After maybe fifteen minutes (flashlight is out by now), I saw a broken-off jack pine top. And in pushing the bull's body over a little, I spotted the problem.

My bull was literally impaled upon the jack pine stump. Waht are your chances?

Thankfully, I had a limbing saw and about five minutes later I had the tree cut off at the ground. Then, the bull rolled over quite easily.

To make a long story short, it took me about three hours to gut, skin, quarter and hang the quarters of that bull. Not bad, considering I'd never seen it done before and had only killed twenty or so deer at that time. Even in my prime, my record for gut/skin/quarter and hang was an hour and a half, and usually it too fully two hours.

It was way dark and way cold, but it was all worth it.

I'll never forget looking over the kill scene. My big old bull was dead and properly butchered. I threw the horns over my shoulders and marked my way out to the road with cruisers tape. Young, satisfied and really really happy.

It was one of my best hunts and one I will always remember.

BUT, in killing one hell of a lot of elk (almost as many as I am old) and seeing maybe another 200 killed, I have never seen another who impaled himself on a tree or anything like that.

What are the chances????

Blessings,

Steve

Rooms,

That is a heck of story! I've seen some animals bang into stuff while making the death run (including a few that broke off horns or antlers) but never seen any get "stuck."

A few years ago I was hunting with your John Nosler in New Mexico when he killed his first elk bigger than a spike. It was so big-bodied we didn't think the antlers were quite as large as they were, and when he shot the bull at around 350 yards across a canyon, it walked behind some small trees and didn't come out. We found it dead over there just at dark, in a narrow little depression much like an elk-wide ditch, belly-down. It had evidently walked over there and sunk directly down on all four legs, as if getting ready for the trophy photos.

Luckily there were four of us, but we could NOT roll that bull more than slightly on his side. Essentially we took it apart from the top down, which was a PITA in the cold and dark. Even with four people it took over two hours to get the job done and pack the meat uphill 150 yards or so to the top of the ridge. We left the antlers down there until the next morning, as the caped head was a good load for one man in itself.

John,

Prolly the worst job I had during my guiding years was a cow my "hunter" killed. He whacked it and it rolled down into Yreka Creek (Hell's Canyon).

It wasn't too cold, maybe 20� and the creek was still running.

When we got down there, the old bitch was stuck belly-down in a rock V in the creek. The V was probably twenty feet down and solid rock. And his cow was damming up the water.

So the nimrod's guide, that would be me, had to skinny down on a rope and literally whack parts of cow off. I'd pout the pieces in a double garbage bag and the hunter hoisted them up on a rope and decorated a tree with them.

Yreka Creek was running red and I knew for damned sure I was gonna freeze to death.

When we got done, we had most of the elk in the tree and the ribs still damming up the creek.

Have you ever been so cold that you built a HUGE fire, got nekkid, dried your clothes and got unfroze by the fire? My hunter thought it was funnier than hell, so I told him, "Pete, next time is YOUR turn down in that godforsaken frigid hole."

He was a good guy and we enjoyed many wonderful hunts together after that. And we always laughed about that big bitch of a cow, laying belly-down in that impossible creek.

Oh yeah, and he always had to point out how VERY TINY my dick was when nekkid and trying to warm up by the fire

Please give Eileen a couple of squeezes from Karen and me.

Your buddy Steve

Steve,

Now that's funny! Though not so funny when you're in the middle of it.

Two of the five moose Eileen and I have killed ended up in the water, one for each of us. Hers was a small cow in shin-deep water, but mine, unfortunately, was a big Alaskan bull, and the problem was the opposite of yours: The weather was warm and the mosquitoes abundant. My guide and I didn't want to use Deet when handling moose meat, so we got drilled for five hours while butchering the bull from the top down. Man, what hunters through for some growth-hormone and antibiotic-free meat!

Give Karen a hug from both of us.