7mm rum, berger 180, ELK

[setandglass]

sendaro 7mm rum 180 gr berger at 3150fps ( 3000 ele) Any idea on problem with elk to close and max range for elk. My friend hunts with me at 8000 ft. he is worried about shoots close on elk. For the most part we will be shooting 400 to 800 but hunting is just that could be 100 or 1000. Read someplace on here a guy said something about hitting a elk in the shoulder on just blowing the hide off the bone. Any info is good info.

 

[leaddog]

This is the same load that I use. Have shot five elk so far with it. All quick one shot kills. Closet one was 200, the farthest was 660. I personally don't take shoulder shots, All have been thru the lungs some with ribs some without. All shots passed thru from one side to the next. IMHO this is one fine load.

 

[Elk Hunter 338]

Go with a bonded bullet, like the 160gr accubond they should run in the 3300 fps range (est) i ran the numbers through my nightforce program with a 200 yard zero and the 160 out performs the berger in drop, wind drift, and energy out to a 1000 yards. velocitys were roughly the same both were a little over 2050fps at a grand. The best part about the Accubond is you wont have to worry about close shots, far shots quartering shots, frontal shots, through the shoulder shots, and the list goes on on. Get ahold of Kirby Allen, he's running the accubond in his 7 AM at i think around 3500 fps (dont quote me on that) and having phenomenal results at all ranges, also check out Matrix Bullets there design is like the berger but there bonded not fused like bergers so they'll hold up better like the Accubond. The bergers are sweet at long range and work great at long range, but remember they were built for target shooting and weather they say "hunting" or "target" on the box there the same thing. I prefer the high shoulder shot on everything i hunt, puts em down in there tracks no tracking required end of story you dont have to worry if the animals body is twisted a little and end up getting guts and losing the animal because your worried about your bullet not performing and maybe losing a fistfull of meat. Ive seen first hand what happens when you shoot an elk with target bullets (300 gr SMK) at close range and it aint pretty.

 

[IdahoCTD]

The Matrix VLD's aren't bonded but they do make bonded bullets with lower BC's.

 

[sp6x6]

Here is what you get at close range brush shot, 300 otm, next is 200 yrd, shot each end of elk hind 1/4 bone. Bone was held on 1/2 osb target at range w/wire and blew the whole bone threw back with about a grapefruit sized hole, mass destruction and bone everywhere. If it can do that at 200? Why not closer

 

[Elk Hunter 338]

Sorry my bad, i thought that all matrix bullets were bonded, and all tests ive done with bullets vs hard inanimate objects such as blocks of wood or dirt banks or wet news paper blocks etc etc..usually dosent really tell me anything other than the ability for the bullet to hold together, and penetration, really there is no way to test a bullet like in an animal, and when you say that at 200 yards the hole through the OSB was the size of a grape fruit tells me that the bullet turned into a grenade as soon as it hit the bone and that cant be good, i have just seen what a sierra 300 gr does on the shoulder of a bull elk at close range, shear disappointment. I have yet to have the chance to try any 300gr OTM's on animals at any range under 350yards other than a freind of mine shooting a bull in the neck at 80 yards with my rifle and it dropped it, so it worked.

 

[Elkmen]

If you cruise around on the web you will find a "wide" variation in experieces with the Bergers and other mono bullets. You will not find near the variation with the AB or Nosler PT. I have not killed with the AB or Berger but have with the Barnes, after 50 years of use I prefer the PT for one reason it works. !!

 

[sp6x6]

338, I t had so much E that it took the hole set up threw the OSB. If any bullet that can shoot threw 3-4 inches of solid nuckle bone, wont be good for much else like expanding. What is you elk experiance, I have been at 100's of elk kills. I have shot a pile of elk w/ basic 225 hornady, under $20 for 100 when I was shooting them. Taken elk w/243 100 spitzer and my son also, 7RM, many bullets, 325wsm, Nab, Barnes, Partitions, bt's all with my 340,plus 15 bulls with arrow. Bear, Thunderhead,Mowdock,Muzzy, Steel Force,Montec,Phathead

 

[bigngreen]

In my opinion the 180 Berger would be the go to bullet for the OP, this being long range hunting. I would shoot an elk of my toes with it but I alway put my shot placement in the crease behind the shoulder, this puts the bullet that will open aggresively right in the boiler room which will shred all the life out of that elk. On the long side I like to keep the impact velocity above 1800 fps or keep it in the range I can put a bullet through the vital with confidence.

 

[Elkmen]

If they are at 17 yards (my closest) or well past 400 (my farthest) I want a hole out the opposite side with blood I can follow. I do not want a mass of jelly on the inside of an elk, while its running, downhill, 4 or 500 yards in the dense timber with 20 of its friends leaving no blood trail. I have not seen that performance with the mono's. Of course I have seeen it with the PT as most others have also. Most of the elk I have killed, have run (its a distrubing trait of elk) most only a short distance some a lot farther. Recovery is easier with blood. My first elk (1961) was shot with a 180 gr PT, at 100 yards going away, she was walking straight away down a steep hill, the bullet went in forward of the udder and came out the chest. Lots of blood and a blood trail I could follow even in the fir. Just my 02

 

[Elk Hunter 338]

sp6x6 i also have been at 100's elk kills in my home state of Idaho, and montana, colorado and washington, ive shot bull elk from spikes to 350" bulls, to say that im an elk hunting junkie is an understatement...as soon as idaho made it to were i could buy two elk tags i did and every year since ive killed two six points or bigger with my bow and rifle an called in to many big bulls to mention for my huntin buddies and myself with archery tackle Ive shot piles of giant whitetail bucks, a few mule deer, alaskan bullmoose, a shiras moose, tons of black bear and the list goes on and on, ive shot elk with calibers from a 243 all the way up to the hammer 416 rigby throwing a 400 gr bullet at 2700 fps, my favorite being the 300 rum 200 gr accubond 338 rum 225 gr accubond, and the 338 edge 300 gr berger ever since i had my first one built, but this is not about me, its about setandglass wanting to know what we all thought about a good close range bullet if the shot presented its self, and i disagree that the berger is a close range go to bullet, if he isnt interested in shooting past a 1000 why not shoot the accubond when it out performes the berger then he wont have to worry at all, and this being longrangehunting i said that the berger was a good bullet for that app. If he goes with the Berger, stick with the 180 out of all of them, and the 160 with the accubond because thats the only heavier weight they make in the caliber (wish they made a 180 that would be sweet) as for the whole bone through the OSB ya thats impressive, was it the 300 gr otm or other, if it was the 300 yes they do have a **** ton of energy, the thing is the bullet has to perform through hide, muscle, tendons, vesels, cartlige, ribs, shoulder blades and then they get the good stuff and hopefully out the other side.

 

[setandglass]

Thanks for all the info guys

 

[sp6x6]

Elk hunter 338, good to know Im not the only sick one out there,

 

[Elk Hunter 338]

Yes i do love hunting and shooting me some wapiti. sp6x6 what make is that fire stick in the pic? I did notice the ABS barrel but what scope, stock, action, caliber etc. it looks cool