Elk Caliber

[JaseinMT]

Confidence in your equipment makes for good shot placement. Shot placement is key. I have shot many elk. Most with my 7rem mag. One was well past 300 closer to 350. I shot that one with a 243 and an 80gr bullet. I have watched them get shot with 243 all the way to 300 rum and if the shot is true they all expired quickly. But an off shot even with a rum wont end well. A 280 is adequate for the range you are expecting to shoot. But there really is no such thing as overkill because there is no such thing as overdead.

Plus 1. My experience has been that confidence makes for success. My brother shot a huge 6x6 at 620 yds with his 280 and a 150 partition. He had never seen a ballistic table, but he knew where his gun shot at 600. He used a browning with a boss and a 21 1/2" bbl. He didn't know that his muzzle velocity was more like a 7-08. He hit the bull, and it laid down more than dropped. It was dead when he got to it. He never suspected that he had anything less than a great elk gun. Now that he knows it is a 7-08, he uses his 300 saum. Pick the caliber that you have confidence in. It will work for you.

 

[500mag_guy]

The 300 wm or 338 wm will do the trick just greats with the distances you speak of and much more. Love loading the Barnes tsx bullets with those two rigs! Nothing wrong with the 270 win either seen many elk dropped on the spot with that caliber as many have said its all about confidence and shot placement...

oh and if you want a rocket the 300 rum is a personal favorite!

 

[7magmike]

I just bought a new elk rifle, went with the 7mm rum, I plan to use it for deer also.

 

[mrfrodo]

I am a lefty...makes used much more difficult.

as a lefty i feel your pain here, i was fortunate enough to find a Ruger .300 Win Mag for a reasonable price... that was my first real "elk rifle" and I've had good luck with it... more recently though I've switched to a .338-378 KT which is a bear to find brass for but is devastatingly effective

 

[bigngreen]

I have never hunted elk. It's on my to do list, though, so I have a lot of interest in discussions related to elk hunting. I have followed some pretty spirited discussions among ostensibly very experienced elk hunters on this forum. My takeaway from those discussions has been that there seems to be two distinct camps when it comes to caliber selection, bullet selection, and shot selection: the Go Big or Go Home camp and the Shot Placement is King camp.

The Go Big or Go Home camp tends to advocate using large caliber rifles and are typically advocates of shoulder shooting elk. If you are going to shoulder shoot elk, a large caliber with heavy bullets makes a lot of sense. I have seen some pretty convincing photo documentation to back up this school of thought. Often a secondary reason for advocating the big stuff is the ability to reach the vitals from nearly any angle.

The Shot Placement is King camp tend to be advocates of using standard whitetail cartridges with premium bullets to take the standard behind the shoulder "meat saver" shot. This school of thought emphasizes careful shot placement and equally careful selection of shot angles.

Both schools of thought represent different sets of trade offs. When someone from either camp makes a cartridge recommendation, I believe it to be useful for the advice seeker to understand the basis for the recommendation. More importantly, the advice seeker needs to be honest with themself about which school of thought is a better fit for their skills, abilities, and preferred hunting style.

If any of you experienced elk hunters think my analysis is all wet, I encourage you to set me straight. I am sure it woud be an instructive and worthwhile conversation for all concerned.

One element a lot of guys miss in this kind of comparison is the terrain each guy hunts elk in. I shoot smaller cals for the most part, anything under a 1000 yards and my 270 WSM has proven very slick and making an elk loose it's will to live and I've killed a good number of elk with smaller cals, BUT my terrain makes this much easier than where a guy like sp6x6 is hunting. If I shoot an elk through the lungs it's DOA and may have moved a few feet to a hundred yards or so but for me that means they moved down hill and in my terrain that is always the direction I can bring them out with ease but that northern MT stuff if an animal staggers that far it can get into a place that will make you think twice about life and there is no access for bringing them out the backside so over the top they come, you want an elk to eat snow right where you catch him!!
I do have my big 338's but they are for long range and simply for launching 300 gr bullets at distance.

 

[HARPERC]

One element a lot of guys miss in this kind of comparison is the terrain each guy hunts elk in. I shoot smaller cals for the most part, anything under a 1000 yards and my 270 WSM has proven very slick and making an elk loose it's will to live and I've killed a good number of elk with smaller cals, BUT my terrain makes this much easier than where a guy like sp6x6 is hunting. If I shoot an elk through the lungs it's DOA and may have moved a few feet to a hundred yards or so but for me that means they moved down hill and in my terrain that is always the direction I can bring them out with ease but that northern MT stuff if an animal staggers that far it can get into a place that will make you think twice about life and there is no access for bringing them out the backside so over the top they come, you want an elk to eat snow right where you catch him!!
I do have my big 338's but they are for long range and simply for launching 300 gr bullets at distance.

Absolutely! In the jungles your shot often picks you. Wait for the crease behind the shoulder, and the wait may be a couple of decades. You hear your buddy shoot and think, ah HELL what'd you go and do that for!

 

[Bowhunter7]

I have killed multiple elk with a 7mm o8 I would suggest that no one has confidence in it but it has gotten the job done for me 1 shot 1 kill every time.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

I have killed multiple elk with a 7mm o8 I would suggest that no one has confidence in it but it has gotten the job done for me 1 shot 1 kill every time.

That is a really good word you put in "confidence".

The caliber and chambering may not be as importance as confidence in the firearm and ammunition.

Example: I have an R700 in 300 RUM as well as a self build Vanguard 300 WSM. If I were to leave today, I would take the Vanguard and stay sub 500 yards, simple, I have confidence in that combination. I'm not ready to take the RUM on the beyond 500 yards hunts because I don't have confidence in where that bullet is going.

Oh, and there are additional 30 cals, .338 cals, .284/7mm cals, .264/6.5mm cals .243/6mm cals in the safe.