Thoughts on Hammers on elk (out of a 6.5 CM)

[Kimber7man]

What kind of shooter are you ? That's the question. 6.5CM is just fine for elk if you are true to your personal abilities. If you can make the shot at 500 yards and put it in the boiler room. Then by all means. An elk is just a big deer. And it's all about shot placement. I'd definitely use a game bullet with a good jacket. I have no experience with those hammer bullets. I do have customers that use then but not beyond 400 yards as they lose speed and have a tendency to drop off for accuracy. (Per my customers telling me so if you know different then let us all know). Elk get killed with all sorts of calibers out here in Montana where I live. 243 22-250 22creedmoor 22mag. You don't need "knock down power" like some guys say. That's just a crutch for poor shooting skills.
My wife who was 9months pregnant at the time killed a cow at 652 yards with 6.5prc shooting 140's at 3110fps in the castle mountains. Wind as 18mph 9 o clock
Cow went 10steps and dropped.
So how good are you with the rifle? And can you put it where it needs to be. ?
View attachment 377197

Good points. I suspect @dogz knows his way around rifles and elk…. Maybe filled an ark or two…. And maybe with a Swift?

 

[dogz]

Ark ark ark...what's an ark

 

[dogz]

Elk cover a pretty wide range of sizes. I'd be a lot more willing to take a 6.5 Creedmoor on a cow hunt than a trophy bull hunt. 6.5 Creedmoor can definitely be effective on elk, but you'll need to consider the range you intended to shoot and the size of the animals you expect to encounter.

yes you're correct in that elk come in many sizes and shapes. However, it's been my experience that the real world the diff between the thickness of the ribs and or the shoulder blade between them just isn't enough to sweat it.

Plus I've ran enough bullets from my 22/250 and Swifts thru shoulder blades to know that it just isn't that tough to punch thru them. Not at all saying that smallish rounds like these are a good place for many to go towards for elk for what's that worth..........

Just saying that big elk small elk there just isn't much diff in reducing them to the deep freeze.

The only remotely formidable bone on a shoulder elk is the knuckle, and in 43 years of elk killing and in being around elk killed I've seen it hit once and that was with my 270 and a 130 Sierra BT and it punched right thru and killed her just fine. Good bud who's killed a ton load of big bulls has hit it once, with a 165 Horn Bt out of his .308. That bullet punched right thru and flattened the bull...

Elk killing isn't rocket science unless one chooses to make it such! I've found that those that try to make it rocket science have a relatively small amount of elk work to their resume.

Now getting them back to the truck can be a whole nuther game

 

[dogz]

What kind of shooter are you ? That's the question. 6.5CM is just fine for elk if you are true to your personal abilities. If you can make the shot at 500 yards and put it in the boiler room. Then by all means. An elk is just a big deer. And it's all about shot placement. I'd definitely use a game bullet with a good jacket. I have no experience with those hammer bullets. I do have customers that use then but not beyond 400 yards as they lose speed and have a tendency to drop off for accuracy. (Per my customers telling me so if you know different then let us all know). Elk get killed with all sorts of calibers out here in Montana where I live. 243 22-250 22creedmoor 22mag. You don't need "knock down power" like some guys say. That's just a crutch for poor shooting skills.
My wife who was 9months pregnant at the time killed a cow at 652 yards with 6.5prc shooting 140's at 3110fps in the castle mountains. Wind as 18mph 9 o clock
Cow went 10steps and dropped.
So how good are you with the rifle? And can you put it where it needs to be. ?
View attachment 377197

Way cool job on the elk!

"DWD" (darn well done)

I think that if you shot with me a bit you'd find me to most days be fairly handy with any of the 3 guns. Generally that is, like everyone I have my days

 

[ManzellaPrecision]

I'll say this. If you are deadly accurate with that rifle and you are running at least 130 grains or better I say go for it. I built my wife a 6.5creedmoor before we moved to Montana and I had built myself a 6.5prc for a match rifle that i could use on heavy wind days and not have to hold so far off the plate I let her shoot the Creedmoor and then she asked about the prc. And then she asked which one had more velocity. She told me she didn't want the Creedmoor. So I sold Creedmoor and now she shoots that heavy PRC for everything It's a laser she's killed a pile of animals with it. If I had only one caliber from now until end of time. And one bullet. 156 bergers. Getting 3085 out of them in 26inch hawk hill with Thunderbeast can on it.

 

[Mike Matteson]

yes you're correct in that elk come in many sizes and shapes. However, it's been my experience that the real world the diff between the thickness of the ribs and or the shoulder blade between them just isn't enough to sweat it.

Plus I've ran enough bullets from my 22/250 and Swifts thru shoulder blades to know that it just isn't that tough to punch thru them. Not at all saying that smallish rounds like these are a good place for many to go towards for elk for what's that worth..........

Just saying that big elk small elk there just isn't much diff in reducing them to the deep freeze.

The only remotely formidable bone on a shoulder elk is the knuckle, and in 43 years of elk killing and in being around elk killed I've seen it hit once and that was with my 270 and a 130 Sierra BT and it punched right thru and killed her just fine. Good bud who's killed a ton load of big bulls has hit it once, with a 165 Horn Bt out of his .308. That bullet punched right thru and flattened the bull...

Elk killing isn't rocket science unless one chooses to make it such! I've found that those that try to make it rocket science have a relatively small amount of elk work to their resume.

Now getting them back to the truck can be a whole nuther game

Getting them back to the truck it a different story for sure.

 

[donkeyman]

I wouldn't recommend a 6.5 cm for an elk. The chance for a quick and ethical kill goes down exponentially with this caliber vs say a 7mm mag or a 6.5 PRC.

 

[bigngreen]

I wouldn't recommend a 6.5 cm for an elk. The chance for a quick and ethical kill goes down exponentially with this caliber vs say a 7mm mag or a 6.5 PRC.

You realize a 6.5 Creedmore and 6.5 PRC are the same calibur right, just a little launch speed difference with the same bullets?!?!

 

[laker]

Here's 4 bullets. Two of them are 6.5 and two are 7mm. One 6.5 is a 140 Berger shot at creedmoor velocities and one is a 140 Berger shot at 3000fps. One 7mm bullet is a 160 grain accubond shot at 3250 FPS and one is a 168 grain accubondlr shot at 2900fps. All pulled from elk. All elk died with no drama. Tell me which bullet is which.

 

[Lefty G-gear]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Hammers+on+elk+(out+of+a+6.5+CM)

 

[nksmfamjp]

I recommend a minimum of 1,500 on elk at whatever range you and your rifle are capable of.

1500 ft lbs of energy is just the kinetic energy of the mass moving at that velocity. How does that affect the elk?

 

[dogz]

You realize a 6.5 Creedmore and 6.5 PRC are the same calibur right, just a little launch speed difference with the same bullets?!?!

Right on Brother!

 

[dogz]

Here's 4 bullets. Two of them are 6.5 and two are 7mm. One 6.5 is a 140 Berger shot at creedmoor velocities and one is a 140 Berger shot at 3000fps. One 7mm bullet is a 160 grain accubond shot at 3250 FPS and one is a 168 grain accubondlr shot at 2900fps. All pulled from elk. All elk died with no drama. Tell me which bullet is which.
View attachment 377721

great pics, what amazes me is how tough some people try to make killing out to be..........it's just not rocket science!

Side note Laker, I saw a bruiser bruin this spring in "that" place that we looked over a while back

 

[laker]

great pics, what amazes me is how tough some people try to make killing out to be..........it's just not rocket science!

Side note Laker, I saw a bruiser bruin this spring in "that" place that we looked over a while back

One of these years I'll have to get back out there.