What is the max range of my elk hunting load?

[The Surgeon]

I would take the 800+ yrd shot on large game with this setup. Only one problem, my eye sight is so bad that I don't think I could see the "ear canal" well enough to drop a round into at these distances. gun)

Just Kiding.

 

[Bravo 4]

Let me start off by saying that I am by no means an expert on elk. The only dead elk I've seen is the decent 5x5 I took home a few years back and the young 4x4 the guys camped next to us tagged. I have a lot of respect for these animals after seeing how tuff they are. Mine was dead on his feet after a 300 SMK punched a good sized hole through both lungs, and the dude never batted an eye till I hit him with a high shoulder shot to break his back. The other one was hit with three 140gr Accubonds from a .270 short mag and a 180gr Accubond from a .300 Mag at under 200 yards (all probably fatal) and it stood there looking at them and calmly meandered over the hill it was standing on till it expired. I voted for under 250 as well because there was no option of zero. Of course a properly place shot from a 25-06 will kill an elk, but after my experience (limited as it might be) I almost feel under gunned with my EDGE!
Maybe I'll get another chance to expand on my knowledge if I get to go this November. Hopefully be taking my son, the least he will be using is a 30-06 with 180gr Partitions.

 

[WildRose]

Let me start off by saying that I am by no means an expert on elk. The only dead elk I've seen is the decent 5x5 I took home a few years back and the young 4x4 the guys camped next to us tagged. I have a lot of respect for these animals after seeing how tuff they are. Mine was dead on his feet after a 300 SMK punched a good sized hole through both lungs, and the dude never batted an eye till I hit him with a high shoulder shot to break his back. The other one was hit with three 140gr Accubonds from a .270 short mag and a 180gr Accubond from a .300 Mag at under 200 yards (all probably fatal) and it stood there looking at them and calmly meandered over the hill it was standing on till it expired. I voted for under 250 as well because there was no option of zero. Of course a properly place shot from a 25-06 will kill an elk, but after my experience (limited as it might be) I almost feel under gunned with my EDGE!
Maybe I'll get another chance to expand on my knowledge if I get to go this November. Hopefully be taking my son, the least he will be using is a 30-06 with 180gr Partitions.

Your kid will do fine. Many years ago I was in a local gun shop and a guy comes in with his very young and small son. I think the kid was about nine and maybe 70lbs.

Dad had put them both in for an elk tag hoping to get one. Both drew up and the area they were heading to was HEAVILY patrolled so he immediately dispelled any thoughts of "helping" the kid get his elk.

So here he was trying to figure out a gun capable of killing an elk reliably that wouldn't hurt the kid.

After some discussion he bought a savage 7mm mag, had the gun smith cut the stock off to fit (after drilling it for dowels so that when the kid was ready for full length the block could just be added back), put on a good recoil pad and muzzle break and I worked up some mild cusom loads for the kid in 120g Hornady interlocks.

To shorten the story the kid killed his elk at right around 400yds with a single shot to the heart that left him dirt dead. He never took a stip.

Twenty years later I bumped into the kid who introduced me to his son who was shooting the same 7mm Mag, and ammo I had loaded for him such a long time ago.

Made me feel pretty darn good.

 

[rscott5028]

[...]Twenty years later I bumped into the kid who introduced me to his son who was shooting the same 7mm Mag, and ammo I had loaded for him such a long time ago.

Made me feel pretty darn good.

That's what it's all about!!!

 

[WildRose]

That's what it's all about!!!

Considering where I was in my life at the time I did that for them you can't imagine how it made me feel to run into him again that day.

They shot so well in that little cheap savage with the K-6 weaver that you could literally knock the heads off of wooden matches at 50yds.

 

[Lyons7STW]

I do know for a fact that a 270 with ballistic silvertips is suficient if a good shot presents itself and you capitalize on the oppurtunity. I would expect near the same from your rig. I did however step up to the 338 win mag when mine hung up at just over 540 yards. I am now a bonafied 7 STW fan.
Keep in mind only like 18% of the tags sold each year get filled. Bull elk are not in the habit of presentig ideal oppurtunities. Good luck.

 

[Jake Levi]

Wild Rose you should feel good about that, you were an enabler, we need a lot more of that tribe.

Fwiw, my vote is the one 250 yard one, and even then I would say only for the most perfect shot. I really dont think anyone should set out after Elk with anything under a .30 caliber. And then the bigger the better. If we are going to kill something we owe it to them to do it right. Quick and sure. I have passed up far more shots then I have taken and plan to continue that.

 

[WildRose]

Wild Rose you should feel good about that, you were an enabler, we need a lot more of that tribe.

Fwiw, my vote is the one 250 yard one, and even then I would say only for the most perfect shot. I really dont think anyone should set out after Elk with anything under a .30 caliber. And then the bigger the better. If we are going to kill something we owe it to them to do it right. Quick and sure. I have passed up far more shots then I have taken and plan to continue that.

Thanks. I have however seen far too many Elk and Big boars taken with the .264 WM, 7mm Mag and 7STW to agree with you necessarily on minimum caliber choices.

The major factor with any of them is proper placement of the shot and thus the skill of the shooter and accuracy of the weapon are my greater concerns. It doesn't matter if you are shooting a .50 BMG if you can't hit the target. When you can place the shot properly and repeatedly one just has a lot more available options.

We should all be enablers. We are being out populated at a rapid rate by anti-hunters and if we want future generations to be able to hunt we need to all go out of our way to recruit new youth to the sport and help them along their way.

It's small payback for all we have enjoyed ourselves.

 

[bkondeff]

A 25-06 is plenty gun for elk. Yes bigger will kill better, all other things being equal. Didn't seem the question was ever about 25-06 vs ???? gun. A 25-06 can kill a bull elk better at 400 yards than any compound bow at 25. All guns require a competent shooter to man it. Clearly know your limitations. I picked 450, becuase I like 1500ft lbs of energy for elk and 1000 for deer. I agree though that if you had the choice of a bigger gun I would choose bigger.

Bullets today can handle a fair amount and there are plenty of solid options: TSX, Accubond, Partition, Etc. I did not mention berger because, despite their excellent performance on deer/elk in my 7mm may, I had some poor terminal results on two deer with my 25-06 when they did not open up on 5 of 5 shots two years ago.

 

[bassin93]

Are you talking cut out weight or field dressed? I've seen Mulies that FD much more than 250. Northern White Tails can reach 455lbs or more live wt.

What have you been smoking Wildrose?
A whitetail at 455 lbs? now thats funny. That is probably an average sized elk. I would say Big Green is on the money with weights as far as elk go. I have not killed alot of elk, and never a huge bull but, out of 7 that I have killed the quarters run about 75 lbs each for a total of 300 on the rail. One nice 6 point went 350. This is normal. Hell, my dad and several friends have killed bull moose and they don't go 1000 pnds live weight.

A large Whitetail and I mean large will be around 160 -180 on the rail, Muleys are much larger then White tails

 

[WildRose]

What have you been smoking Wildrose?
A whitetail at 455 lbs? now thats funny. That is probably an average sized elk. I would say Big Green is on the money with weights as far as elk go. I have not killed alot of elk, and never a huge bull but, out of 7 that I have killed the quarters run about 75 lbs each for a total of 300 on the rail. One nice 6 point went 350. This is normal. Hell, my dad and several friends have killed bull moose and they don't go 1000 pnds live weight.

A large Whitetail and I mean large will be around 160 -180 on the rail, Muleys are much larger then White tails

I'm not smoking anything. I didn't say rail weight I'm referring to live wt and yes, northern white tails can most certainly reach that weight range.

Now in Texas you are absolutely right in that a WT is almost always going to be considerably smaller than a Muley of the same age and sex but I didn't mention TX as Texas is not a "northern state".

As you move further north into colder climates animals of the same species are going to be bigger, thicker, and heavier due to their need to conserve body heat through the cold winters.

http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=106

As for Moose, sorry but you don't know what you are talking about. Live weight they can and do often top out at over 1,000lbs and up to 1,500lbs or more on occasion.

http://alaskaguidesdirectory.com/moose_hunting_hunts_outfitters.html

As for the differential between live weight and cut out weight normally on wild game it's going to be a difference of around 60-70% on medium and large game.

Guts, bones, and hides make up for a considerable portion of the body weight obviously.

 

[bigngreen]

Are you talking cut out weight or field dressed? I've seen Mulies that FD much more than 250. Northern White Tails can reach 455lbs or more live wt.

I guess I never reponded, sorry. Those numbers are on the rail, skinned and ready to cut, I bagged up the head, hide and legs of an average elk and it's about 75lbs add another 100 lbs for gutts and what not. The largest Montana whitetail buck I've scaled went 235 lbs on the rail and the largest muley was 302lbs. These are far above average, if I remember right the buck average was 135 lbs ish on the rail.
After cutting an animal that was on the rail, no hide legs or head you can expect a 62% average yield of meat on deer and elk, head shots and clean gutting will bring it up to 68-70%. I had a client that would bring me a moose from the NW Territories every year and they are crazy big, takes me 8 hrs to cut one compared to 1.5 for an elk, it also takes me 8 hrs to cut a buffalo if that is any indication.

 

[WildRose]

I guess I never reponded, sorry. Those numbers are on the rail, skinned and ready to cut, I bagged up the head, hide and legs of an average elk and it's about 75lbs add another 100 lbs for gutts and what not. The largest Montana whitetail buck I've scaled went 235 lbs on the rail and the largest muley was 302lbs. These are far above average, if I remember right the buck average was 135 lbs ish on the rail.

That makes more sense to me.

Different subspecies also vary quite a bit from one another as far as potential maximum live weight, as does time of year killed... An early fall buck or bull is going to be dramatically heavier than those killed during or after the mating season is over.

 

[bassin93]

Wild Rose. I have lived here in NW Montana for 53 years and have hunted all but 11 of them. WT Deer do not reach 400 lbs and the Moose are not near as large as the canada or the alaskan moose. I have personally been on three different bull moose kills. Think you better come up here and take a look and if someone told you otherwise they are full of S^%T and grossly exagerating. The Mule deer here are quite a bit larger then the White Tail here