calibers that are suitable for hunting ELK

[340wby]

what calibers are suitable for ELK? since shot placement and bullet construction has a great deal to do with the results thats a difficult question to answer.
certainly a 6mm rem, 25/06 or 257 roberts will KILL an ELK, theres hundreds killed every year with the 270 win and 30/06 with the correct shot placement. the reason I think many guys (myself included) vastly prefer the heavier calibers like the 338cal,358cal,375 cal is that theres a HUGE differance between delivering a shot resulting in KILLING and ELK and DROPPING an ELK on the spot of bullet impact with a repeatable authority, YES shot placement has a great deal to do with the results, but your kidding yourself if you think the penetration and impact energy of the larger calibers does not give you a slight but noticable advantage.IF YOU CAN STILL SHOOT JUST AS ACCURATELY

think about this,
if wounded ELK had a habit of tearing hunters to ribbons with thier antlers , or stomping them into bloody jello, I doubt we would ever have this discussion, so what we are really discussing is if it matters to you if you make a clean kill, or that the elk might run a few yards or live for awhile after being shot, what your in effect saying is that since its not likely your butts in danger, it matters little if the elk dies instantly or slowly from that first shot!


if I had to pick a minimum that I felt could get the job done it would be the 270 win ,but Id feel much better armed with a 300 mag or 35 whelen

[Purebred Redneck]

I'd personally be more comfortable setting a 30cal as a min - excluding a 30-30.

A lot of people believe animals fall in their tracks only from a central nervouis blow on the spine or head. Not true, many many many animals collapse and only twitch on a double shoulder hit. Studies on human-like dumbies have shown people don't fly over backwards when hit by a bullet. I don't care about those studies - you can really make a deer look like he's having a seizure !

[340wby]

Ive concentrated more On hunting ELK and mule deer over the years more than whitetail, but Ive sure shot my share of hogs and whitetail over the last 35 plus years.
it does not take much to effectively drop most of the deer Ive shot, the 257 roberts and 257 wby mag seem to work just fine under the conditions I usually hunt (under 250 yard shots with shots under 150 the most common) but ELK are a differant deal, while deer tend to weight under 250 lbs (some way under) ELK can and do weight two to three times what deer weight and they really require a step up in power and bullet size if the best results are to be expected

[Purebred Redneck]

You know, I have never seen a deer drop in it's tracks or heard of one doing so up on the farm where I used to anything less than a 30-06. But of course of the 40 people there, there was 30-35 of the guns of 30-06 power and above

[klsm54]

I have dropped many deer, like they were poleaxed, with a 7mm-08, 270, 7x57, 32 Special, and 308, with shoulder shots. I have dropped a few in their tracks with a 257 Roberts and 6mm, but they were with spine or head shots. I have seen deer go down as fast as if struck by lightening with shoulder shots from a 25-06 too, just not fired by me.

But if I were talking Elk, I think the 270, or there abouts is the minimum that I would want. A 7mm or 30 caliber with a good 160-180 grain bullet would be about ideal for a recoil sissy like me... ;D

[340wby]

you want to drop deer quick?
try a 150 grain speer bullet from a 300 weatherby mag .loaded over about 88 grains of IMR7828, place the bullet slightly over 1/2 the body depth high behind the shoulder, or at the base of the neck from the front, while its true youll waste a great deal of meat the deer gos down like it was STOMPED ON LIKE A BUG!
while I won,t use this method, As I like venison,I have seen it done frequently by friends over the years

[Purebred Redneck]

You know, if you're on private land - there is ussually deer to go around. Now you can aim for the lungs, hit gut, and 4 hours later you have a dead deer and be tired as hell.
OR you can drop them on the spot, waste perhaps 5-10 pounds of meat, and go hunting the same afternoon for another deer.

I've been on both ends, as all of you have, and I know which one I'll take.
Now it's a whole different ball game on public land or in a area with limited tags...

[340wby]

Ill point out that while the rapidly expanding (CHEAP) bullets, can and frequently do make spectacular kills,(especially on deer) they also in my experiance have in rare cases,a nasty habit of failing to reach and destroy the vitals,on the larger ELK,some, acting more like a varmit bullet that shreads on impact) or in most cases failing to exit. now on DEER thats usually not a big deal as the size of the game means that almost any chest cavity hit will prove fatal shortly.....thats just not true to the same extent on ELK.
keep in mind velocity and shot placement here, a bullet that works very well from a 30/06 or 308 win is almost by deffinition doomed to over expand fired from a 300 ultra mag/or similar 3oo weatherby if the range is short
I do most of the handloading for our group, and I also have done a great deal of field dressing on ELK in our camp over the years(especially for the newer guys on thier first few ELK) theres a very noticable differance in the internal destruction thats the typical result from lets say a 270 win or 7mm mag compared to that from a 340 or 338 mag with thier lower velocities and much more strongly constructed bullet designs
both prove fatal if well placed,yet its when they don,t get placed exactly right that the big differances become glarringly apparent and it rarely fails that once the shooting starts, if the ELK fails to drop instantly the new guys who are far less sure of thier shooting skill levels just start the spray and pray fire,tactics,those lighter bullets make a huge mess and destroy a great deal of meat, but also fail to reach the vitals on an elk running away from these guys. now its not the BULLETS FAULT as much as the opperators bad judgement and skill level ,(bad shot placement) but a heavier caliber does get results faster.
its a double edged sword, the guys that have the skills both tend to shoot better and use the better bullet designs and in many cases the heavier calibers simply because they practice more and recoil is far less of a problem,calibers like 35 whelen and 338 win are comon amoung the more experianced guys, results are much better.
the newer guys that tend to practice less, know less,tend to use the cheaper bullets,in lighter weights ,since they pay more attention to drop charts and magazine articles than experiance, many shoot faster shooting calibers like the 270-7mm mag, but can,t hit zip and think fire voluum or flat trajectory is a potential fix for lack of accuracy, and think the older guys useing the premium bullets costing much more and the heavier calibers with less potential range are NUTS....at least at first
Ive always suggested that EXTENSIVE PRACTICE, and knowing exactly where to aim with a heavier bullet weights in your choosen caliber helps, far more than extra velocity, or flatter trajectory, the lighter bullets provide or the money saved on ammo