elk gun

[gonehunting]

The truth of the matter is no matter what caliber you pick to use on whatever game, half the people will say it's too small, the other half will say it's too much gun.

I am willing to bet the amount of elk wounded and lost over recent history from a .270 are probably pretty close to equal to that of the .300. More often than not it's bad shot placement that does it, not lack of power.

 

[tmoniz]

I was on a guided hunt in Wyoming. One of the four hunters in camp lost two good bulls after hitting them with a 300 win mag. It wasn't the gun. It was the guy behind it. The 30/06 with 180's will handle any Elk. The 270 in the right hands and with a good bullet should be able to do the same. Components have gotten so good over the years a handloading hunter can create a lot of mustard for his old 270 or 06.

 

[Luckyshot]

Definately 300 win mag w/180 gr partition. As far as the comments on recoil if your shooting at a big bull you wont even know the gun went off. You will rarely find an instance of a pass through shot with this combo so all the bullets energy is imparted to the animal.

 

[beagledude]

7mm mag works for me. 162 grain SPBT Hornady bullet shooting approx 3100 fps seems to knock em' down. Recoil on the 7mm is much less than the 300 mag.

 

[Dave in LB]

If you're jsut dying to buy a new gun I'd opt for the 300. The 7mm is plenty fine, but if you're going to suffer the recoil it might as well be .30 caliber. You might not get quite the range as the 7mm but it's so close I won't even discuss it. If you have a 270 you like get a tough bullet in a heavy weight like mentioned above and go forth confidently to harvest your elk. Personally I opted for a fast .33 ( .338 Win. Mag.)

 

[tdbob]

Buy the bow and get tags for both archery and rifle seasons.

 

[Railguner]

Pick up a new 05 Remington 700 XCR in 300 WSM. Short action, lighter but not to light. Easy to handle with 24" barrel. Packs all the punch of a 300 Win. Comes with Remingtons (limbsaver) R3 recoil pad. Great bullet selection from Winchester and Federal. Plop on a 3.5x10x50 and go get those elk.

Here are some Federal numbers and bullet types for the 300 WSM round.