best big game round

[pizzulog]

can someone tell me what the best caliber and size round to hunt elk?

[Wiggity]

"best" is a relative term.

Anything from .308win to .375 H&H will work just fine assuming you hit it in the right spot

[spqrzilla]

can someone tell me what the best caliber and size round to hunt elk?

No such thing.

[J]

Hell 270win, or 257wby will work well too. Prefer bigger, but that wasn't the question.

[sniper7]

50 bmg

[jmg8550]

Here we go again...

[King]

Kinda depends on how far or close the area you hunt allows you to shoot. I like the 7 Rem mag for elk where I hunt because it shoots pretty flat. .308 and 30-06 are good choices as well

[DSull]

The best elk cartridge is in the mind of the hunter.

[birddog]

Yup, the best round is the one that hits right where it should. If you are looking for an all around rifle its hard to beat a 30-06.

[TheBelly]

I have a .300 RUM that does a pretty good job.

I agree that .308 or .30-06 are common enough and powerful enough..

All of it depends on if you can hit what you need to.

[4gunfun]

300 win mag would be one of the best rounds. I would say way better than .308 [UZI]

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

.270 WSM

[ridgewalker]

The theory from many years ago was that you needed a minimum of 1800 ftlbs at the target (animal) for elk.

If you are a trophy hunter, I'd highly recommend nothing less than a .300 Win Mag if you can carry the weight and handle the additional recoil. Use 180 grain top quality bullets (example: Nosler partition, Speer Grand Slam, Woodleigh, etc.) I have shot several with it and it does an awesome job.

I have used a 30-06 for everything from blue grouse, turkeys, bobcat, coyote, jackrabbit, antelope, whitetail, mule deer and of course elk. It does an excellent job. It is a rather heavy also Win 70.

Now I am going to carry a .308 Kimber (plenty of power to 300 yards and very light to carry).

If you hunt heavy brush and only to 100 yards or so, almost anything will do. If you might need to stretch your shots, use something that has plenty of power out to the animal. If you are only a meat hunter, you may not need the power.

As Robert Ruark said in his great book "Use enough gun" and shoot it in the right place. You will always regret it if an animal is lost.

[SouthPaw]

700 Nitro express. There was even a deal on ammo at gander mountain. 20/$200.

[revor]

I like 6.8 for deer and smaller, .308 for the bigger stuff. I never expect shots out past 300 yards where I hunt.

[CO Hugh]

Most important thing is hitting the target and putting it down in one shot and a couple of steps. Take your pick from 270 either winchester or Weatherby, 30-06, 7mm mag, or any others. I have seen them all kill elk clean as long as the shooter hits well.

The only difference between various cartridges is how fast they drive the bullet. The 270s and 7mms are pretty close to each other, only difference is the velocity. For under 400 yards, I'd like to try a 7-08, I have never shot one or seen it used but it seems that it would be a great youth round.

Craig Boddington recently wrote some good articles on selecting the right bullet for each caliber and it was insightful.

Plus I have noticed that if you look online at photo postings, 270 Wins and other cartridges considered too small for elk kill a lot of them. I heard a clerk at a gun store once say the rife will kill an elk as far away as you can see it. That is probably true of almost any modern round, your physical limitations will hinder you more than the rifle's limitations.

The critical factor is not the cartridge but bullet selection, use a high quality bullet like a Barnes X and most calibers should work.

[budda]

Im new to the forum but my thoughts on it is that 30-06 is one of the most popular round for a reason and you could walk into any hunting camp and some one would have ammo for it if you needed it. It is a good flat shotting round with good hit power, aswell.

[soldier-of-the-apocalypse]

7mag will kill anything in north america

[Wiggity]

700 Nitro express. There was even a deal on ammo at gander mountain. 20/$200.


That was .470 NE!! [Stooge]

[Danimal]

14.9 SOP

But seriously, the best round that you can use is the round that complements your hunting style and the terrain that you are hunting in. It does you no good to have a rig that will drop a moose from 800 yards if you are hunting in wooded terrain or where there is a lot of oak brush and you only have 1-200 yards of visibility. (Turns out that elk like that type of terrain in my experience) Scout out the ground that you are going to hunt and decide on the max range that you are spotting animals. If you are 0-400 yards, .308 or 30-06 are perfect. If you are thinking that you need to shoot further than that you are better off with a magnum, but in all honesty you should be able to close to within 300 yards if you are doing it right.

Most importantly pick something that you shoot accurately. My little brother is a "big man" so he bought a rem 700 in 338 RUM. The gun kicks your ass so bad every time you shoot it that I would take a .243 before I took his gun because I could thread the bullet where I wanted it instead of praying to God that I would have use of my right arm after I took the shot.

Pick the gun based on how much hiking you want to do with it, and pick the caliber and chamber based on how far you need to shoot to take the animal. An elk with a .280 diameter hole through his heart is just as dead as one .338 magnum puncture.

[nickaballison]

i personally think 7mm Rem Mag is hard to beat. I used to hunt with .30-06 but the drop comparison was amazin. 7mag is much flatter to much longer distances. But all in all accuracy is the key. I have heard of people using 30-30 for elk and loving it.

[spencerhenry]

bullet drop with a properly sighted rifle is only minimally different between most hunting calibers. no appreciable difference is found until at least 350 or 400 yards or more. sure a 30-30 or something of the like is a rainbow trajectory, but between 270, '06, 300 magnums, 7mm magnums and the like, it is nearly irrelevant on an elk size target at 400 yards or less.

[PSS]

I hunt with a .308. Load data for my handloads put a 175 gr bullet at 2690 with Varget. 30-06 data says 2694 fps for the same bullet.

[William]

14.9 SOP

But seriously, the best round that you can use is the round that complements your hunting style and the terrain that you are hunting in. It does you no good to have a rig that will drop a moose from 800 yards if you are hunting in wooded terrain or where there is a lot of oak brush and you only have 1-200 yards of visibility. (Turns out that elk like that type of terrain in my experience) Scout out the ground that you are going to hunt and decide on the max range that you are spotting animals. If you are 0-400 yards, .308 or 30-06 are perfect. If you are thinking that you need to shoot further than that you are better off with a magnum, but in all honesty you should be able to close to within 300 yards if you are doing it right.

Most importantly pick something that you shoot accurately. My little brother is a "big man" so he bought a rem 700 in 338 RUM. The gun kicks your ass so bad every time you shoot it that I would take a .243 before I took his gun because I could thread the bullet where I wanted it instead of praying to God that I would have use of my right arm after I took the shot.

Pick the gun based on how much hiking you want to do with it, and pick the caliber and chamber based on how far you need to shoot to take the animal. An elk with a .280 diameter hole through his heart is just as dead as one .338 magnum puncture.
I agree with this logic. Use what you are comfortable with. I am not comfortable with high recoil. Sometimes you need to take a second shot (it happens). I use a .308 Win for deer and will for Elk. I like to practice and with 308 I can get reasonable ammo to practice with.

[rgvt4]

30 cal and up in my book. 270 and 7mm will work as well

[T-Jet]

338-06 go look it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.338-06

[jreifsch80]

8x57mm 200grain is a thumper, 9.3x64mm brenneke and 8x68mm Schüler will drop anything on the planet ;)

[ferrum]

bullet drop with a properly sighted rifle is only minimally different between most hunting calibers. no appreciable difference is found until at least 350 or 400 yards or more. sure a 30-30 or something of the like is a rainbow trajectory, but between 270, '06, 300 magnums, 7mm magnums and the like, it is nearly irrelevant on an elk size target at 400 yards or less.

Agreed. Most of my game has been taken under 200yds. Any of the modern 270, 7mm, 308s, etc are more than capable if the shooter is capable. I only see issues when marginal calibers are used. Such as a .243 at extended ranges or on large animals. Some of the lower end calibers just don't produce the recommend 1000 - 1500 foot lbs of energy suggested for elk, once you get out past a couple hundred yards.

[a98kdoc]

The 35 Weylin it's a nice step up from the 3006 esp with heavy bullets.
I don't like the small magnums like the 300 and such.
If you going to burn a lot of powder and suffer a lot of recoil you might as well throw a heavy bullet. So I like the 338 Win mag or 375/416 mags.

And magnums are more then you need for elk to moose if you know how to hunt.

[jgang]

i personally think 7mm Rem Mag is hard to beat. I used to hunt with .30-06 but the drop comparison was amazin. 7mag is much flatter to much longer distances.

This.

I, too, went to the 7Mag from the .30-06. Nothing wrong with the latter, but the 7Mag has it beat in most competetive categories I consider important. Unless I'm going after Yukon moose or big bears, there's no reason to use anything else. I'll step up to the venerable .375 Holland & Holland for the bullwinkles and bears, just for good measure. Good excuse to pull the pre-64 Winny out of the safe anyway. Of course, variety being the spice of life, I killed my elk in 2011 using a short-barreled, open-sighted Marlin .45-70. Hell of a big-game stopper there! The "Hammer of Thor" would be an understatement.