Remington 700 sps tactical for hunting?

I found a pretty good deal on a used sps tactical 308 on consignment. I was thinking about picking it up for a possible elk gun. I want to get into hunting next season and it looked like a pretty easy rifle to lug around the mountains. I just dont know how well a 16.5" barrel will be on an elk at any sort of distance. This would be my first 308, and bolt gun so I figured id ask before I bought it.

It is this model:
Attachment 46935
Took this off the internet, not actual rifle.

I worked the bolt and pulled the trigger and it looked brand new.

Tell me where it's at. It's obviously too short for your purposes.

.308 is pretty efficient with shorter barrels. I'm reading it takes ~1200 ft/lbf or energy to efficiently take down elk. So taking from the chart below, 150gr at 16" will produce 2226 ft/lbf. Judging from that, it should be plenty if you're within reasonable distances. That said 20" is still pretty handy and give you a bit more head room.

There's a few articles on it about accuracy vs. barrel length: http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/201...-and-accuracy/
http://truthaboutguns-zippykid.netdn.../2013/09/2.png

Hunting is more about knowing the animals, the stalk, etc than the shot and caliber. That said, my 12 year old shot his cow elk at 350 yards last year. That is close to the edge, and he had a 24" barrel. If you get out and practice with it often, know your holds and such out to say 300 yards, and you like the rifle, I would say sure.

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Originally Posted by MarkCO

Hunting is more about knowing the animals, the stalk, etc than the shot and caliber. That said, my 12 year old shot his cow elk at 350 yards last year. That is close to the edge, and he had a 24" barrel. If you get out and practice with it often, know your holds and such out to say 300 yards, and you like the rifle, I would say sure.

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I will definitely put 500 + rounds through it before I ever take a shot at an animal. I dont want to chase an elk 10 miles up a mountain after wounding it.

Not that 500 is alot of rounds, but i wont be buying it and then taking it hunting wihtout any practice.

500 rounds is more than the average hunter will shoot in their entire life. :) Kudos.

10 sessions of 50 rounds is solid practice. Just keep it off the bench. I let my kid shoot 3 rounds off the bench at the start of a session, then it is standing to 100, sitting to 200 and rested to 300. Backpack, sawhorse, shooting sticks for those rests.

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Originally Posted by MarkCO

500 rounds is more than the average hunter will shoot in their entire life. :) Kudos.

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Right... They only need 3 rounds. Heard that at the hearings last year. [Sarcasm2]

Just consider it a 250 yard gun and use a 165 or 180 grain bullet of decent construction (read not cup and core). Odds are your shots on game will be less than 200 anyway.

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Hunting is more about knowing the animals, the stalk, etc than the shot and caliber.

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Yep.

Nice rifle but it's waaay too heavy for the kind of elk hunting I do. YMMV

Yeah. Certainly not svelte, but then again, neither is my rifle. With my rebarrel, I'll have to do a few more pushups this year.

Every hunter i know... all 5... have their $5000 hunting rifles made of some exotic wood that weighs a bazillion pounds. I think ill be ok with 11ish pounds and a good sling.

11? I didn't realize it was that heavy. Still, skinny kids in WWII lugged 10 pound garands all over Europe. [Coffee]

I use my 700 SPS in .308 for everything from pigs to elk. I haven't had any trouble carrying it around. I do like the Barnes TSX bullets they open up perfect every time and stay together. Here is a pic of my rifle.
Attachment 46955

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Originally Posted by The Duke

I use my 700 SPS in .308 for everything from pigs to elk. I haven't had any trouble carrying it around. I do like the Barnes TSX bullets they open up perfect every time and stay together. Here is a pic of my rifle.

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Looks almost the same as mine, same chassis even. :)

What can I say, great minds think alike.

Same thing I use and the same one my son will be using in a few weeks. I practiced out to 500 but at the end of the day the elk was so close she filled my scope at 20 yards. I shot a 208 AMAX. My son nailed a big buck at 98 yards with a 168 AMAX. You will have plenty of gun out to 500 or even more if you do your part.