Bull elk / rifle / cartridge / bullet

A howitzer sounds even better lol but what are the odds that happens?

Lots of dudes out there with 270s, 30-06s etc not getting murdered by bears I'm sure?
 
No Joel it happens.
Rifle shots are dinner bells in some areas.
Guarantee gut piles for a bear and they will come to it.
Believe what you want. Not here to argue but I’ve seen the carcass dragged off and covered inside 90 minutes without ever seeing the bear.
I’ve hunted elk in three provinces and where Grizzlies and elk co-habitat I carry a 338.
Do as you will.
 
This thread is beginning to remind me of 12 year olds talking about how many NHL games they’ve played.
Beginning to doubt some posters have ever seen an elk let alone shot one.
 
DOUGLAS D said:
No Joel it happens.
Rifle shots are dinner bells in some areas.
Guarantee gut piles for a bear and they will come to it.
Believe what you want. Not here to argue but I’ve seen the carcass dragged off and covered inside 90 minutes without ever seeing the bear.
I’ve hunted elk in three provinces and where Grizzlies and elk co-habitat I carry a 338.
Do as you will.
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Sure does happen, I personally know a guy that was mauled by a grizzly while he was field dressing a moose. He lived and has some nice scars to show the ladies, the bear wasn’t so lucky.
 
DOUGLAS D said:
No Joel it happens.
Rifle shots are dinner bells in some areas.
Guarantee gut piles for a bear and they will come to it.
Believe what you want. Not here to argue but I’ve seen the carcass dragged off and covered inside 90 minutes without ever seeing the bear.
I’ve hunted elk in three provinces and where Grizzlies and elk co-habitat I carry a 338.
Do as you will.
Click to expand...

Not calling BS or looking to argue...just asking if hunters actually get killed because they have too small of a rifle for grizz.

Douglas D said:
This thread is beginning to remind me of 12 year olds talking about how many NHL games they’ve played.
Beginning to doubt some posters have ever seen an elk let alone shot one.
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As Spruster so often points out, I haven't lol. But is anyone saying things that aren't true, or wrong?
 
Joel said:
Considerably more than you need! But not jellifying as much moose as a 30-06 did was nice lol. No noticable killing advantage at all, but it has "old school cool" and Africa vibes haha.

Probs much more apparent on way bigger animals.

Def. found it more versatile and interesting than say 45/70 and pretty easy shooting for what it gives you but thats 100% personal. Nifty cartridge for pretending to walk in the tall grass :) And never hurts to be a wee bit overgunned haha.
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If you have one in your safe, might as well use it. The possibility of a bear defense situation makes this even more worthy of consideration. Mine is also very light, being just over 7 lbs. My 6.5 x 55 would work fine on Elk, but it is much heavier to carry.
 
Meroh said:
If you have one in your safe, might as well use it. The possibility of a bear defense situation makes this even more worthy of consideration. Mine is also very light, being just over 7 lbs. My 6.5 x 55 would work fine on Elk, but it is much heavier to carry.
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Being comfortable to shoot a those weights is pretty nice! Got ya on the bear medicine for sure...would also rather shoot it than a lot of the bigger magnums, as long as range wasn't a consideration.
 
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Haven’t hunted Elk for years. Did for quite a few way back. Tuchodi/Gathto area, we had bears in all of our kills by the next day. Outfitters in the area for ever so the bears were trained. If your biggest gun is a 270, fine it’ll work but tippy toeing by a freshly burried gut pile, even the 375 Ackly I was carrying didn’t seem overkill. Just saying.
 
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Ah jeez. Yeah I see how in those hard hunted areas its basically people feeding bears and all the wonderful things that brings with it
 
Up here there is an area, the Demster hwy that has a 8km buffer no grizzly bear hunting on either side of the road, and yes bears will come rather quickly on gun shot! That said I never had a problem and I’m using mainly a 30-06… my brother in law on the other end was hunting mari ou up there on his own and had a grizzly bear come on his kill site, nothing real serious happened other than a few huffing and puffing from the bear and maybe a bit of stress from my BIL but he did t have to shoot the bear, the bear didn’t eat him, he came back with all his meat and it made a good story!
 
I've only ever hunted elk in Saskatchewan but both open season and draw taking cows and bulls in both seasons. In heavy bush, when finding a shot animal is hard, bigger is always better. But even more so, you need to be able to do a quick follow up shot, no matter what you shoot. If you can follow up with a 375HH easily, use that. If you cab only do good follow up with a 30-06, us that.

Of the ones I've taken, took one with a .260 remington (shot was quartering, had to take 1 follow up shot using 140gr partitions, the rest I took using a .280 remington shooting a 160gr accubond. None of those required a follow up, but I could do the follow up if need be. It's a gun I shoot well, handle well and I've used it a lot. Bigger is always better with elk, but don't go so big that you can't shoot it well.
 
DGY said:
Up here there is an area, the Demster hwy that has a 8km buffer no grizzly bear hunting on either side of the road, and yes bears will come rather quickly on gun shot! That said I never had a problem and I’m using mainly a 30-06… my brother in law on the other end was hunting mari ou up there on his own and had a grizzly bear come on his kill site, nothing real serious happened other than a few huffing and puffing from the bear and maybe a bit of stress from my BIL but he did t have to shoot the bear, the bear didn’t eat him, he came back with all his meat and it made a good story!
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Only guy I knew who shot any significant numbers of grizz (and it was long ago, old trapper I met in the Swan Hills), used a 30-06 with 200 gr bullets (no idea which kind) on everything. Anything too small for the 06, he had a 22 S&W revolver he carried with him. - dan
 
MTM said:
Haven’t hunted Elk for years. Did for quite a few way back. Tuchodi/Gathto area, we had bears in all of our kills by the next day. Outfitters in the area for ever so the bears were trained. If your biggest gun is a 270, fine it’ll work but tippy toeing by a freshly burried gut pile, even the 375 Ackly I was carrying didn’t seem overkill. Just saying.
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I've had bears come to a kill. You are correct, large cartridges don't seem that big when Mr bear is snuffling around. - dan
 
dan belisle said:
Only guy I knew who shot any significant numbers of grizz (and it was long ago, old trapper I met in the Swan Hills), used a 30-06 with 200 gr bullets (no idea which kind) on everything. Anything too small for the 06, he had a 22 S&W revolver he carried with him. - dan
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He's definitely on board with Phil Shoemaker on that one, with the 200 grain 30-06...Even if its not a Partition haha.

Really not sure the bigger calibers are doing anything it can't in terms of breaking down a bear unless there's an "OW! Nevermind I'm leaving" factor associated with non immediately lethal shos that hurt/hit hard enough to make it change its mind on attacking you.

Dunno.

Figure the guys who kill a lot of em are worth listening to. Ardent included, for sure.
 
DGY said:
Up here there is an area, the Demster hwy that has a 8km buffer no grizzly bear hunting on either side of the road, and yes bears will come rather quickly on gun shot! That said I never had a problem and I’m using mainly a 30-06… my brother in law on the other end was hunting mari ou up there on his own and had a grizzly bear come on his kill site, nothing real serious happened other than a few huffing and puffing from the bear and maybe a bit of stress from my BIL but he did t have to shoot the bear, the bear didn’t eat him, he came back with all his meat and it made a good story!
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when caribous are moving on the dempster it is always good to be ready with grizzly encounter. there are some areas with not the 8km buffer but most of the time they re the small there.
 
I’ve shot 17 or so elk and 10 or so moose in my 47 years of life. Most has been with a .308. But the last 10 years has been a 6.5/284 and now I’ve bought my retirement gun, which is a 6.5-300 Ti. I’ve used 150 SST’s in the .308 and nothing but Barnes 127’s in the 6.5. No issues. The 6.5-300 is the fastest I’ve ever seen elk drop. I have used a .338 Lapua too a few times. It also works.

So yeah. FN around here use .22LR for moose so I’m fairly sure I’m ok, and you are too with whatcha like. Just actually practice some. That’s yer best advice right there.
 
CreamySmooth said:
I’ve shot 17 or so elk and 10 or so moose in my 47 years of life. Most has been with a .308. But the last 10 years has been a 6.5/284 and now I’ve bought my retirement gun, which is a 6.5-300 Ti. I’ve used 150 SST’s in the .308 and nothing but Barnes 127’s in the 6.5. No issues. The 6.5-300 is the fastest I’ve ever seen elk drop. I have used a .338 Lapua too a few times. It also works.

So yeah. FN around here use .22LR for moose so I’m fairly sure I’m ok, and you are too with whatcha like. Just actually practice some. That’s yer best advice right there.
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Biggest grizz taken in AB was shot with a Cooey 22. Up by House Mountain, by a woman on a tractor. The mounted bear used to be in the Ab Forestry Sevrices building with a plaque telling story. Wouldn't be my first choice though. - dan
 
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