Elk Rifle; help me choose

kaskirov

kaskirov

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I have hunted elk on suffield cfb for 3 of the last 4 years. For those that don't know; it is very flat and barron. You will see elk from 2km away and the hunting part is trying to maneuver yourself to a postion where they will be scared towards you. The elk i have harvested have been in the 200-300m range. We are approaching spring, so its time to prepare for next season! I have a couple of options, and I would love some opinions and discussion:

1. Parker hale in .308: this was my grandfathers rifle. I refinished it last year, and put a new leupold scope on it. It does decent with 150gr (1.5 moa), but spreads 165gr a bit more (about 2.5 moa), and drops the mpi quite a bit (6" at 100m). I'm sure this would be a great deer rifle, but i have my doubts about it taking an elk at 300m.

2. Browning blr in .30-06. This was my father's rifle. I took it on one trip and I had a hard time with the long shots due to bullet drop. I finally got an animal, but had 2 other hunters claim they shot it. Ability to "knock down " is very important.

3. Buy an old 8mm. I purchased a yugo m48 last year. Im thrilled with the accuracy, and the availability of 200gr bullets. I plan on starting to reload because of this rifle, so handloads would be possible. I would rather not sporterise my m48 with a scope, and I have seen old mauser sporters going for $250- $400. Would an old sporter be accurate? Would it perform better than the 30-06 in terms of long range knock down-ness? Maybe I should look for a no gunsmith mount for the m48?

4. Buy one of those "entry level" rifles. I purchased a remington 783 in 300wm a few years ago for elk. I found it painful to shoot: both to the shoulder and the wallet. I could get decent groups at 200m, but lack of practice (due to above pain) at 300m elimated my confidence for anything far. I did get lucky and got under 200m from some elk. I got 2, and they dropped instantly. I sold the rifle to pay bills as i didnt get a licence last year. I don't think that I would purchase another 300wm. I am also not a fan of cheap plastic stocks. But if that is my best option...

What do you all think? Can i make a current rifle work? Should i look at a new (to me) one? I can't spend more than $400, but i have a decent scope to mount.
 
kaskirov said:
I have hunted elk on suffield cfb for 3 of the last 4 years. For those that don't know; it is very flat and barron. You will see elk from 2km away and the hunting part is trying to maneuver yourself to a postion where they will be scared towards you. The elk i have harvested have been in the 200-300m range. We are approaching spring, so its time to prepare for next season! I have a couple of options, and I would love some opinions and discussion:

1. Parker hale in .308: this was my grandfathers rifle. I refinished it last year, and put a new leupold scope on it. It does decent with 150gr (1.5 moa), but spreads 165gr a bit more (about 2.5 moa), and drops the mpi quite a bit (6" at 100m). I'm sure this would be a great deer rifle, but i have my doubts about it taking an elk at 300m.

2. Browning blr in .30-06. This was my father's rifle. I took it on one trip and I had a hard time with the long shots due to bullet drop. I finally got an animal, but had 2 other hunters claim they shot it. Ability to "knock down " is very important.

3. Buy an old 8mm. I purchased a yugo m48 last year. Im thrilled with the accuracy, and the availability of 200gr bullets. I plan on starting to reload because of this rifle, so handloads would be possible. I would rather not sporterise my m48 with a scope, and I have seen old mauser sporters going for $250- $400. Would an old sporter be accurate? Would it perform better than the 30-06 in terms of long range knock down-ness? Maybe I should look for a no gunsmith mount for the m48?

4. Buy one of those "entry level" rifles. I purchased a remington 783 in 300wm a few years ago for elk. I found it painful to shoot: both to the shoulder and the wallet. I could get decent groups at 200m, but lack of practice (due to above pain) at 300m elimated my confidence for anything far. I did get lucky and got under 200m from some elk. I got 2, and they dropped instantly. I sold the rifle to pay bills as i didnt get a licence last year. I don't think that I would purchase another 300wm. I am also not a fan of cheap plastic stocks. But if that is my best option...

What do you all think? Can i make a current rifle work? Should i look at a new (to me) one? I can't spend more than $400, but i have a decent scope to mount.
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Forget the 8mm.

..and stop using 180 grain bullets in the BLR 30-06... Use 150 or 165 grain, sight it in for 300 yards and practice a bit with it... It will kill your Elk just fine. The .308 will as well.
 
The 30-06 Browning is a nice gun and you can not go wrong with a 30-06. If you are sighted in at 200 yds, bullet drop is only approx. 3in at 300 yds, blast away. Use a good quality projectile 165g-180g. It is the old story that it is shot placement not caliber.
 
We shot a cow there with a 30-06 180gr soft point, and the damn thing lived for 15 mins with a hole in both lungs. We thought it was gonna die where it laid down, but when we came back with the truck it was still alive.

Can't go wrong with either the .308 or 30-06 but I would get lots of practice with a premium bullet.
 
3006 with a premium anything in 165 should work. Honestly I'm probably going back to hornady btsp interlocks for everything. It does t get enough credit for as good of a bullet that it is.
 
Browning blr in .30-06. This was my father's rifle. I took it on one trip and I had a hard time with the long shots due to bullet drop. I finally got an animal, but had 2 other hunters claim they shot it. Ability to "knock down " is very important.
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I don't know how you could have a "hard time" with bullet drop on long shots unless they were absurdly long, or you didn't know the trajectory, or you are a bad shot. There is no way a .30-06 is not an acceptable elk rifle at any reasonable range if it is shot by any reasonable shooter. There is no reason to worry about buying something else if you already own such a gun.
 
I know we are talking elk but I was wondering if somebody ran into this situation. I shot a medium deep woods buck at about 10 paces with 30-06 180g rem core lokt. It was a double lung shot. The deer ran a 100 yards with a heavy blood trail, spatter on trees. At such close range there was no expansion, just a clean exit wound. It was hard to believe at the time. I would love to do a elk hunt, hard to get a tag in Ontario. I like the stories about elk and grizz.
 
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Dunno, something with "magnum" would suit the bill.
308NM, 7MM Rem mag, 264win mag.........................etc.................
Wandering out three football fields is gonna want some smmmmmmmmmmmmack.
 
guntech said:
Forget the 8mm.
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Explain? What's wring with 8mm?

I would recommend leaving your M48 as is. I used to hunt with my Zrak ON-M76 scoped K98 Yugo capture. It shoots awesome... but it's a heavy beech and a pain to lug around. If you can reload (or buy some S&B ammo) I would get a Husqvarna sporter which can be had for $400... perhaps some other K98 sporter.

Personally I changed over to 30-06 for my general purpose hunting round. I opted for 180gr bullets as standard. Sure it drops a bit faster and recoils a bit more. But it has extra knock down power and better BC for extended ranges. Although... I zero for a max range of 250 yards without holding over.
 
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I'd go with the 30-06 and 165/8 gr bullet. You should get at least 2850 MV. Assuming about .450 BC and a 200 yd zero, you'd have about 8" drop at 300 and about 20" at 400 yd.
 
DiabeticKripple said:
We shot a cow there with a 30-06 180gr soft point, and the damn thing lived for 15 mins with a hole in both lungs. We thought it was gonna die where it laid down, but when we came back with the truck it was still alive.

Can't go wrong with either the .308 or 30-06 but I would get lots of practice with a premium bullet.
Click to expand...

With the soft point, you got pass through penetration. A Nosler Partition in the same spot very well could have given the same results.
 
For Suffield Elk Hunt I would go with rifle with MAGAZINE.

I've used Sako 75 Finnlight in 300 Win Mag with 180 gr Barnes TTSX and got double on cow Elk from running herd at about 100 y.
As we drove beside running Elk once we were ahead of them I hopped out of the truck and pushed magazine in, cycled the bolt and shot twice
taking two animals from back of the herd.

This would be difficult to do without magazine. My gun is set 3" high at 100 y and zero is around 275 y.

In 30-06 I shoot 150 gr Barnes TTSX 3" high at 100 y and it took Elk, Moose and Deer up to 500 y.
 
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