Elk Rifle; help me choose

I took my 308 to the range yesterday. The 308 is only 100fps less than the 30-06, and I am sitting on a couple hundred rounds of 308, and about 50 of 30-06. I tested the following:
Federal Fusion 165gr >1.5 moa
Federal Premium 165gr Sierra gameking >2moa
Hornady Precision Hunter 178gr >3moa
Hornady Superformace 165gr sst >1.5moa, 3" high
Remington Premier Accutip 165 gr >4moa
Winchester 168gr Ballistic silvertip >1.5moa

Questions for those still reading this thread:
1. I sighted in with Fed Fusion because it was the cheapest of the bunch, and I didn't realize that some people above recommended it for elk. Is this a decent choice going forward?
2. I've read that the gameking is great projectile for elk, and 2moa is good enough for the ranges I'm shooting.
3. The superformance has the highest muzzle velocity (according to the box anyway...), but i've read that the sst is not good for larger animals like elk. Perhaps I should look for some. I have some "Hornady full boar" 165gr gmx, but I've read that the gmx is ineffective at less than 2000fps, and the full boar is not as fast; 308 would be ineffective before 300m.
4. Ballistic silver tip; yay or nay?

Hoping to get some advice before heading out to farther ranges. Might be able to test 300m tomorrow...

Thanks again to everyone who is helping me. I come from a long line of hunters, but all I was told growing up was to look for weight (150 or 180gr) and price. There are so many options out there, and it is overwhelming.
 
c-fbmi said:
I am going to tell you exactly what I would do in your situation, and you can take away what ever you want from it.

Go to a store where you can get the best deal on ammo, buy $400 worth of the same brand and preferably the same lot of 30-06 with 165 gn soft point bullet........DO NOT BUY PREMIUM AMMO, it is nothing but a waste of money in a 30-06. This should get you about 10 boxes of ammo give or take. Now take your rifle and ammo out and sight it absolutely dead on center X @ 25 yds. Anyone can do this very accurately and with less wasted ammo than starting at 100 yds/mtrs. Now you have your rifle sighted in with your ammo for approx. 250-260 yds and you will be point plank to about 320 yds...........Now put 1 box away for hunting and go practice at different ranges from 50-400 yds if you have the range capability to do so, with the rest of your ammo. If you can afford it buy more of the same ammo, go shoot gophers and jack rabbits and badgers and coyotes or what ever your indigenous varmints are. Do this all summer with all the ammo you can afford to burn and come elk time you will be not only be properly gunned, you will also have a lot of shooting under your belt and a great deal of confidence in your rifle and ammo and most importantly your ability.

I can tell you it is very satisfying to swat a gopher at a couple hundred yards with an '06 and watch him come unglued like he swallowed a grenade...............a good sight-in and some practice and before you know it you'll be doing this 3-4 out of 5 gophers at anything from 100-300 yds. One little tip.........from 75-200 mtrs hold where the gopher meets the ground cause you'll be hitting 2-4" high over those ranges.
Click to expand...

This man speaks wisdom.
I'm slowly learning to quit overthinking and worrying about grouping. It is only frustrating for me.

Instead just shoot the darn things.
 
My opinion is slightly biased because I prefer bolt guns and am fond of the .308 cartridge.

To me it sounds like your Parker Hale has a bit of an issue to diagnose, either you have a bad scope, poor action to stock fittment, or possibly a damaged crown.
If I where you I'd examine the crown, swap scopes and shoot it again. If it still groups poorly I'd bed the action in the stock.
Unless the barrel is just shot out, do you have any idea of round count on that rifle?
 
Your "test " is interesting, and may tell you the accuracy potential of your loads if they are more than just single three shot groups of each load. I like to average at least three x three shot or two x five shot groups when evaluating ammunition for accuracy. Otherwise it's too easy for a gust of wind or a wiggle of the hand to affect results.

I think the .308 is a fine elk cartridge, with 165-180 grain bulelts. Many elk have been taken by our hunting group with .308's, but 150 grain bullets have been erratic performers when hitting shoulder bones, 165 and 180 consistently deadly. Penetration trumps speed and quick expansion when hunting elk. If you sight in for 3" high at 100 yards you won't notice a little more drop from the heavier bullets at up to 300 yards. And if you choose to shoot farther than that, the heavier bullets hit harder.
Of the various 165 gr .308" bullets in your test, I'd personally feel most confident hunting elk with the Federal Fusion. I think it would be most likely to give good penetration even if it hits some bone. At 1.5MOA, it is certainly accurate enough to hunt elk with. Of the other bullets, the Hornady SST is very fragile, quick opening deer bullet. Not an elk bullet in my opinion. The Sierra is just OK, usually an accurate bullet that is not especially tough. Hornady Precision Hunter 178gr >3moa might be tough enough, but not accurate in your rifle. Remington Premier Accutip 165 gr >4moa forget it. Use the rejects for offhand practise and quick firing exersises . You won't be wasting them.
 
Have had good results with accuracy and performance with both the Hornady 165gr Interbond and Hornady 165 GMX Superperformance. The GMX should work at the ranges you are hunting, more so striking any bone.
 
My 783 in .308 is a nice gun to shoot. If I was going to elk hunt I wouldn't hesitate to use that gun.
 
c-fbmi said:
I am going to tell you exactly what I would do in your situation, and you can take away what ever you want from it.

Go to a store where you can get the best deal on ammo, buy $400 worth of the same brand and preferably the same lot of 30-06 with 165 gn soft point bullet........DO NOT BUY PREMIUM AMMO, it is nothing but a waste of money in a 30-06. This should get you about 10 boxes of ammo give or take. Now take your rifle and ammo out and sight it absolutely dead on center X @ 25 yds. Anyone can do this very accurately and with less wasted ammo than starting at 100 yds/mtrs. Now you have your rifle sighted in with your ammo for approx. 250-260 yds and you will be point plank to about 320 yds...........Now put 1 box away for hunting and go practice at different ranges from 50-400 yds if you have the range capability to do so, with the rest of your ammo. If you can afford it buy more of the same ammo, go shoot gophers and jack rabbits and badgers and coyotes or what ever your indigenous varmints are. Do this all summer with all the ammo you can afford to burn and come elk time you will be not only be properly gunned, you will also have a lot of shooting under your belt and a great deal of confidence in your rifle and ammo and most importantly your ability.

I can tell you it is very satisfying to swat a gopher at a couple hundred yards with an '06 and watch him come unglued like he swallowed a grenade...............a good sight-in and some practice and before you know it you'll be doing this 3-4 out of 5 gophers at anything from 100-300 yds. One little tip.........from 75-200 mtrs hold where the gopher meets the ground cause you'll be hitting 2-4" high over those ranges.
Click to expand...

TYVM
Your 1 post answered about 5 questions that I personally had.
Cheers
 
best advice given by Doug and i wish i got some rewards lol when i mentioned that to potential customers few years ago ... but seems those days they were not willing to listen and always buy a bigger boom rifle ....
 
I am practicing with SST and hunt with Barnes TTSX in all my guns.
In 300 Win Mag I use 180 gr TTSX for hunting and 180 gr SST for plinking, those bullets share same BC of .514 and same point of impact.
Hornady claims that SST and GMX do the same.

 
c-fbmi said:
Go to a store where you can get the best deal on ammo, buy $400 worth of the same brand and preferably the same lot of 30-06 with 165 gn soft point bullet........DO NOT BUY PREMIUM AMMO, it is nothing but a waste of money in a 30-06.
Click to expand...

Couple questions...

1) Why would premium ammo be a waste in a 30-06? Would the same apply to a .308?
2) What if the ammo you bought in bulk doesn't group well in your rifle? (Just wondering if it'd make sense to buy a few different kinds first to see what groups best. Practicing with inaccurate ammo seems counterproductive since when you miss you don't know if it was you or the ammo.)
 
Fusion are good bullet
Sst are to frangible for elk in my opinion
Silver tip are good but expensible !!
Take you .308 and 165 fusion sight it at 200m and go pratice
 
Cbf123 said:
Couple questions...

1) Why would premium ammo be a waste in a 30-06? Would the same apply to a .308?
2) What if the ammo you bought in bulk doesn't group well in your rifle? (Just wondering if it'd make sense to buy a few different kinds first to see what groups best. Practicing with inaccurate ammo seems counterproductive since when you miss you don't know if it was you or the ammo.)
Click to expand...

The reason premium ammo is a waste in the '06 is that the velocity in the '06 isn't so high as to destroy reasonably well made C & C bullets on impact. Factory 165s are probably in the 2900 fps region and that will work with your average bullets just fine. When one starts driving bullets @ 3200 fps and up the forces working on the bullet on impact go up exponentially. I have actually found tough bullets to be less effective at lower velocities than run of he mill bullets and they actually do much less damage at extended range (300+) and increase the chance of lost game.

Factory ammo is amazingly accurate now a days, I have seen 2 separate occasions where a factory untouched rifle shot Federal blue box into sub 1/2 moa, by guys I would have expected to shoot 6" groups. It's always a good idea to check different brands out but my experience is that almost all factory ammo will keep 2", which is plenty good enough for hunting to 400 mtrs. Let's face it millions of game animals are taken every year by millions of hunters using factory ammo in factory untouched rifles. A lot of whom have never even heard the term "group" as it applies to shooting.

I worked with a guy who, every late summer would bring his rifle to work and stop on his way home and shoot it for 10 days in a row. He would put up his target and fire 1 shot, then he'd take it down and go home. It too was a 30-06, Husqvarna IIRC, shooting factory Winchester 180s. Being the gun freak I was he brought the final target in and showed me..........he had 10 shots in just a hair over 2" averaging 2-2 1/2" high, and he said it did more or less the same every year. I concluded that this was quite likely the most practical test I had seen for a hunting rifle. 10 shots from a cold barrel in differing light and environmental conditions.........I doubt I need to tell you his success ratio..............
 
c-fbmi said:
The reason premium ammo is a waste in the '06 is that the velocity in the '06 isn't so high as to destroy reasonably well made C & C bullets on impact. Factory 165s are probably in the 2900 fps region and that will work with your average bullets just fine. When one starts driving bullets @ 3200 fps and up the forces working on the bullet on impact go up exponentially. I have actually found tough bullets to be less effective at lower velocities than run of he mill bullets and they actually do much less damage at extended range (300+) and increase the chance of lost game.

Factory ammo is amazingly accurate now a days, I have seen 2 separate occasions where a factory untouched rifle shot Federal blue box into sub 1/2 moa, by guys I would have expected to shoot 6" groups. It's always a good idea to check different brands out but my experience is that almost all factory ammo will keep 2", which is plenty good enough for hunting to 400 mtrs. Let's face it millions of game animals are taken every year by millions of hunters using factory ammo in factory untouched rifles. A lot of whom have never even heard the term "group" as it applies to shooting.

I worked with a guy who, every late summer would bring his rifle to work and stop on his way home and shoot it for 10 days in a row. He would put up his target and fire 1 shot, then he'd take it down and go home. It too was a 30-06, Husqvarna IIRC, shooting factory Winchester 180s. Being the gun freak I was he brought the final target in and showed me..........he had 10 shots in just a hair over 2" averaging 2-2 1/2" high, and he said it did more or less the same every year. I concluded that this was quite likely the most practical test I had seen for a hunting rifle. 10 shots from a cold barrel in differing light and environmental conditions.........I doubt I need to tell you his success ratio..............
Click to expand...

I wholeheartedly agree.
 
way back when there was a fellow name of elmer keith that took elk than the rest of us combined- and he used a 338 win mag 250 and better bullets- then there's val giest that did much the same thing- I tend to follow their advice
 
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