"I'm going elk huntin'"

I was very impressed with 300 WSM and Federal Fusion bullet performance.

The shot on Elk was frontal through part of shoulder and heart. Elk ran 50 yards directly towards me. I was just about to fire agsin and his front legs reared up and he dropped 5 yards in front of me!!!

That same season with Fusions I shot 46 inch Bull Moose @ 100 yards. Was a bang flop. Shot threw both lungs.

I bought the 300 wsm(my first short mag).....and now I am hooked on that cartridge and Federal Fusion bullet is perfect match so there is very little meat damage.
 
For a dedicated Elk rifle I like something with a bit of "Thump", even out past 400 m.
While any of the rifles mentioned will kill elk just fine, I have found bulls during the rut
tend to be a bit more inclined to run, if at all possible.
I have my Elk already this year, a 5x4 bull shot with an 8mm Rem Mag, and an A-Frame.
This shot was a angled frontal presentation, so breaking the onside leg/shoulder was necessary.
The A-Frame performed admirably, breaking bone and penetrating through Heart and lungs. Elk went maybe 10 feet and collapsed.
Shot was about 160 yards.
I firmly believe that a Quality bullet, properly placed is more important than the diameter of the hole in the end of a rifle barrel. D
 
Homesteader said:
Anything from 270 Win and up I would consider a proper choice. Before I get jumped for the 270 min, they can be killed with lesser chamberings, that's just where I'd start with Elk as a primary choice. My one gun for the job is 300 Win Mag, but I've shot a few with the 270, and it worked very well with 140 tsx.

The monometals have made the smaller cartridges more acceptable, as long as you have the velocity to open them. You may have to choose your shots a little more with the 260, but it'll for sure work.
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A few indeed brother lol . But I still liked your Whelen , that was a great rifle .
 
I am going to chime in as well. I have hunted elk since I was 10 and now I am 25. I can honestly say that I have shot at least 13 elk, with a good chunk being bulls. Many guns will kill elk fine, heck your 260 will flatten an elk with a 140 partition when he is broad side. But get an elk screaming in the timber and coming in facing you or on a quarter .... you need power to stop a bull in those circumstances. In the thick timber, an elk will disappear in a matter of seconds. You rarely get a second shot. If a moose rated 3 out of 10 on a hard to kill scale, a bull elk is a 10+ when he is rutting.

if I had to choose one gun to hunt everything from moose to elk, it would be a 300 win mag with either partitions , ttsx or better yet a swift aframe.

sure you can shoot a screaming elk in the shoulder with crap bullets in the timber, but when you do, don't be surprised if you don't recover that elk. I know this from experience.
 
hoytcanon said:
A .300 WM or WSM would be about perfect... loaded with a premium 165-180 grain bullet, AB or Part or mono GMX or TTSX and off you go... that rifle and your 260 cover anything you might want to do, from coyotes to grizzly bears.
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I'd split the difference and use my 300 H&H. Or I'd take my 7mm Weatherby. Or maybe the 7x57. Or a boring old '06. I haven't figured out the side mount on my 9.3x62 but that with a 1.5-5x Leupold would be a fine rig. If I thought I could get really lose the 348 Winchester would be fun or my 45-70. My 300 Win is too heavy as is my 308. No need of anything really large in the bore so the 416, 458 and 470 could be left at home, though any of them would clobber an elk nicely.

OP, there are a multitude of choices but anything 7mm to 30 cal in almost any configuration (not the 7mm TCU or 30 Carbine) will put elk in the freezer. 300 WSM on a short action rifle might be the most versatile but anything from 7mm-08 to 300 Weatherby would be just fine, though I'd stick to the middle...280 Rem through 300 Win.
 
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What is a 426?

Never connected on an elk but carried a .338 wm when hunting where they were over the counter
 
I have shot them with everything from .308 on up; including .300 WM, .338 WM, and .338 RUM. Last year my .338 RUM with 250 grain tsx's fell a beauty across a field in northern Saskatchewan. The RUM will go with me again this year if I can get out of the office.
 
so far this elk season I've been packing my McMillan stocked Ruger m77 375 Ruger, VxR 2-7x33. Shooting 300gr Nosler Partitions @ 2590 fps

I have shot 3/4 of my last 6pt bulls with a m70 custom 338-06 with either 225gr Accubonds or 210gr TTSX
 
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