Just wondering if any of the fine folks on this forum have personal experience killing an elk with a sixgun. If you have, what gun and load did you use? What kind of terrain were you hunting? How far was your shot? What did the post-mortem tell you about bullet performance? Thanks!

Sweet, LW. Thanks for sharing the story. Bet your buddy had a mighty big grin on his face after that elk tumbled.

I've killed deer and Black bear with a handgun, but not killed an elk with same. Two years ago, however, when we were in elk camp, one of my hunting partners left camp to go to a nearby creek to fill some water buckets. As we were in both Black bear and Griz country (remote east Idaho), he was carrying his S&W 57 .41 Mag. (One of my favorite revolvers, too.)

As he was waiting for the buckets to fill, standing behind a blown down Cottonwood tree, he saw a large, fat spike elk step out of the brush about 40 yards away, to drink. My partner aimmed across the log and killed the elk with one round.

He was using a 220 grains Keith SWC hard cast gas check bullet. I can't remember the powder charge but I think it was a hefty dose of H110. Bullet entered behind the left shoulder, blew out part of a rib, punctured both lungs and exited in front of the right shoulder. Some rib bone shards might have punctured the heart but we were never certain.

Mighty easy to get that elk back to camp, I assure you.

FWIW. L.W.

I killed a cow elk last year. The story is or should be posted over on handgunhunt.com. Basically, shot the cow at 70 yards with an open sighted Freedom Arms in .475 Linebaugh. This revolver has a six inch barrel.

Broke the left shoulder with a shot through the body from the right ribcage to the left shoulder. Second shot broke the left femur and right shoulder; complete transverse body penetration. Used 400 grain Speer GDSP and recovered the bullet in the right shoulder just under the hide.

A friend of mine on the same hunt; used the same caliber, but with the 400 grain XTPs with very good results.

JJ,

You're not dissappointing me a bit. That's good penetration, just throw in hitting two large bones and the story is different. No substitute for larger bore and bullet weight. Besides, I drive me .44Mags and .475 loads at about the same velocities.

I hit a cow in the brisket at 67 yrds. I was shooting a 7.5 inch bbl RSRH in 44 mag. The load was a cast Keith running 1210 fps. The bullet went length wise thru the cow stopping just under the skin on the hindquarter. 4 1/2 feet of penetration. She never moved out of her tracks. I'm sorry to disappoint the hot rocket bullet crowd, with the right bullet it ain't needed...........................JJ