Went to the local gun store today, and saw something very interesing.

They have three rifles in the used rack that are just about what I was looking for in an elk rifle (for a "someday" hunt).

One is a Winchester in .338 Win.Mag (one of the lighter wieght models with a muzzle break)
One is a Remmington in .300 Win Mag (the cheesey ADL model)
And one is a nice Savage in 7mm Rem Mag (pre Accutrigger).

Now, of the guns, the Winchester and Savage were the only ones I would seriously consider (the ADL just doesn't look right), and between the two the Savage is more to my liking. But my quesition is if a 7 mm Rem Mag is enough for elk out to 300 yards?

I am hoping to do the hunt in two or three years, so this isn't a have to type of thing. And I would like to get a newer gun anyway, but these are on the rack and my wife owes me, so I am thinking of options.

Personally I would buy the "cheesy" looking Remington and never look back..
However to answer your question, heck yes a 7mag can not only kill an elk at 300 yards, it is about as good as it gets.

quote:

Originally posted by NEJack:
But my quesition is if a 7 mm Rem Mag is enough for elk out to 300 yards?

Absolutely! I've mentioned it before, and I'm not promoting it, but that DVD that has been out awhile, Best of the West- Beyond Belief, demonstrates quite well what a 7mm mag will do. The opening kill is on a bull elk at 743 yards and a 168 Berger VLD.

I spoke with someone at Nosler last fall, a younger sounding man, who stated that he has killed several elk with his 7mag/150 Btip combo several years in a row now.

I would use my 7mag with any of the following on a bull elk at 300-400 yards without reservation:

VLD, Partition, Aframe, TSX/TTSX, Solid Base, Interbond, Accubond, Scirocco.

A 7x57 is adequate for 300 yard elk, and probably a bit farther. I still would like the Win. in .338, but the brake would have to go.

quote:

Originally posted by just-a-hunter:
However, out of those rifle you listed, If I had to pick one, I would take the Remington and put it in a Bell&Carleson as my opinion is the .300 mag is a more versitile round, and the Remington is a proven rifle.

That is some solid advice. Any of the rounds you mention are good elk rounds. I don't like the idea of a lightweight .338 and Savages don't appeal to me at all. Bell & Carlson stocks are tuff as nails. The one on my .375 is over 20 years old & still going strong.

NEJack, I am not pointing a finger at you. Magazines and internet have got a lot of guys thinking that a 270 or an 06 just aint enough for elk. If the case doesn't have a belt or the name "mag" in it, it won't kill elk.
Everything in the lower 48 can be cleanly killed with a 270, 06, or anything else in that family.
Yes a 7 mm mag will kill elk. So will a lot of smaller cartridges.

My opinion is you could not make a mistake with any one of the three choices. My choice with several years Elk hunting expenience would be the .338. Good luck and good shootig.

Thanks for all the replies.

My initial leaning was to the .338, but an old friend told me that a big boomer might just give me a flinch. I really like the .300 WinMag, but when I saw this Savage I got thinking of the 7mm Mag.

I didn't say this at first, but another thing that attracted me to the 7mm is that it is a fine Nebraska antelope rifle (for the next time I am a resisdent). Which also appeals to me. That and this rifle already had a B&C stock and Timmey trigger set up.

Also, to be honest I love Savage rifles. They aren't pretty, but they work very well. But that .338 still looks so interesting.. Guess I will have to think a lot more about it.

.338 and take off the muzzle brake!

I'm no big fan of the M700 or the ADL but to say that it doesn't look right nad then to talk about getting a Savage is just plain wrong. Tell me one other rifle that is as ugly and homely as a Savage?

Cheese is good!!

Get the .338 and practice..practice..practice

Never purchase a rifle with a muzzle brake; the reasons are too extensive to go into here, but suffice it to say that it is a red flag warning about the gun and is a device that is totally out of place on a sporting firearm.

Any of the calibers you mention are just fine for elk hunting. None of the rifles are necessarily that attractive, so my advice would be to wait until the right gun comes along in an appropriate caliber.

Check out the classifieds on this forum, there is a .338, rem 700 on there now, and a 7 mag shows up occasionaly.

I don't believe in muzzle brakes...if you can't handle the kick of the big dawg, then stay on the porch!!!!

7MM's also shoot good,, once and a while. Ron

They do indeed shoot good. A friend of mine back home has one and is very pleased with the accuracy.

As for the looks of the Savage, well what can I say, I kind of like the ugly thing.

When I bought "my" first deer rifle, I really wanted a Remmington 700. The guy at the gun store knew me, and my family, and gently suggested the Savage in .308. Since I was on a bit of a budget at the time, I bought it.

Took it out to a shooting party with some guys I used to work with. Most of them were laughing when I pulled it out, but one old bird just smiled and said "watch this boys". That .308 shot better out of the box than many of the better looking rifles, and I never have to worry about making it look "ugly" with a scratch! After 12 deer taken, and who knows how many targets, it still shoots great.

From what i've seen anyone of these will perform superbly. I favor the savage in this case just because of the 7mm chambering.
I personally don't enjoy shooting the 300 or up, so Ive stuck with smaller calibers and enjoyed very much getting to know them. One in particular is a "cheesy" adl in 30.06 that I've gotten to know well enough that I helped that rifle to put a 180gr factory core lokt through both lungs of an elk at 371 yrds. ranged. Dead before his next step.

My favorite elk gun in todays elk country is the .338 with a 210 Nosler at 3003 FPS or a 300 gr. Woodleigh at 2500 FPS depending on which area I am hunting...

I have shot elk with lighter calibers, much lighter than most, but I like them to go right down so they don't go to the bottom of the divide as in Idaho that is several days of hell...

I also agree the 300s are excellent elk rounds, particularly with 200 gr. Noslers.

I don't see anything wrong with muzzle brakes, lots of our hunters use them and for the most part they are the better shots as they don't flinch...As to noise be careful of those around you and be sure they are aware that your using one.

A good approach to muzzle brakes is have them installed with a thread protected in the deal..Then use them to sight in, and test loads, take them off to hunt with and before you know it you will start leaving them off as you will have conquered the recoil thing..it works pretty good.

I sure don't want to shoot a 500 Jefferys or 505 Gibbs without a brake on it with the option to remove it...

If it will make you shoot better then use it.

wonder if the boys that stole horses and sat around with feathers in their hair argued the penatrating and cutting abilities of obsidion versus flint or chert?

7mm Rem Mag, 160grn Nosler Accubond, 66grn Reloder 22, R+P Brass, Fed 215 GMM primer, 3080 Avg MV @ 12', .6 MOA

325 yards(Lazered), 1st shot through lungs, second in the shoulder, DRT:




Notice how he fell next to the ranch trail , guid very happy

Reloader

Never shot an elk, but 7mm mag has worked great for me on similar sized animals. I may be crazy but I don't see much difference between any of those calibers assuming heavy for caliber premium bullets are used.

I love my 338 for elk! But that said one of my coworkers has shot somewhere near 20 elk over the years and he has done it with a Weatherby chambered in 7MM Mag. You could not pry that rifle out of his hands and hand him anouther for elk.
MM

My lovely bride pointed out another nice feature of the Savage.

I can always buy a new .300 or .338 barrel for it and have a switch barrel mag if "you really need it".

I knew that there was a reason I married this women!

The 338 Win Mag. is my favorite elk round.

I go for Elk with a 9.3x62 and 250gr TSX's. Hits like a 338 and holds five down, less recoil than a 338 with 250 Partitions, at least to me.

Get the .338 !! It kicks less than a .300 Win and a 210 gr Partition from one kills elk like the Hammer of Thor !!!

By the rifle you like the best. The chambering is inconsequential with good bullets.

My first rifle was a cheesy looking M-700 ADL .30-06. That was in 1980, back when they had a shiny plastic type varnish on them, blind magazine, hard plastic recoil pad, pressed checkering.

I looked at rifle after rifle and could not find anything that fit and refused to even handle that ugly ADL. Finally, unable to find anything else that I liked, Winchesters, Rugers, Brownings etc, I decided to pick up the ADL.
As soon as it came to the shoulder I decided to buy it. It fit me perfectly! I still have that rifle but it doesn't resemble the gun I bought. It is on it's third stock; snapped one in half pulling out a bull moose one day. Now it has a custom fiberglas stock, proper Decellerator recoil pad, metal magazine bottom with hinged floor plate, etc.

I have beaten the hell out of the rifle over the years, but it has treated me very well.

It has always been very accurate, except for an experiment with Nosler Ballistic Tips; it will not shoot those for some reason.



So my recommendation is to pass on the ADL.

This is a nice looking one, in the classifieds here!

I've handled that rifle, it is very clean. Shoots good too.

Think I just might get the Savage. It is what I am familiar with, and I know how to work on them. I need to spend some time on the Classifieds pages here also. That Remmington is a nice looking gun!

But right now, the damn river needs to stop flooding before I can get to town! Iowa is having a 500 year flood, and things are a mess.

Fortunatly I live on high ground (if it floods up here, there had better be an old guy building a boat for all the animals), but a lot of the low lands are under water already. And we are getting major storms tonight.

I seen that on the news, I hope it all turns out ok

quote:

7MM's also shoot good,, once and a while. Ron

Either someone drew a small cloverleaf on that target, or that's some darn fine accuracy!



If it were me, I'd go with the .338 Win Mag, but that's only because I've had prior experience with this caliber (but only for deer.)

I must defer to the knowledge of experienced elk hunters and their recommendations, though.

My take on the subject is if you want a dedicated Elk rifle then the 338 is the way to go. If you aren't going to become a yearly hunter for Wapati then go with a 300 variant. The 300's are just a little more versatile.

I have killed elk with all three cartridges. And they will all kill elk in a very positive manner. That said, I have never shot an elk at 300 yards.
There ain't nothing cheesy about an ADL. All things being equal, I'd grab it first and in a heartbeat. But from your calling it cheesy, you'd probably be better off passing.
Next, I'd grab the Winnie although IMO the .338 is a little more gun than you truely need to kill an elk.
While the 7mag is an excellent elk cartridge, if my wife needed another tomato stake, I'd buy the Savage.

Strictly elk I would go with the 338, if you want an elk/lope gun, the 7mm would be my pick. 338 wont kick bad with lighter bullets, no need for a 250gr bullet for elk.

That one picture shows the best place to shoot an elk............... right next to a road.

I've dropped big bulls cleanly with a plain old .270, but I think serious elk rifles start at .30. I would keep looking for a nice .300 magnum of some sort that fits your budget. It's hard to beat the old Model 70 action, and prices should start coming down soon as the new ones roll off the line.

I have taken many Bulls with three different .300 Winnys, several with a .340 Wby, one with a .338 Lapua, several with two different .358 STA's. The experiences over the years have taught me the heavier stuff, if handled well is best. When I have a cow tag I don't hesitate to take my .270 WSM, for the Bulls I always want to be prepared for that trophy of all trophys and pack the heavier stuff. Good shooting.