I agree, 180gr in a 30-06 is all you need. It's worked for me many times and the elk were DRT.

"The best is the one you can punch through lungs, not the one you take just in case you want to try to X the poor critter from 500 yards. Then all it becomes is a hope."

Actually 500 yards is not a difficult shot if you practice a little, use a range finder, and have correct data entered into a software program. Of course, you want to test your data by field shooting before you trust it.

Your 180g bullet is about perfect. I've always sighted my rifles in 2.5" high at 100. For my 270 shooting 150g Partitions at 3000 fps it's dead on at 25 and 275 yards and no more than 3.5" high anywhere in between. You can pretty much ignore hold over except for vertical or wind out to 350 yards. It's old school, but it's always worked for me. I sight in my 500 Jeffery the same way, it's dead on at 25 and 175 though ...

I sight my .270 WSM in the same way. It may be old school, but you can't argue the speed of target aquisition with that.

In the 180 grain for elk, what brand or style bullet would you use?

I've had jacket separation and bullet fragmentation with Win factory 180 grain ammo called the "pointed power point". I think it's been discontinued. But it worked well on whitetails.

From Elk and Elk hunting by Wayne Van Zwoll.


"Not so long ago a friend, Ray Croswell unearthed the results of an Elk hunter survey taken in 1939 by the Washington Department of game. The list shows 44 identifiable cartridges used by 2,285 Yakima Elk hunters that year. The 30-06 it turns out, was not the most common chambering. It lagged behind the 30-30 and 30 Remington (combined in the survey) by 122 rifles. The 270 was nowhere to be seen at the top of the list; the 30-40 Krag followed the 30-06. Together the 30-30 and 30 Remington accounted for 27% of rifles used, the 30-06 21%, and the Krag 12%. Combined, a whopping 60%! Of these 1,372 rifles, 613 were bored for 30-30 class cartridges."

There must have been a lot of dissapointed hunters in Washington State in 1939 when the bullets started bouncing off the ribs.

This year Im taking a .308 Win and a 7x57 to elk camp. Not saying I would use a 243 for Elk, I dont even like them for deer, just sayin..

quote:

Originally posted by Shack:
In the 180 grain for elk, what brand or style bullet would you use?

At 06 velocities nearly any decent 180 gn cup and core is fine if you do your part. But the choices are pretty good. I like Accubonds, used to like Speer Mag tips but they are getting hard to find. A Remington core lock to the lungs will git er done.

The Hornady Interbond would be a good choice!

I have taken 3 bulls with a .280 using 150gr portions and 2 using a .300 WM using 180gr. TSX.
All were one shot kills in the heart/lung or spine.

I prefer the .300 WM.