RE: Is .308 enough for elk and large bear?
A good rule of thumb is to shoot as big of a gun as you can comfortably handle. We all know the bigger the better. But that is not always practical. I know a fellow, who I bought a .270 off of sometime ago, who killed everything up to grizzly with that very rifle. It will do it, but I would not feel comfortable doing it myself. On the otherhand, I felt like the king of the castle carrying my .300 and .338. Are they big enough to kill a bear, yes. Do you feel that their comfortable carrying that small of a gun when a bear walks past you at 30 yards? probabl;y not. Just do what I always say. Do the best you can with what you have. It's been said the greatest gun in the world just happens to be what ever you're carrying at the time. I agree with that. If you have a .308, and your a good shot shooting a good bullet. It will probably get the job done. For elk. no problem. Just practice until your comfortable enough with your rifle to get the job done. I don't care who is going to argue with that, but it's the truth. Shot placment is the biggest thing I can stress. If you shoot a bear in the rump with a .50 BMG, your going to have to trail a really ticked off bear into the trees. If you shoot him in the heart/lungs with your 30-30, he's dead on his feet. Good luck, and hopefuly you never need to shoot unless you want to.