Originally Posted by
dezmick
I own a 270 win, and i was thinking about just using it to hunt elk, but i was also thinking i might want a dedicated elk rifle.
I killed my bull this year with a .35 Whelen. 225 grain partitions at 2700+ FPS and at 300 yards by shooting just under it's top back profile it killed the elk dead with the first shot.....Down like a flash. Does that make it a dedicated elk rifle?.....it sure has the energy at that range and a couple hundred yards further.
I'm already working on next years elk rifle.....a .280 Remington using 175 grain a-frames (or accubonds ....to be determined). It too will deliver 1500 ft-lb of energy at 500 yards and will be a fair bit lighter than the whelen. I have a lot of load development to do and a lot of practice (it's a bitch of a job but someone has to do it
) and I'm very confident that if a good shot is presented, it too will put them down on a single shot..... (BTW....both are M-98 rifles)
One can look to the .338-06 or even the .338 Magnum for a dedicated elk rifle.....or even a lot more like the .375 H&H but you won't have a more appropriate rifle.
I've beat this thing to smitherenes and can't really come up with a better round as a dedicated elk rifle than the old .30-06!!!!!
Load it with good 180 grain bullets.....get a good 1500 yard range finder (at least 1500 yards) which I'd recommend with any rifle, a good pair of shooting sticks and learn it's trajectory all the way to 500 yards. You'll kill as many with this rifle and load as anyone with a lot more gun.....and the .30-06 is available in featherweight rifles and is easy to load for. I get 2800 FPS with 180 grain accubonds in my 22" barreled M-70 in .30-06 and so can you. It still has nearly 1500 ft-lb of energy at 500 yards and that's good enough for elk.
More and more it's less the rifle and cartridge that "getserdone" it's the shooter.....can he judge range? (the rangefinder is necessary) and does he know his rifle? and can he actually shoot it?.....The .30-06 takes some practice but is still not too hard to manage.......and it works.....( so will the 7mm Mag)
The .270 is good to 400 yards.....a bit short of the .30-06 but still may be good enough for you.....
If you want to buy a rifle and dedicate it to elk hunting....you could do a lot worse than the old .30-06 but don't buy one, stick it in the safe, wait until the week before you go hunting and sight it in and expect to get your elk.....It just don't seem to work that way!
BTW....a used Rem 700 for about $400 give or take is about the best one can get.....you don't have to spend a lot of cash!