homers brother

Actually, I HAVE used the .243 on elk. Yup, to many it seems puny, but I find that it shoots well - provided I do my part.

The first elk I took with it was a bull, head-on. The 100gr bullet took out his heart. He went about 25 yards (?) before piling up. The last was a cow, hit through both lungs. She was a little more determined to live and I had to track her across a meadow about 100 yards to where she dropped. I've shot elk with both the .375 H&H and the .30-06 with generally the same results from similar shots. None of the shots I've taken on elk are what I'd consider "long" - maybe 125 yards? One of them nearly ran over me before I shot him.

I'm total DIY. Probably a lot harder that way, but work makes elk hunting hit-and-miss for me (falls at a bad time of year, compared to my traditional deer season).

Edit:

Oh, probably good to mention that the .243 isn't generally my choice if I'm hunting in grizzly country. I know plenty of people who've killed black bears witha .243, though. I'm not a fan of bear steak, I'd rather avoid them completelywhenever it's possible. Here's a photo of one we couldn't avoid. Mama had already gone around us and was calling him.

wjyule

I have no experience with 6mm on elk, but I do have extensive experience with light loads on elk. Growing up i was a skinny runt of 125 lbs wet. My dad gave me a 270 featherweight which was a dream to carry but had pretty good recoil for a small guy like me. I started out with 110 gr sierras and became so confident with the load that i used it for everything from gophers to elk. I never lost an elk and even with a light 110 gr. bullet, it would break bone and push into the vitals. I would be totally confident (in fact i plan on using this fall) with a .243/ 6mm with a 100gr. nosler partition bullet. read the reviews of that bullet on MidwayUSA.com. it holds together and will push through bone on larger animals and keep going. Good luck in your hunting!

txhunter58

You could also tighten a big nut with a small wrench if done carefully. Push it to hard and fast, and you might break the wrench, but used within very precise parameters, you can get the job done. My question is why? A bigger wrench gets the job done faster and with ease and strength to spare. Sometimes, you just need a bigger wrench. JMHO.

RedRiverHntr

First let me say...your money, your hunt, your business....but since you brought it up......
I thought I might re-visit a post I made a couple years back. It goes like this....

IMHO....I would recommend a sharp stick! Here is my logic.....
More game has been killed with it than any other.
It doesn't weigh very much.
It is readily available.
Very little recoil. (Provided you throw it. If you stab him with it you could get a little reverb)
As long as you limit yourself to the range you are comfortable with(i.e. don't try to stab him from a range longer than your stick)and use proper point placement as we all can agree on that being the most critical/important part of the equation, you will be satisfied with the results!!!
Just remember to get comfortable with your stick and practice sufficiently to acquire the proper confidence.

As an added bonus, when you realize that you have spent all this money, time and effort on what could havebeen an outstanding hunt, perhaps even the hunt of a lifetime, but yet had to pass up your shot due to the fact that you un-necessarily handicapped yourself by trying to use the least amount of force possible............
you can use your stick to actually do a field study as to whether that realization at that particular point in time is any more painful than a sharp stick in the eye!!!

RedRiverHntr

And TX58...after reading that last post........
have you been talking to my wife???

EKM

Red and Tex cover my viewpoint on the matter quite well.

Gangly

"insurance", in my opinion, isprecautionary measures to attempt to ensure things go smoothly once things are out of your control. Nobody ever has 100 precent control of a situation, ESPECIALLY while hunting, and therfore marksmanship is never a garuntees tool that can be relied upon 100 percent of the time. It doesn't matter who you are or how much you practice, eventually bad shots are gonna come out the end of your rifle and you are going to be held responsible for them. For that simple fact alone, hunters should feel the burden of ensuring that when that bad shot is taken, that they have taken the proper measures before going into the field to ensure thata bad shot causes an animal minimal amountsof pain/stress/agony as possible. One of those measures to be taken is the responsibilty of the hunter to make sure he has enough gun to take down an animal if his shot isnt 100 percent accurate. BY having a small caliber, you are increasing your margin of error and therfore limiting your ability to take down an animal ethically.I'm not saying that it cant be done because I haveseen it done affectively, but a marginally or slightly-off bad shotwith a 22, is far worse for you and the deer than a marginally or slightly-off bad shot with a .300 caliber rifle.

Back to the original question: Yeah, you could use a 6mm and knock him dead in the dirt on the first shot. However, ifsomeone made a marginal shot that would not have been marginal with a reasonably larger caliber that the person is capable ofshooting just aswell with, thenthey just willingly created a situation that wasnt neccessary and caused an animal a lot of unneccessary pain.

I know, its just my opinion,andopinions are like a-holes, everybody's got one and they all stink

homers brother

And, are not the "marginal shots" that result in lost game? If you knock the animal's leg out from under it with a bad shot from either a 6mm or a .300 magnum, is there a difference in what'll happen next? How about a gut shot? Is a "marginal shot" from a magnum going to compensate and knock the animal down?

I'd say in either case, put your walking shoes on, you may be in for a hike.

As far as "hunts of a lifetime"....Don't all hunts meet thatcriteria?I don't know about you, but it's notthe size of the antlers(or lack of them)or how much I paid someone for them (which I'm generally opposed to doing in the first place)that makes a hunt memorable. But hey, if it takes you a .505Gibbs to feel like you have enough insurance for that once-in-a-lifetime elk, by all means proceed.

But the obvious question though, if that ends up being a "once-in-a-lifetime" or "hunt of a lifetime"elk, does that mean you're done hunting them afterward? I would hope not.

txhunter58

Gut shots and knocking a leg out from under an animal are not "marginal" shots, they are BAD shots. There is no amount of insurance that will compensate for that, and that is not what we are talking about. Are you saying that on shots between broadside lung shot and a bad shots, there is no room for insurance?

Again, if it were my only "wrench" in the tool box and I couldn't afford a bigger one, I would use a 6 mm. However, I would also limit myself to shots inside 200 yards (pesonal decision) and standing broadside shots. However, most of us have a bigger wrench, and as for me, I am going to take it.

At 300 yards the 6mm has aprox 1280 ft lbs, and with just stepping up to the 30-06 jumps to 2150 ft lbs. People smarter than me have recommended at least 1200 ft lbs for deer sized game and 1800-2000 ft lbs for elk sized game. Sure they are probably padded for "insurance"andthey are only mathmatical formulas, but they do give us a means to compare.

SILVERTIP-CO

Lotsa locals take elk with 243's a nd 6mm's. Not my choice, but then again they've killed elk. I have not(YET).