madmax0311

I currently live in Indiana and don't have much experience with high powered hunting rifles. I have family in Colorado that has offered to take me elk hunting with their group. (Probably not this fall because of my limited Vacation time left) I'm not one to wait till the last minute and go buy a rilfe/bow/shotgun, and expect to become an expert overnite. SO that leads me to my questions. I have been doing research on what caliber and plan on staying in the .3 type calibers. The main three I'm considering are the 30-06, .300 Win Mag and the .300 WSM. My family in CO uses a .300 win mag but a guy I work with uses the .300 wsm. I'm fairly use to heavy recoil for slug-guns for deer in Indiana but have little to no comparison with the rifles. I'm kind of leaning toward a nice SS WSM that my local gun shop had that a Winchester mod 70. From what I've seen from ballistics, it would do the job nicely but my concern is the recoil. I also know another consideration is the price of ammo. I'm open for any and all suggestions and thanks for any help.

EKM

All three of those are pu$$y cats unless you get silly and stick them in a fly-weight rifle with a stock that don't fit you and then go for a short eye relief scope (read cheap), pickup some heavy bullet/high power level ammoand then settle into a nice benchrest for your first introductory shots. This is called the "school of hard knocks" teaching method and seems to be embraced by nearly a majority of hunters.... later on they are frequently the loudest whiners when it comes to the topic of "magnums."

Difficult to recommend any of the aforementionedto you without knowing what other centerfires you own that may come close, or what your other centerfire experience is and whether you are dealing with a physcial degradation of your body/health problems.

Personally, while the 30-06 is a great jack of all tradescartridge and our elk camp minimum cartridge power level.... I'd take the 300WinMag.... they are all pretty easy going cartridges if you take care ofthe fundamentals of riflemanship.
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Related but different:
I sawsome feather weight synthetic/stainless Brownings with a short stocksin cartridge 375 H&H and no muzzlebreak in at Gander Mountain.... likely willbesome magnumcry-babies come out of those purchases unless they really know what they are doing. Load them up with some Premium 300 grain Federal Cape Shoks and casually set the new owner down at an urban benchrest with a shortage of bags so he hunches down on it for his first shots.... oh yeah.... ouch.... where are the butterfly stitches and the band-aids? Suicide rigs.... straight out of the factory & with factory ammo.... the story don't need to unfold that way, but does.... a lot.

So many people don't realize that as you move up the power scale, a lack of riflemanship fundamentals that was no big deal down on the low ends starts becoming (painfully) apparent.

ElkNutz

You just opened a can of worms.
Just go with the old 30-06. It doesn't have to say Magnum to kill elk.

oldsmellhound

Personally, I'd go with the .30-06. An '06 is going to kick about as much as a 12 gauge shotgun with a high-brass load. If you've shot 12 gauge slugs, in most rifles the '06 will kick less than that. The .30-06 is easy to find ammo for, the ammo is cheaper and there is a very large selection. It can handle all North American game, excluding the very large bears. The only advantage with going with a .300 mag is it extends your range some. The '06 should be good out to 300 yards or so for elk - a .300 mag might extend that range by 100 yards or so. However, shooting at that far of a range usually requires a rangefinder and a lot of practice. So unless you are able to practice a lot shooting at very long range, I'd go with the '06 and limit your shots to 300 yards.

robbcayman

I bought a 300 win mag for Elk hunting. I examined lots of calibers 7mm mag, 300 wsm, 30-06, 270 and the 300 win mag. In the end I found the 300 win mag to be the best gun IMHO. For one, the 300 wsm is a lot harder to find ammo for. The other cartridgeswere less powerful than the 300 win mag. Plus, although it is at the lower levels you can hunt grizzly with the 300 win mag if you ever decide on a big hunt.

However, I think any of the above listed calibers will take down an elk without issue. Oh.. and I had never shot a 300 win mag and was a little concerned about the recoil and it just wasn't that bad. I picked up a savage 300 win mag with the accu trigger and it comes equipped with a nice recoil pad. Good luck!!!

PYbuckhunter

Let me say first, I have no experience with the 30-06 or theWSM. The two bulls I have shot, were with a .300 Win. Mag. With hand loaded 180 gr. Nosler's, one bull went about 10 yards and the other died where he stood. The recoil on the .300 Mag is less than my .270. But the .300has aported barrel, which takes out some of the kick.
IMHO.........I'd get the .300 Mag.

EKM

3 - 300WinMag
2 - 30-06
0 - 300 WSM

Unfortunately there are no restrictions as to having to have actually killed an elk before; however, since all three are valid elk cartridges no harm done.

stubblejumper

Given those three choices,I would go with the 300winmag.

Ron Duval

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EKM

5- 300WinMag
2 - 30-06
0 - 300 WSM