elk hunt
 

Finally going on a guided elk hunt. I plan on using my Ruger 77 300 Win Mag. with Leupold VXIII 3.5x10
I've taken a few moose with this gun using 200 gn Nosler Partitions and Accu Bonds.

My hunting buddy, who also hunted this area last year, thinks I should use my 06 and tells me we may be shooting out to 600 yards.

He also sugested I go with Berger bullets. The elk he harvested last year at 526 yards went down like a rock from his 280. Ofcourse a new scope would be nice too, but new turrets would be a must. Really????

I was just wondering what others thought of his suggestions. I'm very comfortable with my gun and feel comfortable shooting out to 400 yards with my current settup.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading about long range hunting and shooting and well I'm just wondering how the heck they ever ate back 100 years ago.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

i killed a 380 bull last year..my only advice is shoot straight..and try to get close..i snuck to within 80 yards of my big bull

Unless you become proficient at greater range,the above is what you should follow.

Exactly! Go with your present setup and stay within the maximum range that you have practiced and are comfortable with. IMHO these long range shooters should stay with paper targets and gongs and quit these 1000 yard animal shots because that isn't hunting, it's just shooting!

400 yards
 

I've shot about twenty elk in the past twenty-five years, first with a .270 with 130 grain bullets and now with a .300 mag. shooting 168 grain nosler hand loads. I have taken a shot over 400 yards only once - last year on a cow hunt. Shoot the gun you're comfortable with and don't worry about long range shots. They hardly ever happen, especially if you're hunting the rut.

Use the gun you are comfortable with and shoot out to 400 yards. Great elk medicine. If you really, really want to shoot farther, there is still no reason to change guns. But if you want to shoot farther couple of questions: Where can you shoot out to 600 yards 2-3 times weekly? That is what it would take as well as having a good chart on wind effects, angle of the shot, etc. Are you a great judge of windspeed or are you taking a windmeter? What about swirls of wind in the moutain? You really that committed? If you aren't, you are doing the game an injustice.

As stated, it is very rare to need to shoot over 400 anyway.

I can't believe in 25 years you haven't figured out that the rut is over during rifle season.:hit:

If you are comfortable out to 400 yards, use your current setup. You will be fine.

If you want to shoot out to 500 or 600 yards, you have months to practice. Nothing wrong with a shot out that far if you know YOU can make the shot. Just because the rifle is capable, doesn't mean you are.

Shooting an elk at distance is cool but getting close and smoking one at 15 yards, is about the coolest thing in the hunting world.

Good luck and good hunting!!:party0005:

Actually after 25 years of Colorado Division of Wildlife trying to sell as many possible elk tags as they can and putting a ton of pressure on elk in Over the Counter units. The main rut in a lot of area's in Colorado has moved back from the middle of September to the first two weeks of October. Which starts 1st Rifle season and part of 2nd season in which the elk are in full rut. It has become easier to actually get a bull elk to step out of cover using a call during rifle season than it is during archery season in multiple heavy pressured units. Only once in the last 15 years has the elk rut started the 2nd and 3rd week of September in the southern units that I hunt. Main reason I believe for that was a cool and heavy wet month during that time. The cow elk dictate when the rut is and they have changed habits to start the rut during the 2 1/2 weeks between the end of archery season and the beginning of rifle season. At least that's what's happening in my neck of the woods.

I have only been elk hunting for the past 6 years. I have taken 3 elk and the furthest shot has been 50 yards (40 and 25 on the other two). Although far shots are always possible, you should be able to get into a reasonable range if the wind is in your favor.

Like most said, use the gun you are comfortable with. It should work just fine.

I am so confused .....I think this is a first....a hunter is actually asking if he should use a smaller gun that what he is used to!!!!!!what's up with that???????

What the hell? That's funny right there!:biggrin:

Bingo!! We have a winner!! Best advice in the world for elk hunting. Keep the wind in your face as much as possible. A cross wiind is better than nothing. If you feel the wind on the back of your neck, it's time to start over because that elk is long gone.

Good post Rob.:party0005:

I'd beg to differ with that. I'm out there every year and watching them in bow season. The rut is on and is better at the end bow season.

Stay with me here. In a heavy hunted area, the rut is over 1 minute into opening morning when it sounds like world war III.

Bulls like cooter but they like being alive more.

You have to get to some really secluded areas (or big tracts of private property) for the rut to be going on after the start of rifle season.

Are you saying they quit rutting competely in heavily hunted areas or just rut during the night hours outside of legal hunting time? If you are saying the former, I would ask what bred all those cows that are dropping calves the following Spring! The rut does vary from spot to spot as we have also noticed what he mentioned where we hunt in Wyoming every year at about 6500'-7000' elevation. As the years have gone by it seems that the rut has gotten later and sometimes the peak isn't until the first part of October when it used to be around September 20-25. Higher up it seems like they are still rutting earlier and haven't changed that much. Where we hunt has very light to no pressure at all, so I'm eliminating that out of the equation altogether.

Colorado
 

I can't believe you haven't figured out that you can hunt elk with a rifle in September (limited entry) in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and Alberta. Two of the biggest bulls I've killed were on September rifle rut hunts in Utah (Book Cliffs) and Montana (Bob Marshall Wilderness).

Sometimes it's better to keep quiet rather than open your mouth and reveal your ignorance.

I see ya din't mention Colorado, Washington or Oregon in your insult to the lucky dog....but don't ya think that just maybe he was talkin about Colrado, as that's where he be from???? I can tell U thatin Washington the rut hunt's are mostly Bow with a few smoke pole hunts mixed in!!! I can tell U that I don't like to hunt the rut for anything cause the meat tastes like crap , plus it's hot than hades and the meat stands a good chance of spoiling!!!!!

Sounds like you're saying luckydog can insult withabow for a post where no state was mentioned and now when the other responds with an accurate statement you're telling him the LD post only meant Colorado, LOL! LD has made two smartazz posts on this thread alone and seems to be good at it, so I would say that when he gets it thrown back in his face he well deserves it---just sayin and JMHO!

Sometimes it's better to keep quiet rather than open your mouth and reveal your ignorance
calling someone ignorant is an insult.................a wisecrack or sarcastic remark is just that...a wisecrack...............................just sayin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea, right. LD is always making "wisecracks", as you call them, that appear or are meant to demean people IMHO. Those comments, especially the one he made to withabow, may be as close to calling someone ignorant the way he does it as actually using the word, so I'll stick with my comment and we will agree to disagree!

Hey, pile it on. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Unfortunately, Colorado is the only place I have ever elk hunted but what a ride.

You guys take this stuff to serious and sometimes I'm a smartazz. Life is good.

Always remember.....Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded BUT IT SURE IS FUN!!

Before you send the PM's, I already know the above statement was not politically correct.

Good hunting and I'll see you on the next thread where CLD makes another smartazz statement.:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

"You guys take this stuff to serious and sometimes I'm a smartazz. Life is good.

Always remember.....Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded BUT IT SURE IS FUN!!"

That says it all right there and if you're happy with the way you come across to people on the internet like you evidently are after reading your last post including that quote, then you are to be pitied!!!

The sky is blue, the grass is green and animals do change their habits. They adapt to all us smartasses.

I'm sorry that I said something that got your panties so twisted. Take two Midol and call me in the morning.

I'm not a doctor but I slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night.:biggrin:

Now that's funny right there!!:s2:

Ya both got me a chucklin!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!
I just was a readin that other thread about elk huntin, found out I been doing it all wrong, I only been huntin at around 2/3000ft level in the sagebrush....so I guess I can expect my success rate to skyrocket if I hike 20 miles in and climb up to the stratosphere then I can expect to get more than 14 elk in the next 20 years!!! RIGHT????

Lowest point in Colorado is around 3400' near the Kansas border.

Not many elk there. :)

Highest point in Washington is over 14,000ft not many elk there either...I'm just trying to point out to some of these self appointed experts that there IS NO hard and fast rule as to where elk hang out! They are a VERY adaptable animal and becomes accustomed to the area they are in, elk were pretty well scattered all over this country before the white man came and either wiped them all out in a area or drove them out farther and farther into the wilderness! Heck one of the herds we have here in Washington is on the Hanford Nuclear reservation all pretty much flat sagebrush land of a few hundred feet elevation!!!!! gets hotter than hades in the summer but they stay there!!! we've got elk that have never been in the timber, had a herd right down on I-90 between Kittitas and Vantage nothing growing over ten feet high except for wind turbines!!! we talkin 100/150yds off the freeway!!! and we won't even think about the elk on the east side of the country..... they have no Mtns over there at all!!!! Like I said all I was tryin to say is there is no hard fast rule about elk ...they are were they are!!!!!

Oh yeah! They can be anywhere. Some of them even like to live in town with us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOaJ-wbMoRM