Thread: Best 2nd Rifle?
View Single Post
Old January 5, 2014, 10:00 PM   #5
MarkCO
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 21, 1998
Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 4,295
My 12 year old killed an elk at 350 yards with a .308 last week. My Dad did not recover an elk shot at 225 with a .270 in the center of the chest. Sure, the .270 is adequate, but NO WAY it is an ethical 400+ yard elk gun. Elk are much tougher than most people give them credit for. Sure, I have seen the marketing videos of the new girl hunter killing an elk at 1000+ with a .243...yes, I think that was unethical, and lucky. Hitting the target is not enough, you have the have the energy left to kill it now. The only elk I have ever had to track (5 in 33 years and over 100 head of elk) were shot by 7mm Mags and .270s. Never had to track one shot with a .30 caliber or larger. I saw three blood trails of un-recovered elk this year and 2 were out of state hunters with .270s. Also saw three carcasses in the woods, shot by something, but obviously not recovered. Don't be that guy regardless of what some people recommend. I applaud your restraint in your OP and I am just reinforcing that. On to your Q.

My favorite is the .338-06. Much less recoil than the .338 WM, but a step up from the .30-06. There are several 33s that are not belted magnums, and one of those would be my suggestion. There are a few .35s and then the .375 H&H. A .300 magnum of some flavor would also be worth a look. If you do not reload, pick a popular one, if you do reload, look hard at the 33s and 35s that push 200 to 250s at 2600 to 2900 fps. That seems to be the sweet spot for elk. No too much to punch through with no expansion at 30 yards, and enough clean kills out to 350 or more depending on the choice.
__________________
Good Shooting, MarkCO
www.CarbonArms.us
MarkCO is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.03315 seconds with 8 queries