Like the title says, what is considered marginal for elk? The reason I ask, is I think most people say the minimum is 27 caliber. I have a nice m77 chambered in 260 Remington that I absolutely love! I was thinking with a good 140 grain bullet, say something like Barnes Triple Shock, it would be plenty for elk out to 350 yards. What say ye? I also have a 35 Remington, but that would be seriously limited by range.
.25-06 with 120gr Nosler is NOT marginal. Can't speak to your cartridges but the heavier bullets should work. 350 yards is a long poke on something you want to lay down dead right there.
Elk is one of the tougher critters to put down, I am not a fan of smaller calibers on them, but then I don't shoot 350 yards at any animal either. I have known guys that used a 270 all their life though and were very successful.
I have never shot or killed elk so I don't know.If I had a chance to hunt them I would use a 300 win mag or .338 win mag.
O'Conner had good luck with the .270 win. Long range shooting is a skill that is developed. Practice , knowing you gun the drop of the bullet and what it is capable of. If I err I like it to be on the side of having too much power, but I am not recoil sensitive.
In Sweden,, the most popular caliber for shooting Elk is the 6.5x55 which uses the same bullets as your .260 Rem which is a different way of saying 6.5-08.
Only in Sweden an Elk is actually a Moose.
I would however recommend understanding shot placement, and Berger Bullets.
I had a good chat with Walt Berger purveyor of Berger Bullets (one of them that knows) about this very subject. The slight differences in his hunt and game as opposed to your proposed hunt was that he was in New Zealand and shot a Red Stag with a .257 something.
He used one of his VLD bullets and the stag was DRT. The autopsy revealed that the bullet had penetrated the animal about 6" and then blew up completely expending it's energy on the unsuspecting Stag. The bullet had completely destroyed the heart and bottom half of the lungs resulting in immediate death. There were several other animals dispatched on that trip and the results were exactly the same on every one form Red Stag to Tsar, and a variety of goat like creatures, and feral sheep.
Something to ponder when looking at how to load this cartridge. There are suitable 140 gr bullets from many sources. Do your home work and talk to factories and they will steer you strait.
Randy
"It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
www.buchananprecisionmachine.com
The 260 will do it but it is marginal. Heck, you can shoot them in the ribs just behind the shoulder with a 243 and if you get enough penetration and if into the chest cavity it will do OK. The problem being the if, if and ifs of all that!
The 140 would be the better choice as would be a quality penetrating bullet like the 130 gr TSX, one of the bonded bullets or one of the "mechanicals" like the Partition or A Frame. Accuracy and shooting at reasonable range are also both of top priority. One thing about the heavy (long) bullets in the 260 and especially the Barnes, is that a lot of bullet base will be seated into the case body. I'd shy way away from the so-called Berger "hunting" bullets.
Last edited by fouronesix; 01-23-2014 at 05:43 PM.
Elk are not that hard to kill, but they can be pretty hard to put down "right there", and they tend to hang around places that lead to a full day of packing out if they make it over the edge, or down the hill, before expiring. I'm a big believer in delivering a lot of energy to the lungs in situations where 500 vertical feet can be lost in seconds. I use a .270, but it's a Wby.
BD
The .270 Weatherby is an impressive round. It is the flattest shooting round I have ever fired.Originally Posted by BD
OMG, I married well. I just finished an elk roast daube, with mushrooms and carrots, mopped up with pop overs and followed by an apple tart tatin. I carried it out in 2012, and I've been rewarded many times since.
BD
Elk is my favorite meat of all the wild game. Just finished a bowl of Whitetail Chili, and my son is cutting up the two deer he killed a week ago.We process our own meat. The only way to go if you want it done right.
A well placed shot with a 243 will do it. I offered SWMBO the 243 w/100g Partitions or the 7mm RM to take on a cow elk hunt. I guess she thought the 243 was marginal. Never once complained about the 7 when she was practicing.
The wildest 243 story I ever heard was of a young lady who dropped an oryx DRT. Guide says it's the only oryx he ever saw die that quick. He wasn't there when I hit one with a 375 Ruger.
Double lung an elk with a bullet that expands and he's going down.
Shot placement, shot placement, shot placement.
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The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.― H.L. Mencken
if all i had to hunt elk with was a 260 i would pick exactly your same brand of poison.
but its not so i use bigger and harder hitting calibers instead.
you dont always get a storybook shot opportunity, standing broadside at a decent range.
your just as apt to spend a week or so hunting your tail off only to see one turn and trot away from you into the brush on the last evening of your hunt.
i want a caliber and bullet that will punch through a lot of elk to reach the vital parts.
that combination you are asking about will do just that, it is just that there are better choices.
but with that said if you can shoot that one better then it may be the best for you.
a 260 with a 140 triple shock is wicked medicine and plenty capable.
i would not feel undergunned if i were you.
Ive got a number of rifles and am not expert on elk. If i was to go it would probably be with a 7 or 300 mag of some sort. Minimun in my mind would be a 2506. No doubt the smaller guns will kill but I guess i have to ask why. An elk hunt anymrore will set you back some serious coin. that is unless they live in the state you do and you have access to good hunting land. To me to go out there with a marginal gun doesnt even make sense. Ive got nothing to prove. It doesnt nothing for me to tell someone i can kill an elk with a 243 or even a 2506 for that matter.
I understand the opinions expressed. I will explain a bit on how I came to ask the question! I confess I do own a model 700 in 7mm Rem mag. I just am not a fan of the recoil. I know an option would be to add a good recoil pad. But the length of pull is already almost too long. So I might be looking at cutting down the stock (which is synthetic) but I am really not sure I want to mess with all that. Or I could get an aftermarket laminate and cut that down. But again, it is a workhorse gun, and it doesn't make sense to me to spend 150 bucks on it, then be concerned about scratching it. That is why I was asking about my 260. So maybe I will just have to see what I can do with my 7mm.
again it matters most what you shoot best and are the most comfortable with.
let me just say this,, that 260 with a 140 barnes will shoot through most elk lengthwise..
the bullet here is the great equalizer, i would rather shoot your 260 with your bullet choice than any 7mag with a conventional non partition or non bonded bullet.
i think you should take your 260 IF you use that bullet.
it sounds like you like it and shoot it well, or at least better than a bigger caliber.
and i have killed my share of elk and have a great deal of respect for their will to live.
toughest creature pound for pound in north america if you hit one wrong, and sometimes even if you hit them right.
350 yards with that setup is a chip shot if you can shoot at all.
elk are big as you know and if you can hit a pie plate at that.bbrange with a field rest then you can hit an elk through the lungs no worries.
three inches high at a hundred and you can pull dead center .
stop fretting, your little 260 with that bullet will blow a hole out yonder side of the biggest bull ever sucked air.
how much more mountainside do you want to penetrate ?
If the 7mm Mag has a BDL stock on it. First thing to do is toss that. Get a CDL stock or any other straighter stock. Better pad on a BDL stock will not fix it's face slapping tendency. I like the Boyd's Sporter in Walnut. Am bored with laminate and it's heavier than walnut.
An even better solution, since you don't like the rifle enough to shoot it or take it hunting, is to take that Rem 700 into your local gun store. Trade it off on a new FN Winchester M70 in caliber of choice. Like 30-06 , that believe it or not recoils like a puppy in that rifle. I can shoot mine with full throttle 178 grain J bullet loads from prone and it doesn't hurt my shoulder. 7mm Mag and 30-06 are supposed to recoil about the same. Pick your poison. Another big deal is the fact you get a real safety that blocks the firing pin. Like your M77 has.
Personally though I'd not hesitate to use a 260 with 140 grain bullets like a Deep Curl or any of the bullets that hold together. My daughter took a 270 win Elk hunting this year with 140 grain Nosler Accu Bond. I'd of chosen a more solid bullet but that's splitting hairs and personal preference. Her husband shot his bull with a 7mm mag and the Berger VLD. IMHO there wouldn't be a nickels difference between a 260 and 7mm mag except the obvious range advantage of the 7mm mag. Difference between a 7mm mag and a 270 isn't worth burning the extra powder unless you are 1,000 yard match shooting. I'll take my 30-06 over any of them in part because it's a great cast boolit shooter. I read about all the stories in AR magazine by Finn Aagaard reminiscing his Kenyan plains shooting African game with a 6.5 x 55mm to question a 260's abilities. Peoples idea of what an idea bullet is varies.
My suggestion would be as you say. Practice with your 7mm mag and see what you can do with it.Start out with lighter bullets and loads and slowly work up and see if you can tolerate the recoil.I have fired so many heavy caliber rifles off the bench that I pretty much can ignore recoil. Although I never really liked shooting my .458 off the bench.
Proficiency with whatever you choose is important.So the bottom line is practice.
if you can shoot then the 260 will do if not. well I don't know of anything that will work. a guy I shoot with uses a 6mm Remington.
I can shoot the 260 quite well. But I like what Clay M said. I think I should first try shooting low end on my mag and working up and see if I can get used to the recoil.
you will never get used to recoil.
unless you change some things on the stock, pad, and or fit things are only going to get worse.
and shooting from a bench is the worst thing you can do actually, well next to prone that is.
if you want to use that 7 then either get a new pad put on, or a muzzle break and always wear hearing protection.
but you will never build your tolerance for pain by starting low and building up.
but this may be one of those things you will need to discover for yourself.
you will waste a lot of powder and lead, make your flinch even worse,, end up totally hating the 7mag and eventually wind up fixing the stock, or selling it and still end up using the 260.
but hey thats half the fun..
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