I also shoot a a-bolt stalker in 300 win mag and use the hornady 190 bt with 72 gr. mrp powder. Shoots better than anything else in this gun.Could not get barnes x to shoot worth a sxxx in my browning. I use this same load for deer and elk. DEAD IS DEAD !

 

Wow, you just opened up a three year old post. That's cool though, it's been almost that long since I've visited here. Time to catch up now, btw, I'm still an /06 fan but that shoulder fired canon your using is a killing machine.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

 

If you're handloading, I've seen some great results with the Nosler Accubond. In that '06 any good 150 grain pill will work on an elk if you do your part. The partition bullets are good insurance for penetration and weight retention. The Accubonds hold together very well too.

Most importantly, know your rifle and what you can do with it. A couple buddies of mine just put down a pair of bull elk at 478 yards with 140 grain accubond bullets in a 270 Winchester and a 280 Remington. They know how to shoot, one shot kills. Elk and deer don't read gun magazines or carry around ballistics charts, you put one in the engine room and they are going down.

SR

 

Yes I have heard the accu bond is a great bullet, but I have not tried them. My work buddy shoots an stw with barnes x on elk and loves them.Ihave used the green tip nosler and really liked them on deer, man they blow a big hole and are very accurate.

 

.338 w/ 230 grain Winchester Fail-Safe

I've seen too many 150 - 165 grain loads fail on elk to ever recommend anything smaller than 180 grains. And don't give me this "put them in the boiler room and they'll go down" garbage. You obviously haven't hunted long enough for elk or shot enough of them to have learned that its just not worth the risk to carry around a little peashooter. Even expert marksman can make a marginal shot when you put them on the side of a mountain, run them 4 miles, dump snow down their back and into their rifle/scope, make them climb for hours through blowdowns and then get a .5 second shot opportunity at a bull that just jumped up out of a bed and is looking for an immediate escape route.

Go big or regret it.... At the very least, do it for your hunting partners who didn't spend thousands of dollars and drive hundreds of miles to come out and track a wounded elk instead of hunt.

 

Okay you must have a lot of elk in minnesota. Way more than we have right here in the Montana rockies, so I guess that makes you an expert. If you take a .5 second shot with a bunch of snow in your scope and figure shooting a 50 BMG is going to make up for it, you're a hack. I've knocked them down just fine with my 270 and many of my acquaintances take their elk with "pea shooters". If you have to take a bad shot and just hope to blow the whole back end of it off to anchor it, get a new hobby.

 

ROFL....good point Shady

 

Actually we do have native, wild in elk in Minnesota. Surprised you didn't know that....

But I do my elk hunting in Montana. Beautiful state and I always look forward to coming out there. But I also don't spend $650 on a tag and drive 18 hours just to walk around out there undergunned. I never said a peashooter like a .270 can't kill an elk! Heck, a .22 can kill an elk with a well placed shot.

I'm talking about the LESS THAN WELL PLACED SHOT. Which have a tendency to occur during true hunting conditions. No one can guarantee a perfect shot everytime. If you hunt long enough, you're going to experience the risk in carrying around deer rifles for elk. Once you trail some of these wounded critters around Montana for days you'll understand that its better to have something that will penetrate anything and get into the vitals everytime than something that will only do that on a perfect shot.

I respect elk (and their size and cunning) too much to ever risk injuring one with a peashooter.

BTW, hit any elk this year?

 

Why is a .270 a peashooter? I bet there are plenty of hunters to say that a .270 is enough rifle for alot of North American game. If your reasoning is correct, then why not hunt deer with a 50 cal BMG?

 

Elk are large, tough animals. People don't appreciate how large and strong these things are until they watch a guy unload on one with a 7mm only to see it saunter off. They stare at their gun inexplicably trying to figure out what went wrong. Then you get to where the elk was standing, notice blood, follow the blood trail and find a dead elk. 3 shots to the vitals and the elk wasn't even phased.

Why is the .270 a peashooter? A 7mm has nearly 1000 ft. lbs more energy than a .270 at 200 yards....

This is an age old debate and people get pretty hot under the collar when you question there cartridge choice for elk. People like ShadyRascal aren't going to be swayed by any of my arguments. And to be honest, he's free to use whatever cartridge he wants.

I chose a .338 because it's designed to be used on elk-sized game.