Are Elk easy to kill?

[D.Camilleri]

So far I have heard about a lot of kills with good hits from small to medium calibers. What about the hits that weren't so good? If you shoot any kind of range, sooner or later you will make a bad hit. Taking away poor bullet performance, a bad hit with a big 338 still put elk in my freezer several times. My bullets performed the way they should and a follow up shot took care of the rest, but the elk wasn't able to run off. Now I am not saying that real bad shots will result in recovered elk, like blowing off a leg, but a solid hit in the body with a big chunk of lead has usually resulted in a recovered animal. On the other hand, my friend shot his elk this year 7 times in the chest with a 7mag and is now looking for a 338. He was hunting in griz country. Bullet perfomance is paramount, but bigger hole in means bigger hole out. We are all in a quest for the perfect bullet and currently I shoot a 225 accubond @3300 and it seems to work well. I was less than impressed with 250 grain partitions on shoulder shots because the bullet damaged the shoulder but all that was left to enter the chest cavity was the shank with no pedals. The barnes x bullets worked well when they expanded, but I have had several that made pencil holes with no damage at all. So for me, a fast 338 with a good performing bullet that can penetrate deeply and instill lots of tissue damage and hydraulic shock will be my choice for big critters like elk. They can't be too dead, and I don't like chasing wounded animals. My vote goes right along with Elmer Keith! Oh an maybe because I grew up with my dad shooting a 338 win mag that he bought in 1958 due to lack luster performance out of his 06 on big mule deer.

 

[sp6x6]

I grew up hunting in the mountains of MT. Stared w/243 like lots of kids, mine included. Dad told me to head shot them. Son and I BOTH have taken nice bulls w/243. Been in on about pushing 100 elk pack out, at elk camp 30 years ago, as a kid,all the old timers too me ,guns lined up outside the sleep tent. 300 norma mag, 338 win, 340 WM,416WIN, 375,ETC. COULDNT wait to get a real gun, buy the time I was 20 I had a ELK gungun)

 

[WSlayman]

YES and NO.

If you hit them in the right spot, they will die like any other animal. They are not bullet proof.

If you do not hit them in a very good spot, they will take you to the deepest, thickest, darkest dam hole they can find.

I've shot elk with a few cartridges from 7 RM, 300 Win, 300 RUM, 338 EDGE from 200-915 yards. I"ve killed 10 elk in my 11 years of elk hunting and I would say that 75% of them dropped in there tracks with a good placed shoulder hit. If your using enough gun, a magnum, with the right bullet to get through the shoulders, there is no place for that elk to go but straight down with 2 broken shoulders. I dont care about meat loss, I care about putting my animal on the ground. A little bit of meat is better then no meat, famous words from my uncle who has shot over 25 bulls and I dont know how many elk.

I dont even go for heart/lung shots on elk because they never drop. They will still run aways and I dont like tracking. I want them DRT and if you use the right bullet, put it in the right spot, there really not that hard to kill.

Elk are also a VERY big target and offer VERY large vitals. I dont see how people cant precisely put a bullet in an elks vitals. Amazes me actually. A nice cow or spike will easily give you a 20" radius kill zone, a big bull is even bigger then that.

+1.....I couln't have said it any better

 

[Dr. Vette]

What a great thread.

I'm a newbie to this board, and only been elk hunting twice in Montana (I live in Michigan) in 2007 and 2009. However, I've been hunting whitetail here for over 30 years and am no stranger to firearms or hunting. I joined the board so that I could learn more about 200 to 500 yard shots and happened upon this thread.

My thoughts mirror those of many others here. Bullet placement, bullet selection and firearm familiarity mean much more than caliber. Before this year's hunt I spent plenty of time shooting my rifle to become familiar with its workings. In addition, I spent hours investigating the "best" bullet available to me in a factory load so that my shot would count. As luck would have it, my shot was a frontal shot at 35 yards so I got lucky, but the elk dropped to its knees and rolled down the hill. Objective achieved!

Thanks to all the posters so far for the education.

 

[sdkidaho]

I have shot plenty of Red Stags which are a bit smaller than Elk and found them easy to kill. A .243 would do OK.

I shot my first bull elk with a Browning lever action .243 of which I had used the same gun to kill my first antelope.

Shot placement is going to obviously be a determining factor, and of course a larger caliber bullet is going to have more knock-down power. I'm no expert but both animals were mature in size and each were equally as dead.

 

[sdkidaho]

These twig flippers have it right in that researching the animal a bit more is certainly beneficial to any hunter:

Elk Anatomy and Physiology - Elk Article #2

I think you can find some books that break down game animals visually to show where your best shot placement is. Craig Bodingtons books come to mind. THE PERFECT SHOT—NORTH AMERICA


Elk Anatomy:

 

[sdkidaho]

I"ve killed 10 elk in my 11 years of elk hunting and I would say that 75% of them dropped in there tracks with a good placed shoulder hit.

This is a fairly old thread when it first started so I'm not sure you'll even see this, but if you do, in the graphics above can you point out where it is you're making the shoulder hit? Maybe on the picture with the skeleton and the actual elk picture?

Just curious.

 

[Topshot]

From the pictures above they sure have a big target area of vitals.
Most of my hits on Reds are in the crease behind the front leg. Would take out some large arteries and lungs etc.
No recovery from a soild hit in that area, although they may run a short distance.

 

[D.Camilleri]

Bullet performance could still be the biggest determining factor of whether the elk drops or runs off. Small caliber bullets are still marginal in performance with the exception of the mono bullets like the tripple shock and e-tip. This year while hunting antelope, my hunting partner shot an antelope buck at about 125 yards with his T/C 243 with a hornady interbond bullet leaving the muzzle at about 3500 fps. The bullet hit the antelope behind the shoulder and the frontal area exploded on impact making a very large surface fleshwound with the remainder of the bullet only achieving marginal penetration after the bullet changed direction. The antelope ran far enough that it had a chance to lay down in the brush out of sight. When we jumped it it took off like it wasn't even hit. Bullet performance failed. That bullet wouldn't have had a chance of killing an elk.

 

[Dr. Vette]

These twig flippers have it right in that researching the animal a bit more is certainly beneficial to any hunter:

Elk Anatomy and Physiology - Elk Article #2

I think you can find some books that break down game animals visually to show where your best shot placement is. Craig Bodingtons books come to mind. THE PERFECT SHOT—NORTH AMERICA

I used these exact same pictures to prepare for elk hunting.

 

[Topshot]

Bullet performance could still be the biggest determining factor of whether the elk drops or runs off. Small caliber bullets are still marginal in performance with the exception of the mono bullets like the tripple shock and e-tip. This year while hunting antelope, my hunting partner shot an antelope buck at about 125 yards with his T/C 243 with a hornady interbond bullet leaving the muzzle at about 3500 fps. The bullet hit the antelope behind the shoulder and the frontal area exploded on impact making a very large surface fleshwound with the remainder of the bullet only achieving marginal penetration after the bullet changed direction. The antelope ran far enough that it had a chance to lay down in the brush out of sight. When we jumped it it took off like it wasn't even hit. Bullet performance failed. That bullet wouldn't have had a chance of killing an elk.

A .243 bullet at 3500 fps? must have been a light bullet anyway.

A 100 grain Sierra Game King bullet, out of a .243 at 3000 fps penetrates just fine.

 

[Dr. Vette]

T/C 243 with a hornady interbond bullet leaving the muzzle at about 3500 fps. The bullet hit the antelope behind the shoulder and the frontal area exploded on impact making a very large surface fleshwound with the remainder of the bullet only achieving marginal penetration after the bullet changed direction. The antelope ran far enough that it had a chance to lay down in the brush out of sight. When we jumped it it took off like it wasn't even hit. Bullet performance failed. That bullet wouldn't have had a chance of killing an elk.

I used the Hornady InterBond 154 grain in my 7mm Weatherby Magnum this fall, and factory loaded they quote 3200 fps. Struck the elk head on and penetrated all the way back to the left flank - not at all a short distance. Elk immediately went to its knees and it was all over.

FYI, the Interlock bullet from Hornady has stories out there more similar to what you describe; are you sure it was the InterBond? Just asking, that's all.

 

[bigngreen]

Bullet performance could still be the biggest determining factor of whether the elk drops or runs off. Small caliber bullets are still marginal in performance with the exception of the mono bullets like the tripple shock and e-tip. This year while hunting antelope, my hunting partner shot an antelope buck at about 125 yards with his T/C 243 with a hornady interbond bullet leaving the muzzle at about 3500 fps. The bullet hit the antelope behind the shoulder and the frontal area exploded on impact making a very large surface fleshwound with the remainder of the bullet only achieving marginal penetration after the bullet changed direction. The antelope ran far enough that it had a chance to lay down in the brush out of sight. When we jumped it it took off like it wasn't even hit. Bullet performance failed. That bullet wouldn't have had a chance of killing an elk.

A guy I work with shoots a 243 for nearly everything and his go to bullet is the 105 Berger, the only thing he has shot that did not have an exit was his 300 class bull this year, with the bull it penetrated the shoulder and trashed a 8-10in section of spine and the jacket was under the off shoulder. He hunts with a whole group of guys that are mid to long range hunters and the only bullet you'll find being shot is a Berger and the largest cal will be a 300WSM and they take a lot of bulls every year, but they usually max out at about 800-850 yrds.
One thing that we do with every bullet is we shoot water jugs and packed paper, perfect no but it does give a guy an idea of how the bullet will react.

 

[bigngreen]

Here's a pic that may be easier to edit. I am interested in where you shoulder shot guys place your shots, the ones that DRT and elk with no flopping. This is close to how the shoulder and upper leg bones are when standing.