The BEST way to kill Elk

[Sako7STW]

Does anyone have some pictures of a skinned elk shot in the way that Hammerhand describes above? I would like to see the blood shot damage and the wound channel. Maybe he is right and there isn't as much damage as I have seen. Would just like to see it. A picture speaks a thousand words right?

 

[Browninglover1]

Here are some pictures of a yearling calf shot through the shoulders with a 185 grain Berger from a 300 WSM at 412 yards.

Here's the entrance wound. Note: her leg was actually broken at the knee joint and you can see the bruised meat from that injury on the lower portion of her leg starting where the leg bends.



This exit wound picture looks much bloodier than it actually was. We stripped the meat off and put it in a bucket of salt water overnight and only lost a big handful of it. Maybe that handful would be too much for some people but for this particular animal having her die right where she stood was worth losing just a little bit off her front shoulder.

 

[WildRose]

I've found that except for the very worst bloodshot meat soaking it overnight in salt water takes care of the problem completely.

If one is more concerned about losing under 3lbs of meat than they are losing the entire animal they need to reconsider their priorities.

 

[royinidaho]

So, I've learned that OP means Original Poster. I'll remember that

I've also decided that any shot I will take on an elk of any size, make or form will place either a 300 gr Berger or 350 SMK in at least one shoulder, depending on angle, a little higher than lower.

I'll leave the puny 270 AM at home and will be carrying/ambushing w/the 338 RUM or shooting the 375 AM from a hide. Done deal! If I have the proper tag for the gender that shows up.

 

[bigngreen]

Soaking meat to get rid of blood shot is how you get lead in your meat!!! You need to cut out the blood shot in the meat, the blood shot in the seams can easily be removed and is not caused by direct bullet trauma so no lead.

Shoulder shot average min of 8lbs of meat lose per hole, the average bull has 42lbs of meat on both shoulder that's just under half of the total weight of trim you'll have.

 

[brentc]

I often times base my aiming point to hit the opposite shoulder.

If that means that the facing shoulder is forward it's a behind the shoulder shot on the facing side, and the bullet travels through vitals to hit the opposite shoulder. This, along with a quartering away shot is my favorite position for a shot because it fully exposes the vitals and bone structure on the opposite shoulder. It also provides an effective bullet path as the bullet travels through the animal.

If the facing shoulder is straight down, it usually means the opposite shoulder is straight down and in this case I will put a bullet straight through the point of the facing shoulder.

If the facing shoulder is back, I will aim slightly forward of the shoulder point to angle the shot towards the opposite shoulder.

The opposite shoulder is a technique that has always worked for me.

 

[WildRose]

Soaking meat to get rid of blood shot is how you get lead in your meat!!! You need to cut out the blood shot in the meat, the blood shot in the seams can easily be removed and is not caused by direct bullet trauma so no lead.

Shoulder shot average min of 8lbs of meat lose per hole, the average bull has 42lbs of meat on both shoulder that's just under half of the total weight of trim you'll have.

Lead is not water soluble.

 

[NONYA]

Soaking meat to get rid of blood shot is how you get lead in your meat!!! You need to cut out the blood shot in the meat, the blood shot in the seams can easily be removed and is not caused by direct bullet trauma so no lead.

Shoulder shot average min of 8lbs of meat lose per hole, the average bull has 42lbs of meat on both shoulder that's just under half of the total weight of trim you'll have.

Gonna be tough to do when I have no lead in my bullets...42lbs,before or after you throw away all the grissle and crap?Must be one hell of an elk,Ive never got more than maybe 20 lbs of usable meat off the front end.

 

[bigngreen]

Gonna be tough to do when I have no lead in my bullets...42lbs,before or after you throw away all the grissle and crap?Must be one hell of an elk,Ive never got more than maybe 20 lbs of usable meat off the front end.

Your right a Barnes fairly well just blows a hole through but a jacketed lead bullet as it frags sends bits everywhere, if you follow the little shoots of blood shot into the meat a lot of times you'll find little bits of lead or jacket that's why a guy should cut out meat till the dark streaks are gone. I used to shoot 100% Barnes bullets strictly because how good they are for meat but I prefer to put elk down dead and not looking for elk that should be dead!

Not one hell of an elk, but a decent sized 6 point. That's the total meat in the lug after boning the shoulders out. A good sized cow will run about 32 lbs of meat. I used to have all the numbers down but it's been a while since I was cutting a few hundred a year but those are good weight cause I double checked this week with a bull and couple cows. A good grinder goes a long ways to getting the yield a guy should, the Cabelas grinder is worth its weight in gold, it won't touch a 10hp 52 but it's dang good for the home guy, I timed it last night in case your interested my 1.5 hp Cabelas will coarse grind an average elk in 8 min and fine grind in 35min, that's 112 lbs of burger which is average.

 

[bowhunter42]

I would like to chime in on this subject sense I just witnessed what a high shoulder shot can and will do. My girlfriend, who just started shooting this last march and hunting this october Killed her first animal ever and it was a spike at 371 yards this last saturday. she is shooting a 270 with 140 grain Nosler AB's I told her to put the round right square in the center of his shoulder and I would back her up with my 300. at the shot the spike dropped in his tracks which left me open to shooting at a six point that was bedded behind the spike. after the smoke had cleared and the herd had ran off,she turned to me and said let me guess I missed, I started laughing and said nope you dropped him right in his tracks. she looked thru her scope and that is when she started screaming and shaking like a leaf. I was amazed at how well that 270 had dispatched that elk, it broke the shoulder and the spine and made her year. I don't think her feet touched the ground for 2 days and the smile has not left her face. as for the six point I tried to take a neck shot, only shot I had, But it was a clean miss.

 

[bigngreen]

The Accubomb seems to put them down hard, I shot a few with the 140 out of my 270 WSM and it would hit hard, hit one cow in the spine just back from the shoulder blade and she was blood shot from the front of her pelvis down her sides and up under the shoulder blades, it was just a little to much for me gun)
It's fun to walk up their to make sure there is no blood and the shooters bumming out till they see a piled up elk, I have a hard time keeping a straight face

 

[bowhunter42]

I popped a cow in montana back in october,I was using the 185 Berger Vld, the round hit dead center of the shoulder, the elk took the round turned left and fell over a log. after quartering her and hanging her in a tree I was able to see the damage the Berger's do, the shoulder blade was shattered and the chest cavity was jelly. I will take a dead elk over one I have to track any day of the week

 

[pyroducksx3]

For the people that agree with the shoulder shot- would you take this shot with bergers and is there a point ( loss of velocity ) when you wouldn't?

 

[HAMMERHAND]

Your right a Barnes fairly well just blows a hole through but a jacketed lead bullet as it frags sends bits everywhere, if you follow the little shoots of blood shot into the meat a lot of times you'll find little bits of lead or jacket that's why a guy should cut out meat till the dark streaks are gone. I used to shoot 100% Barnes bullets strictly because how good they are for meat but I prefer to put elk down dead and not looking for elk that should be dead!

Not one hell of an elk, but a decent sized 6 point. That's the total meat in the lug after boning the shoulders out. A good sized cow will run about 32 lbs of meat. I used to have all the numbers down but it's been a while since I was cutting a few hundred a year but those are good weight cause I double checked this week with a bull and couple cows. A good grinder goes a long ways to getting the yield a guy should, the Cabelas grinder is worth its weight in gold, it won't touch a 10hp 52 but it's dang good for the home guy, I timed it last night in case your interested my 1.5 hp Cabelas will coarse grind an average elk in 8 min and fine grind in 35min, that's 112 lbs of burger which is average.

An average small bull elk or a cow should be yielding you about 160 pounds of boneless trimmed meat for what you'd expect to pay a butcher to do it. An old 10 or 11 age bull almost 200 pounds. You can cut 15 more pounds off of this figure in intermuscle sheen, silver sheen, arteries, and other garbage that I trim out of my meat when I butcher it. I use the cabelas meat lugs, and filled nearly to the top they weigh 10 pounds each filled with trimmed meat ready for the grinder. I get between 2 and 3 (20 and 30 pounds) of trim meat (NO fat, silver sheen, tendon, muscle sheen, etc.) off of the front quarters of an elk (without the brisket, plate, and skirt) There is no butcher man in the world that will take the time to treat this meat the way that I can because it would be too time consuming. I also don't mess with the meat below the knee joint on any animal. It is just too sinewy, too hard on the grinder, and too terrible to eat after it is frozen. Every butcher man I know bones that out and throws it right into the burger or sausage pile.
So: Anybody that bones out below the knee joint will be getting about 8 more pounds of meat (sounds like what you're getting from your recollection).

The picture shown back a few posts ago is exactly what happens when you use a bullet that is not designed for bone to shoot through bone. All of that meat is garbage...I wouldn't soak or grind any of it, I would cut it out. It is full of bone and lead chunks. Also it is not a shoulder shot, it is a leg shot. I will say it again. HIGH on the animal is the shoulder. Specifically the shoulder blade where it meets the spine. No animal on earth takes a step after you shoot THROUGH that. Again, right at that spot you have the tip of a blade roast which is sinewy connective tissue, which is cut out anyway. You may bruise a few ounces of loin meat with a barnes, but I would say the over all meat wastage is less than 1 pound total with an instant kill.

I do stew meat and grind on all the front shoulder meat, some cuts of neck meat, meat between the ribs, brisket, and plate meat. After I finish stripping the silverskin off the meat with an ulu or fillet knife there aren't any steaks there. The rear quarter provides me with all the steaks & roasts, and about another 20 pounds of grind meat. I have an LEM 3/4 horse grinder which goes slow enough that I can stuff sausage casings with it, but goes fast enough to make quick work of an elk. I don't grind too much of the elk meat because its too delicious to just burger up.

All arguments aside meat loss or no meat loss....my method kills them instantly doing the best for the animal IMO.