Best elk bullet of all time. What say you?

They're gone from Nosler's to do list these days but, 165 gr Failsafe, those little black bastards. They'll even work in an ought 6, just way less tracking when they're out front on a Remington 300 ultra mag and 95 er so gr Retumbo.

180 gr Nosler Partition pushed by 80 grains of H4831 out of my Mark V .300 Bee. My go-to for over 40 yrs; has never let me down, so why change.

Bull in a hole we go into when its windy and knarly, shot at about 20 paces, you can see how far he made it out of his bed at the shot.


No broadside, standing shot here either. Had a perfect wind so played a little and had the lead cow 4 feet off my gun barrel on video. Maybe I'm not doing it right.



Little bunch bedded up during muzzle loader season. The little dot on the righ hand side of the grassy ridge in my buddy 75 yards from the closet cow. He had to wait for them for standing and brabroadside.

Nice bull, spent a half hour dry firing on him, broadside and standing still. Lucky for him I was after muley bucks.

Well I have made a lot of shots over the years. I also pass up lots of shots, because they were not at a very good angle of with other animal around them. Once I missed judge the gate of an elk and hit back some in the edge of the gugs, and not really hitting anything to put it down. Thid 5 point was in herd of about 50 elk. Had my work cut out for me to get a clear shot at the same time. The elk were turning 180 degrees back and forth. I had to acquire the elk and shoot again. At that time I was or felt I was being push to make the 2nd shot, because of a wound elk now. Pick it out at the same time, and try to not shoot with an animal behind it. Well I drop the elk, but at the same I hit a cow in the hip, and it went down. I didn't see it either. It was another hunter the brough my attention to the cow. There several people in the camp I was with at, that had cow tags. So I knew there wasn't going to be any problem in getting that cow collected, and tagged. All this was in about 100yds. So it was a close shot to me.
I never had a place I could just sit and wait for elk to bedded down and watch them. So most of my hunting in the USA for large animals has been on National Forest or BLM land. I have been packed in once, hunted on my own. Africa Guided hunt twices.
So about covers it. Never did hear back about what twist rate Southpa is using with that 300gr bullet.

I have used a variety of bullets to kill elk. Berger, Eldm, eldx, Accubond, Accubond LR, Barnes LRX. My honest assessment is that I find "comfort" in certain bullets for certain reasons, and feel hesitancy for certain bullets in specific circumstances:

If I had a bull at 1100 yards, no wind. I would be ready to drop that boy with an eldm. But I would not feel confident with an Accubond or Barnes, from a long range accuracy and performance standpoint.

If that same bull was 40 yards quartered to in the timber I feel much better about that Accubond and Barnes and really worried about the ELDM being able to do the job.

That leaves me with 3 bullets that I find a compromise with: eldx, Berger (all flavors), Accubond LR. I have killed something with each at both long and close range.

BUT, the Accubond LR sucks from a consistency standpoint as far as how well it shoots for me
AND the Bergers have given me a handful of failures to open both close and far which I have been lucky enough to have follow up shot opportunities that opened, but still left me lacking complete confidence.

That has left me with the ELDX as my favorite compromise bullet. It takes more tuning to get the accuracy and consistency than some others, but I can always get it shooting tight, and the terminal performance is predictable far and close. I know what I'm going to get. It will hold together enough at close range and it will be precise and open and kill at long range. I have been using the .338 270 gr eldx the past few seasons and it's been great.

I want to try Sierra tipped game kings and Norma bondstrikes too, but need to buy more rifles to do so

The Nosler B.T. have worked the best for me. Pushing velocities, and taking down game. I have felt they worked better than the AcBons
I am looking at Barnes all copper bullets for my 25/280AI rifle that's being built. If they open up like is shown in the pictures, they have me sold. Provided they group!

Hard to say…there are so many and several work just fine.

If I had to pick one, I would probably pick a Nosler Accubond.

I haven't used one yet on elk, but Hornady's ELD-X looks pretty good too.

I generally use a 180 grain, .30 cal bullet on elk.

swift A-frame is the ultimate elk bullet

Have killed bulls with the Nosler Accu bond, the Nosler Partition , the Sierra Matchking and the 100 grain G5 Montec. Accurate bullet placement is the key to these big tough animals.

I shot a lot of animals including 8 or 9 bulls with a 180 BT out of a 300 Jarrett. It was very effective and created a large wound channel. My goto now is the 215 Hybrid in 30 cal.

Mike Matteson said:

Well I have made a lot of shots over the years. I also pass up lots of shots, because they were not at a very good angle of with other animal around them. Once I missed judge the gate of an elk and hit back some in the edge of the gugs, and not really hitting anything to put it down. Thid 5 point was in herd of about 50 elk. Had my work cut out for me to get a clear shot at the same time. The elk were turning 180 degrees back and forth. I had to acquire the elk and shoot again. At that time I was or felt I was being push to make the 2nd shot, because of a wound elk now. Pick it out at the same time, and try to not shoot with an animal behind it. Well I drop the elk, but at the same I hit a cow in the hip, and it went down. I didn't see it either. It was another hunter the brough my attention to the cow. There several people in the camp I was with at, that had cow tags. So I knew there wasn't going to be any problem in getting that cow collected, and tagged. All this was in about 100yds. So it was a close shot to me.
I never had a place I could just sit and wait for elk to bedded down and watch them. So most of my hunting in the USA for large animals has been on National Forest or BLM land. I have been packed in once, hunted on my own. Africa Guided hunt twices.
So about covers it. Never did hear back about what twist rate Southpa is using with that 300gr bullet.

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I never said I used a 300 grain bullet. I stated my preference many pages ago

But as with most on this forum, I have purpose built rifles. So the proper twist to stabilize any bullet of choice is just a safe combination away. And if it isn't, than that can be mitigated extremely easy with a phone call and a quick turn around time.

You said you couldn't ever understand why anyone would use one. But you answered your own question regarding it. They have a true advantage over smaller lighter bullets. Does it matter to some? No, but it matters to others because of the obvious.

The voice of reason.

bigngreen said:

Bull in a hole we go into when its windy and knarly, shot at about 20 paces, you can see how far he made it out of his bed at the shot.
View attachment 768963

No broadside, standing shot here either. Had a perfect wind so played a little and had the lead cow 4 feet off my gun barrel on video. Maybe I'm not doing it right.

View attachment 768964

Little bunch bedded up during muzzle loader season. The little dot on the righ hand side of the grassy ridge in my buddy 75 yards from the closet cow. He had to wait for them for standing and brabroadside.View attachment 768967

Nice bull, spent a half hour dry firing on him, broadside and standing still. Lucky for him I was after muley bucks.

View attachment 768969

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what bullet/caliber for 20 pace elk

Generally I hold my shots to 500yds. Don't need nor plan to use a 300gr bullet. I'll take my velocities to help to keep me straight. If it's windy, them I reduces my range. Shot placement is the most important part of shooting an animal. Very seldon, I have to make a second shot on an animal. I use lighten triggers in my rifles, so it doesn't take to set them off. Better control of my rifle at the same time.

Sculpin said:

what bullet/caliber for 20 pace elk

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270 WSM and 140 Berger at the neck shoulder junction.