im looking into getting a new rifle for hunting out west, more specifically elk hunting and i was wondering if i could get some recommendations on a rifle that will be accurate at 1000 yards and still carry enough punch to take down an elk. I've looked a bit into the .300 win and wsm, .300 rum, .308, and the 6.5 grendel. What would you say is the best gun for this job? Thank you so much for your time.
Whats your budget? You will need to have at a minimum a Rifle, Scope, Rangefinder,wind meter, Ballistic calculator is nice to have but you can get by with out it if know your drops, I use an Ipod touch with SHOOTER. Caliber is personal preference but you want at least a Magnum 7mm, 30 cal or 338 (The 6.5s will do it but there is a little less room for error), that will give you over 1500 foot pounds or energy by the time the bullet gets to 1000 yards.
I have 3 rifles of them one is what I call my budget gun. It is a factory FN PBR in 300wsm. I had Kevin Cram do his accuracy package on it, install a muzzle brake and bed it to a used McMillan stock. I chose to use a scope and rings I had on hand. I paid 500$ for the barreled action, 300$ for the used stock, 500$ for the action package and muzzle break, shipping 120$. The scope I had is a Hours Vision Hawk 550$, and some Leupold Mk4 rings 120$. All together it comes in at a little over 2k, for a rifle and scope. The rifle its self will get the job done but the optic im running with my 200M zero will only get me to 980M with the load Im shooting. If I push my Zero out I can get more Elevation on my grid or If I drop my bullet weight. Now you need your other equipment like a range finder, wind meter and ballistic computer(if you have a smart phone you can down load an app) Range finders are not all cut from the same cloth I would suggest a Leica 1600 model.
If you want to hit the ground running your better off buying a turn key system used from another member here. There are a few for same that will get the job done and they come ready to shoot with all the load info. Just look in the guns for sale section. I know there is a nice 338 EDGE ready to go in there right now.