Elk calibers

[Gunner3456]

Jack O'Connor, the world-over big game hunter, author and long-time rifle editor for Outdoor Life magazine wrote that the first Grizzly bear he shot with a .270 Win hit the ground so hard it bounced.

 

[Buano]

Yes, Jack O'Connor was a fan of the .270 for almost any game. In his day it was one of the highest velocity rounds commonly available. If he were alive today he would likely hunt with a 7mm RUM for the same reason he liked the .270. He was a fan of high velocity as that lessoned error due to range estimation — and he hunted open country before laser rangefinders.

 

[Gunner3456]

Yes, Jack O'Connor was a fan of the .270 for almost any game. In his day it was one of the highest velocity rounds commonly available. If he were alive today he would likely hunt with a 7mm RUM for the same reason he liked the .270. He was a fan of high velocity as that lessoned error due to range estimation — and he hunted open country before laser rangefinders.

I believe that what he was mostly a fan of was the ballistic coefficient and cross sectional density in addition to the velocity of the .270 Win. 7mm's can't compete on the first two.

I wonder if evolution has brought the grizzly to a point that he couldn't now kill one with that same 270?

 

[tomcat]

i shoot a 338 win mag...

 

[Gunner3456]

i shoot a 338 win mag...

That's a great varmint caliber. Below is a pic of a good deer gun. What would you shoot an
elk with?

 

[Grizzly_A]

I've seen a Deer dropped with a 10/22.

Is that because you were looking through the scope? or were watching someone else use an illegal caliber....

These are TOUGH animals! The moral of this story: Shot placement matters but having enough gun matters too. If my first shot had been 4-5" farther forward, I would have simply wounded, and wasted, an animal. I don't believe in letting wounded animals go off & die from infection 2 weeks later.

I wish bow hunters felt the same way...seems like the more bow hunters for elk I talk to they say..."yeah, I shot a huge bull at 35yds, but I lost it in the brush...so I kept hunting and got another one...but I lost it too." Man that makes me mad when we stumble across an arrow, bones, and a great rack.

To contribute, in our family the 300 Savage, 30-06, 280, and now the 338 win mag all get hunt time. If we're feeling wimpy we grab the 300 or the 280, but if we're feeling manly we bring out the 338.

 

[Gunner3456]

I wish bow hunters felt the same way...seems like the more bow hunters for elk I talk to they say..."yeah, I shot a huge bull at 35yds, but I lost it in the brush...so I kept hunting and got another one...but I lost it too." Man that makes me mad when we stumble across an arrow, bones, and a great rack.

No kidding. We have wild turkeys and deer on our property almost every day. Last fall a 12 year old neighbor boy down the road was legally hunting turkeys with a bow. He hit one and just broke its leg. That turkey was around here for about a week with one broken leg flopping, hopping and half flying. After about a week it disappeared.

I couldn't decide whether to illegally shoot it or just let it die. It was really sad.

 

[therifleman]

300 ultra mag works like a charm at all ranges to 1000 yds using 180 accubond at 3300 fps and I even got my whitetail with it at 284 yds this year. I promis you you wont have to track the animal if you get a good shot placement

 

[jkraig]

My father and I have always used a .270 for hunting Elk in Colorado, and thats what I use here in Oregon.

 

[RangerSnuffy]

Haha! I just had an article accepted on this very subject today! According to Craig Boddington and several other authorities, elk calibers start at .30cal and go up to the .35s. He also points out that lots of elk are killed with .270s and 7mm. My article stated that .30-06 was the best all-around elk cartridge, based on my experiences as an elk hunting guide. It's plenty potent, and you can ALWAYS find ammunition in that caliber.

 

[Gunner3456]

Haha! I just had an article accepted on this very subject today! According to Craig Boddington and several other authorities, elk calibers start at .30cal and go up to the .35s. He also points out that lots of elk are killed with .270s and 7mm. My article stated that .30-06 was the best all-around elk cartridge, based on my experiences as an elk hunting guide. It's plenty potent, and you can ALWAYS find ammunition in that caliber.

Congratulations!

A couple of points? We saw NO 30-06 ammo anywhere in E. Oregon this year, so "always" doesn't always apply. I "always" take lots of .270 ammo and I roll my own so that's not an issue here. I think I have a lifetime supply, tuned to my rifle.

I have never been able to discern a difference between a good shot (placement) with a .270 Win, a 7mm mag or an .06. Ballistics show that a .270 has more retained energy at distances greater than 300 yards than does an .06 due to cross sectional density and ballistic co-efficient.

While the .270 Win is a flatter shooter than an .06, I believe that both are great cartridges.

$.02

 

[orygun]

Congratulations!

A couple of points? We saw NO 30-06 ammo anywhere in E. Oregon this year, so "always" doesn't always apply. I "always" take lots of .270 ammo and I roll my own so that's not an issue here. I think I have a lifetime supply, tuned to my rifle.

I have never been able to discern a difference between a good shot (placement) with a .270 Win, a 7mm mag or an .06. Ballistics show that a .270 has more retained energy at distances greater than 300 yards than does an .06 due to cross sectional density and ballistic co-efficient.

While the .270 Win is a flatter shooter than an .06, I believe that both are great cartridges.

$.02

Baker Bi-mart had several boxes of 06 last week.

Not to mention, several 1000 round boxes of primers of two brands of all sizes. But they still had the ration sign just like here in the Metro area. Darn!

 

[Gunner3456]

Baker Bi-mart had several boxes of 06 last week.

Not to mention, several 1000 round boxes of primers of two brands of all sizes. But they still had the ration sign just like here in the Metro area. Darn!

Well, I wasn't in Baker last week, darn it.

 

[JC9995]

Congratulations!

A couple of points? We saw NO 30-06 ammo anywhere in E. Oregon this year, so "always" doesn't always apply. I "always" take lots of .270 ammo and I roll my own so that's not an issue here. I think I have a lifetime supply, tuned to my rifle.

I have never been able to discern a difference between a good shot (placement) with a .270 Win, a 7mm mag or an .06. Ballistics show that a .270 has more retained energy at distances greater than 300 yards than does an .06 due to cross sectional density and ballistic co-efficient.

While the .270 Win is a flatter shooter than an .06, I believe that both are great cartridges.

$.02

Gunner, Your my kind of guy. I am absolutely in love with my .270. I get a lot of flack from my 7mm mag buddies for having a "Girl Gun"..... but my harvest record VS. theirs, AS WELL as paper, says that maybe they should rethink their ill-distributed snickers.

 

[orygun]

I have never been able to discern a difference between a good shot (placement) with a .270 Win, a 7mm mag or an .06. Ballistics show that a .270 has more retained energy at distances greater than 300 yards than does an .06 due to cross sectional density and ballistic co-efficient.

I agree with this statement, but I've always wanted to give the .280 Ackley Improved a whirl. And the .270. and the .300 Win Mag, and the 7mm......

I want to try them all!

I also "roll my own" and always take much more than I might possibly use.

 

[Gunner3456]

I agree with this statement, but I've always wanted to give the .280 Ackley Improved a whirl. And the .270. and the .300 Win Mag, and the 7mm......

I want to try them all!

I also "roll my own" and always take much more than I might possibly use.

The lowly .270 Win has the best cross sectional density and ballistic coefficient of all of the above including the 7mm mag and retains more energy at distance. All you get out of a 7mm mag for instance is more noise and kick.

Imho since the .270 has little kick, the average person will shoot it better. Good shot placement is always the key, and when that's true a .270 Win will kill anything in N. America.

I saw most of the meat completely ruined on a deer with a poor shot from a 300 Win Mag and we still had to finish the deer off with a head shot after we walked up to it. I've seen Rocky Mountain elk drop in their tracks with a well placed shot from a .270 at 400 yards...

$.02

 

[orygun]

The lowly .270 Win has the best cross sectional density and ballistic coefficient of all of the above including the 7mm mag and retains more energy at distance. All you get out of a 7mm mag for instance is more noise and kick.

Imho since the .270 has little kick, the average person will shoot it better. Good shot placement is always the key, and when that's true a .270 Win will kill anything in N. America.

Lowly 270? As far as I know and what the people I hang with feel, there's NOTHING lowly about this caliber.

Oh! It's not a magnum? Whatever.......

 

[the4thshake]

I just looked at some ballistic charts and they seem to dissagree with the above comments about the .270 retaining more energy at longer ranges. The comments hold true only if you use bullets of the same weight. When you use a perportionatly heavier bullet in the bigger caliber, the bigger caliber retains more energy.

 

[Gunner3456]

I just looked at some ballistic charts and they seem to dissagree with the above comments about the .270 retaining more energy at longer ranges. The comments hold true only if you use bullets of the same weight. When you use a perportionatly heavier bullet in the bigger caliber, the bigger caliber retains more energy.

Please give me a link to a reputable chart which shows that a 7mm mag retains more energy than a .270 Win at 500 yards with a bullet that has the same or less drop at that distance. Please show both the 130gr and 150gr bullet for the .270.

Thanks.

 

[the4thshake]

I was refering to the 30-06 in perticular. The 7mm mag shoots flatter and has more energy then the .270 even with similar weight bullets.

Here Federals ballistic catalog. After you download it you can compare all sorts of loads and it will show you a graph.

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