.308 for elk

[roosiebull]

I shoot an 18.5" barrel 308 with either 200gr NP or 165gr GMX depending on what I'm chasing. It would be awfully hard to go back to a long barrel again. I've never enjoyed shooting critters at long range and this is a great set up for 400 and under.

My buddy has an 18” .308, and I watched him put a nice, neat 3 shot group right in the pocket of a bull at just shy of 400yds, 2 bullets exited and the offside hide caught one… I was pretty impressed with that.

I’m plotting on a 308 myself right now, there is still a lot to like about that cartridge… I always kinda wrote it off as boring, but I don’t think there is a better cartridge for the rifle hunting I do, recoil is mellow, you can have a true lightweight rifle that doesn’t beat you up shooting it, tons of 308 on the ammo shelves (which is about all that’s on the shelves)

I hunt Blacktail, bear and lions with a rifle, and completely accept the range limitations of that cartridge…

I feel like I must be getting old… up until recently, the cartridge missing in my safe was a 257wby, now I want a 308, haha. I guess if butterscotch hard candy are ever in my grocery bag I’ll know for sure

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Love my .308. Last year preparing for my first elk hunt I was able to shoot 2" groups at 200 yards with Federal 175 grain Terminal Ascent. 2-2.5" with Federal 180 grain Trophy Bonded Tips. I killed my elk at 80 yards with one 175 TA through both lungs. He dropped to his front knees, stood back up, turned around, and folded 50 yards later. Shot was steep down angle off a sheer cliff face and bullet entered high on near lung and exited mid-low chest on far lung.

 

[rclouse79]

Without reading any of the posts, I can give an accurate description of what you will find based on the hundreds of other similar posts.
60%- Just pick the gun you shoot best with. It is on the low end, but if you put it in the boiler room it will do the job.
20%- They are a big tough animal and anything less than a 300 win mag offends my delicate sensibilities.
10%- That will definitely get the job done. I killed over twenty elk with a 243.
10%- I am here to argue with other nerds about trajectories, kinetic energy, and ballistic coefficients without giving the original poster any useful information.
The admins have my permission cut and paste my summary above and then lock these threads.

 

[MeatMissile]

People will say a 300 magnum is a 500 yard elk cartridge. You get almost no argument from anyone if you make that claim. But then people will say the 308 isn’t adequate. Same bullet, folks! If you look at the impact velocity at 500 from a 300 Win Mag, and find that same impact velocity with the same bullet on a 308 ballistics chart, you’ll know right away that a 308 is an “elk cartridge” to 350 yards if the 300 is a 500 yard elk cartridge.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

FWIW, Federal alone has 10 different .308 offerings they designate for big game hunting from 150-180 grains. They all have an elk on the box, so....

In addition, according to the Federal engineer I talked to, the old fashioned 180 grain power shok (blue box) is "perfectly capable of killing elk out to 300 yards". That makes 11 chamberings from one manufacturer alone.

 

[Jbehredt]

My buddy has an 18” .308, and I watched him put a nice, neat 3 shot group right in the pocket of a bull at just shy of 400yds, 2 bullets exited and the offside hide caught one… I was pretty impressed with that.

I’m plotting on a 308 myself right now, there is still a lot to like about that cartridge… I always kinda wrote it off as boring, but I don’t think there is a better cartridge for the rifle hunting I do, recoil is mellow, you can have a true lightweight rifle that doesn’t beat you up shooting it, tons of 308 on the ammo shelves (which is about all that’s on the shelves)

I hunt Blacktail, bear and lions with a rifle, and completely accept the range limitations of that cartridge…

I feel like I must be getting old… up until recently, the cartridge missing in my safe was a 257wby, now I want a 308, haha. I guess if butterscotch hard candy are ever in my grocery bag I’ll know for sure

Damn. Got my mouth watering thinking about a pocket candy, as my Grandpa called them.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Without reading any of the posts, I can give an accurate description of what you will find based on the hundreds of other similar posts.
60%- Just pick the gun you shoot best with. It is on the low end, but if you put it in the boiler room it will do the job.
20%- They are a big tough animal and anything less than a 300 win mag offends my delicate sensibilities.
10%- That will definitely get the job done. I killed over twenty elk with a 243.
10%- I am here to argue with other nerds about trajectories, kinetic energy, and ballistic coefficients without giving the original poster any useful information.
The admins have my permission cut and paste my summary above and then lock these threads.

I’ve never understood why people post stuff like this and then suggest threads are locked. Why is it so hard for people to just scroll on by???

 

[rclouse79]

I’ve never understood why people post stuff like this and then suggest threads are locked. Why is it so hard for people to just scroll on by???

I was just bored and felt like joking around a bit. Sorry to ruffle your feathers.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I was just bored and felt like joking around a bit. Sorry to ruffle your feathers.

Seems like you’re the one with “ruffled feathers”. I was just responding to a ridiculous but all to common type of post.

 

[rclouse79]

Seems like you’re the one with “ruffled feathers”. I was just responding to a ridiculous but all to common type of post.

Glad we got that settled.

 

[35WhelenAI]

It doesn't do anything for the thread. It carries no content about experience or opinion with respect to the title of the thread. Everybody has those moments though were they wish folks would use the search function or Google the net. But some posts are predictable at some point in every thread, and get the kind of response this one got.

 

[BruinPoint]

The thread is 6 years old, and suddenly it's a problem? Weird.

 

[35WhelenAI]

May have been started six years ago but there's 22 post since March 16. That's what's being referred to at this point, IMO.

 

[TylerChase]

Bullet selection is crucial.

 

[IronM]

I purchased a Browning BLR .308 many years ago and have shot many a whitetail with that gun. So when I started hunting elk out west, I asked the ammo guy at Cabelas (before they sold out) about buying different ammo vs buying a new gun. He suggested I use the Nosler partition bullet. I have always used the 180 gr core lokt for whitetail so stayed with that grain in the Nosler. To date I have shot 3 cow elk and a 4x4 bull and last year a 5x5. Absolutely happy with the setup and function of that gun/ammo. All my elk shots are not the really long range type so that is why it works for me.

 

[aorams]

Those European moose are like the size of a cow elk so not the best comparison.

Yes within 400yds a well placed shot with a 308 and a quality bullet will do great. Early in this thread somebody mentioned varget but 4895 will work too. I believe the trick to the 308 is using a lighter bullet. In my opinion a 165 or under bullet is better with the sweet spot being between 130-150g.

Thanks! Ive had a lot of luck with 180 grain Accubonds out of my 300 win so I’ve been trying Accubonds in lower weights in the 308. It does in fact really like the 150 grainers. I’m getting about 2775 fps which unless I’m not understanding something quite right should be very capable on elk out to 400 yards.

 

[S-3 ranch]

Those European moose are like the size of a cow elk so not the best comparison.

Yes within 400yds a well placed shot with a 308 and a quality bullet will do great. Early in this thread somebody mentioned varget but 4895 will work too. I believe the trick to the 308 is using a lighter bullet. In my opinion a 165 or under bullet is better with the sweet spot being between 130-150g.

You are mistaken, Eurasia moose are same as American, with some slight variations in size by subspecies, but wapiti / elk are smaller than the European moose, Sierra, Yukon, Canada
“”

Crossing a river
On average, an adult moose stands 1.4–2.1 m (4 ft 7 in – 6 ft 11 in) high at the shoulder, which is more than 30 centimetres (1 ft) higher than the next-largest deer on average, the wapiti.[36] Males (or "bulls") normally weigh from 380 to 700 kg (838 to 1,543 lb) and females (or "cows") typically weigh 200 to 490 kg (441 to 1,080 lb), depending on racial or clinal as well as individual age or nutritional variations.[37][38]The head-and-body length is 2.4–3.1 m (7 ft 10 in – 10 ft 2 in), with the vestigial tail adding only a further 5–12 cm (2–4+1⁄2 in).[39] The largest of all the races is the Alaskan subspecies (A. a. gigas), which can stand over 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) at the shoulder, has a span across the antlers of 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) and averages 634.5 kg (1,399 lb) in males and 478 kg (1,054 lb) in females.[40] Typically, however, the antlers of a mature bull are between 1.2 and 1.5 m (3 ft 11 in and 4 ft 11 in). The largest confirmed size for this species was a bull shot at the Yukon River in September 1897 that weighed 820 kg (1,808 lb) and measured 2.33 m (7 ft 8 in) high at the shoulder.[41] There have been reported cases of even larger moose, including a bull killed in 2004 that weighed 1,043 kg (2,299 lb),[42] and a bull that reportedly scaled 1,180 kg (2,601 lb), but none are authenticated and some may not be considered reliable.[41] Among extant terrestrial animal species in North America, Europe, and Siberia,””

 

[thinhorn_AK]

You are mistaken, Eurasia moose are same as American, with some slight variations in size by subspecies, but wapiti / elk are smaller than the European moose, Sierra, Yukon, Canada
“”

Crossing a river
On average, an adult moose stands 1.4–2.1 m (4 ft 7 in – 6 ft 11 in) high at the shoulder, which is more than 30 centimetres (1 ft) higher than the next-largest deer on average, the wapiti.[36] Males (or "bulls") normally weigh from 380 to 700 kg (838 to 1,543 lb) and females (or "cows") typically weigh 200 to 490 kg (441 to 1,080 lb), depending on racial or clinal as well as individual age or nutritional variations.[37][38]The head-and-body length is 2.4–3.1 m (7 ft 10 in – 10 ft 2 in), with the vestigial tail adding only a further 5–12 cm (2–4+1⁄2 in).[39] The largest of all the races is the Alaskan subspecies (A. a. gigas), which can stand over 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) at the shoulder, has a span across the antlers of 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) and averages 634.5 kg (1,399 lb) in males and 478 kg (1,054 lb) in females.[40] Typically, however, the antlers of a mature bull are between 1.2 and 1.5 m (3 ft 11 in and 4 ft 11 in). The largest confirmed size for this species was a bull shot at the Yukon River in September 1897 that weighed 820 kg (1,808 lb) and measured 2.33 m (7 ft 8 in) high at the shoulder.[41] There have been reported cases of even larger moose, including a bull killed in 2004 that weighed 1,043 kg (2,299 lb),[42] and a bull that reportedly scaled 1,180 kg (2,601 lb), but none are authenticated and some may not be considered reliable.[41] Among extant terrestrial animal species in North America, Europe, and Siberia,””

Nothing you copy and pasted says what you want it to say. Argue all you want but the variety of moose in europe is nowhere near as large as an Alaska Yukon moose.

 

[hunting1]

I always wonder how many people that comment on the 308 is not sufficient for elk have actual field experience? It works and works well!

 

[35WhelenAI]

It has been said, and I believe in this thread without going back and reviewing it all, the speed of the bullet from a .308 at shorter range is the same as a 300 Win Mag or larger at longer range. Absolutely, within a specific bullet velocity expansion window it's a killer.