Suppressed Elk Rifle vs 338 Cannon + Ear Pro

treillw

treillw

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What are some of the best calibers and corresponding barrel lengths to use for suppressed elk hunting?

I'd really like something that would expend the majority of it's energy inside the animal and barely pass through to create a blood trail. Don't know if that's achievable with a handicapped barrel length. I shot a bull with a 215 Berger / 300 win at 400 yards this year and the bullet did not pass through - barrel is around 24". Generally, I hate how elk don't bleed. Also, most of the time I'm not getting pass throughs. It's not a big deal if you hit them right and they die right there, but unfortunately life is not perfect. Good thing about the 215s is that they tend to dump all their energy inside the animal, which helps with bad shots, but recovery gets difficult with no blood trail - at least that's my experience with them.

Part of me wants a 338 cannon to pulverize them and part of me wants to sneak through the timber with a suppressed short barrel. Maybe I just need some better electronic ear protection and a standard length 338 with a brake.

Thank you for any thoughts!

Edit: Read post #16 for additional thoughts from me if you're new to the thread.
 
treillw said:
electronic ear protection and a standard length 338
Click to expand...

This is how I hunt present day and tbh it sucks. Its not bad sitting in a deer stand but its awful for hiking. If I have time to put the muffs on I do, if I dont, oh well. Maybe one shot a year without muffs on vs toting around a heavy long ass rifle AND a heavy long ass can on the end of it? I'll just take the lick.
 
Choupique said:
This is how I hunt present day and tbh it sucks. Its not bad sitting in a deer stand but its awful for hiking. If I have time to put the muffs on I do, if I dont, oh well. Maybe one shot a year without muffs on vs toting around a heavy long ass rifle AND a heavy long ass can on the end of it? I'll just take the lick.
Click to expand...
I have sound gear plugs now and it's not terrible. My 300 has a brake. I'd be doing essentially the same thing with a 338. I put the plugs in while walking. Thing I don't like about them is that it doesn't pick up all noises and I can't tell noise direction most of the time. A newer set would probably do a better job.
 
Take this with a grain of salt as I've never killed an elk. I wouldn't expect a Berger to reliably provide an exit in the same way I wouldn't expect a TTSX to provide Berger type upset. I'd personally step down to a 6.5 PRC and choose whether I want rapid upset or two holes.
 
Bullet selection might be more important than cartridge selection.
It’s a real challenge to pick a bullet that will open up and penetrate at 50 yards but also 550 yards….

I myself am interested in a shorter barrel suppressor rig.

Currently packing around a 26” barrel with 2” brake. It’s like carrying a telephone pole through the woods.
 
treillw said:
What are some of the best calibers and corresponding barrel lengths to use for suppressed elk hunting?

I'd really like something that would expend the majority of it's energy inside the animal and barely pass through to create a blood trail. Don't know if that's achievable with a handicapped barrel length. I shot a bull with a 215 Berger / 300 win at 400 yards this year and the bullet did not pass through - barrel is around 24". Generally, I hate how elk don't bleed. Also, most of the time I'm not getting pass throughs. It's not a big deal if you hit them right and they die right there, but unfortunately life is not perfect. Good thing about the 215s is that they tend to dump all their energy inside the animal, which helps with bad shots, but recovery gets difficult with no blood trail - at least that's my experience with them.

Part of me wants a 338 cannon to pulverize them and part of me wants to sneak through the timber with a suppressed short barrel. Maybe I just need some better electronic ear protection and a standard length 338 with a brake.

Thank you for any thoughts!
Click to expand...

If stuck on .338, the 338 WBY RPM may be what you are asking for. Factory rifles are 18” and 20”.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Unless you're looking to shoot them at extreme ranges, I'd suggest an 18" 6.5 creed with suppressor. The last 5 elk i have killed between 400 and 600 yards with 147 ELDM have been 100% drama free.

I have seen 5/5 impacts (and heard them) and its a pleasure to shoot and carry.

It took a few years to detatch from the 300WM/215 Berger line of thinking, but in my experience, the cannon is no more effective. And bad shots are bad shots regardless.

Go short and sneaky and don't look back!!
 
A bad shot is a bad shot. A .338 Screamer doesn't kill an elk with a bad shot any better than a .223 kills an elk with a bad shot.

Good shots with good bullets kill elk rather easily. It doesn't matter if said good shot comes from that .338 Screamer or a .223.

What DOES matter is that good shots are MUCH easier to make with a .223 than they are with a .338 Screamer.

I honestly don't see the need to go above a 6.5 Creedmoor and a 140 or 147 ELD-M out to 600 yards. If I needed to go farther than that, it would be a 6.5 PRC or 6.8 Western.

Truth be told, a 6 Creedmoor is probably all you need to 600 yards and it will be easy to make great shots.
 
EmperorMA said:
A bad shot is a bad shot. A .338 Screamer doesn't kill an elk with a bad shot any better than a .223 kills an elk with a bad shot.

Good shots with good bullets kill elk rather easily. It doesn't matter if said good shot comes from that .338 Screamer or a .223.

What DOES matter is that good shots are MUCH easier to make with a .223 than they are with a .338 Screamer.

I honestly don't see the need to go above a 6.5 Creedmoor and a 140 or 147 ELD-M out to 600 yards. If I needed to go farther than that, it would be a 6.5 PRC or 6.8 Western.

Truth be told, a 6 Creedmoor is probably all you need to 600 yards and it will be easy to make great shots.
Click to expand...
I understand the premise of what you and others are saying about bad shots. The unfortunate reality is that life isn't perfect and no matter how hard I try (and I can get pretty crazy), often things don't go as planned - the don't miss argument is not always tangible.

Respectfully, I can't get away from the idea that a bigger more powerful bullet causes a bigger explosion inside the animal and therefore causes more internal damage, giving a higher probability of lethal damage leading to a quicker death, and a higher probability of recovery.

On the total opposite end of the spectrum, my family has killed nearly a dozen elk with the 243 (100gn Hornady BTHP at 2600 or 2700 fps, I think). I remember the damaged lung area being around an inch in diameter on the one bull I killed with the 243. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but vital damage with the 300 seems to be more fist sized in my experiences. Admittedly, I'm usually not doing a tremendously thorough autopsy when the animal is down and I'm just trying to get out of the woods.

Another factor: what about wind drift on slow moving 6mm/6.5mm bullets at 600 yards vs a higher bc faster 300/338? Off the top of my head, I'd again assume there's more margin for error with a larger bullet, compounding the probability of a lethal hit and easier recovery. I'm open to being convinced otherwise. 😁
 
I will not hunt in suppressed going forward, to the max extent possible. I have killed WT deer and elk 200-350 yds and have had exceptional killing performance and full pass through with with 308 and 6.5 CM. Killed an elk at 330 with 127 lrx out of a 18” 6.5 with scythe TI last week. I bought this gun to replace a 300WSM I did not shoot well but thought I needed for “tough elk” after a complete cluster-rodeo a few years back. I started thinking less about cartridge and more about bullet design and shot placement.
 
First and foremost, the single most effective thing we can do to minimize tracking after shot placement is using a suppressor. My experience of six moose with 375 Ruger, 338 win, 7 PRC, 6 CM says there's no correlation to time of death among those cartridges and the only correlation is suppressed vs non suppressed to distance ran before expiring. The ones shot from an unsuppressed rifle ran at the first shot while the ones from a suppressed rifle jumped then trotted or walked a few steps until they expired.

Like you (OP), I also like the warm feeling of delivering large wallop despite large empirical contrary evidence it is necessary. But I am just not seeing the connection between more delivered power to shorter time of death. The most undeniable truth that I have learned is there is a much greater advantage to being suppressed than any possible advantage with a more powerful cartridge.
 
I wish somebody would design a lightweight and ergonomic bullpup for hunting. There has to be a way to do it well.
 
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