My hunting rifles

[Malamute]

I borrowed a 700 in .30-06 for my first elk hunt. Accurate, nice rifle, but beat my poor little should all black and blue. Not really, but it wasn't fun to shoot more than a few rounds a day through it...

A 30-06 is a pretty good all around rifle. Id guess that having a gun that fit you well and had a really good pad set up for your length of pull (or a hair short for winter clothes) will make a big difference in perceived recoil. I just got in the habit of having a decelerator pad put on everything bolt action right off the bat. Theres other good pads, I like the style and level of softness, so mostly have used them. That said, a 270 or 280 would also work well for what youre talking about, as would a 308. Any could be had in heirloom grade guns. In Az, I didn't worry too much about wood stocks getting wet.

In shooting any of the rifles with recoil that gets your attention at all, shooting mostly from field positions helps with letting your body roll with the gun. The common position of leaning into the gun on a benchrest, down low and braced into it is about the worst way to shoot a gun with any amount of recoil as far as mitigating it. Using a rest that gets the gun up high enough that your back is straight up instead of leaned into the gun helps quite a lot. I didn't like shooting my 338 off a low benchrest, but sitting, kneeling or standing, I didn't mind shooting it at all, it was great fun. Shooting off the hood of a truck that's tall enough to keep you mostly standing straight up also works pretty well. Id only suggest a blanket over the paint to keep muzzle blast carbon from coloring your paint, and avoid letting the brass eject out against the windshield glass. I cracked a windshield on a PU once when a shell from a 45-70 Marlin hit right on the edge of the glass. Saddle blankets are handy for the hood and windshield, and for prone or any other on the ground stuff, laying your guns on and stuff. The tourist shops should have Mexican saddle blankets.

[PNWTO]

...

Really, you need both.

Can you put that on paper, signed, and send it to my wife?

[texasaggie2005]

Can you put that on paper, signed, and send it to my wife?

It would probably carry more weight with your wife, if SLG's wife signed it. Just saying.

No offense SLG.

[okie john]

I have accumulated several rifles over the years. I started with a T/C Hawken, and hunted muzzleloader doe seasons exclusively. Haven't done that in a long time, but still have it.

I borrowed a 700 in .30-06 for my first elk hunt. Accurate, nice rifle, but beat my poor little should all black and blue. Not really, but it wasn't fun to shoot more than a few rounds a day through it.

I decided some years ago I should get my own center fire hunting rifle. I live in southern AZ now. Deer here are tiny, but we also have lots of coyotes. I decided to get a 6mm-6.5mm rifle with a reasonable case on it for hunting our little deer and the yotes, figuring I'd never get an elk tag in AZ, but had a couple of little kids that might like to hunt someday, too. I bought a Savage 11 in .243 Winchester. It's got a Burris 3-9 Fullfield II with ballistic Plex reticle on it. Does very well. Finally got my first Arizona deer and buck last year. It's also been on 2 elk hunts, though no rounds were fired due to not getting a shot opportunity. The year I got it, my buddy teased me into putting in for cows with him, and we got drawn for tags. After paying for my tag, in a bit of shock, I debated getting a larger caliber rifle, but another friend told me he'd killed half a dozen elk with his and that I should just hunt with what I had. It's an economical choice, if nothing else, and since I didn't get a shot anyway, it hardly even matters. My daughter and I hunted elk together another year, and I borrowed a .270 for that, while she used my .243 (she regularly used up all my ammo shooting it that year - I was right that the smaller people in my house would like it). Our guide had no problems with her using the .243.

My scrawny son, however, couldn't hold up that rifle, but could run an AR. I built a 6.8 carbine upper in 2013 (dumb year to do that) since he couldn't hit anything with open sights, and my only 5.56 upper is an A2. He's hunted deer and javelina with it, but not gotten a shot opportunity yet. He's a senior now, very busy, and didn't want to hunt this year.

My dad gifted me with a Marlin .30-30 a couple of years ago

I have debated starting a thr ad on this fo a while. I read okie john's issues with his Model 70 FWT with interest, as I recently examined one in .270 at length, and am still debating just getting it. So, if anyone has observations or suggestions, even if they are "Stop overthinking this and go hunting," I'm all ears.

I don’t think you’re overthinking it.

I’ve spent 30 days humping a ruck in southern Arizona on behalf of the US Army and I’ve shot a fair number of tiny deer with a 270 on the Edwards Plateau in Texas, which is a lot like southern Arizona. I also killed my first elk a few days ago, so I feel uniquely semi-qualified to respond to your post.

Based on my reading (and the above experience) I believe that the 270 is adequate for elk but that it gets pretty close to the minimum. Personally, if I lived in a state that had strong elk herds AND I could buy tags over the counter AND I could make self-guided hunts, then I’d consider using a 270, but I’d be picky as hell about my shots. If any of those things were not true, then I’d use a bigger rifle—maybe much bigger—in case I got a shot that I’d probably have to pass up with a 270.

I’d want this rifle to be glass bedded, with a free-floated barrel, a tuned trigger, and a good recoil pad. I’d try to have it weigh just under 8 pounds so it would settle down well in offhand without being a boat anchor. I’d shoot it a LOT: from field positions, with a sling, from prone, offhand, etc. I’d make absolutely sure that I could put the bullet where it needed to go all the way out to as far as I was willing to shoot.

People slay elk with the 243 all the time, but I can’t see myself trying it unless the elk were in my yard. Elk are big and tough, and I want a cartridge that will drop a bull NOW so I don’t have to stumble onto his soured, coyote-gnawed carcass after days of tracking. Of course most of that is shot placement but frontal area, velocity, and weight also matter.

Finally, lighter cartridges need all the help they can get, so I’d use a Nosler Partition, Barnes TTSX, Swift A-Frame, or another premium bullet. If you only get to hunt elk every few years and you have to pay for an outfitter, then it seems unwise to scrimp on the one piece of your gear that actually kills the elk.


Okie John

[Duelist]

Thanks, everybody.

Here's my .243, and the .22 I shoot as a trainer for it:

[Malamute]

I have a friend in Az, his only elk rifle is a 270. I think he uses the 150 gr Nosler Partitions. I don't know how many elks hes killed, maybe between 10 and 15(?), but none have gotten away that I recall.

[okie john]

First of all, it should be a bannable offense to not post pics when talking about things like hunting rifles.

My mistake. Here's the rifle I used on my elk. It's a Browning Safari in 338 WM. Not the best choice for a wet climate, but that's another thread.




Okie John

[SLG]

I'm about 3 years old most of the time, so pics really help.:-)

Duelist, what .22 is that? Both look like nice guns.

Okie John, Class is its own form of water repellent. Sweet rig.

[RoyGBiv]

Compelled to fix that photo a little..... Nice!

[Duelist]

I'm about 3 years old most of the time, so pics really help.:-)

Duelist, what .22 is that? Both look like nice guns.

Okie John, Class is its own form of water repellent. Sweet rig.

Agree, that is a sweet rifle, okie John.

My .22 is a heavy barreled Savage with accutrigger. I put a cheek rest and weight in the cheap plastic stock so it balances better, and I can actually get a cheek weld using the scope. It's a project gun - eventually, it will have a good stock and much better target scope on it.

Here is my Marlin .30-30 with Leupold M7 4x: