I agree.

Now put that bullet in a 338 Norma Mag and oh man! But that is a ton of powder, a ton of recoil and not something I would want to hunt with.

A 308 running a 208 amax at 2550 vs. 175 smk at 2750. 300 yard ft. lbs. energy 2217 on the amax, 1978 on the smk. The difference only grows as yardage increases.

Same story on the 30-06 too. Just sayin.

Alright 300 was a bad SWAG. I did not consult a ballistic calculator.

Just sayin.

Would a 308 with right ammo work for elk

As long as your rifle works with the right ammo. Most of the tougher 30 cal bullets are 180 gr +, most 308 caliber rifles came with a 1-12 twist, If you push them fast enough most 180 gr bullets should stabilize. You need to check out to your max range to be sure. If the 180 doesn't stabilize, then getting the right bullet, in the 165 gr range becomes paramount.

Hard to believe we can go 6 pages on this question.

Any of them will work great. Just use a good bullet the rifle likes whichever caliber you choose. It's purely personal preference.

Oh, and muzzle brakes suck and are totally unnecessary for a hunting rifle. Recoil is not bad in any of those calibers. If you are bothered by the recoil in them then step down to a .270 or .30-06.

After reading 6 pages of this...the phrase "Mad dogs & Englishmen...howling in the mid day sun..." comes to mind.

Elk are not I'm told, an armored vehicle, or an Abrams tank....or even a WW II Sherman tank. Some of our ancestors successfuly hunted American Elk with flintlock Kentucky rifles almost 200 years ago, and became known as Mountain Men. and we parse over killing one with an advanced weapons system capable of putting a bullet in an Elks eye at 500 yards???
90+% of the time it's the skill of the INDIAN and NOT the Arrow that brigs home the meat.



Elk have been successfully killed with the 109 year old 30 Gvt 06 since the Army sold off the leftovers after 1918 ...why can'e we kill'em in 2015 with the same caliber, telesopic sights that can see the craters on the moon ... and better bullets??? THAT's the Question??
JMHO & YMMV
Ron

I killed both of my bulls with 7mm Rem and 160gr projectiles (Speer Grand Slam and Nosler Partition) at 85 and 200 yards and have seen them killed just as dead with .30-06 and 300 win. Can't go wrong with any of those with good projectiles and shot placement, and all will reach out and touch 'em if you know your trajectories and practice, practice, practice.

I think that most people agree that once you get to 140 gr 6.5mm, assuming good bullets, your getting into a reasonable caliber on elk. 270/7mm and are even more clearly adequate. What gets people going is, if you have an adequate rifle, but want more performance, which caliber? That brings out a lot of opinions, people can make good arguments on different calibers, depending on how they intend on using that performance and their current rifles.

True. What's interesting is how much ink is spilled and how many keyboard strokes can go into discussing caliber selection for elk hunting between obviously suitable choices - when that is such a small part of the equation. "It's the Indian, not the arrow" is a pretty good maxim.

If you compare hunting to building a house, it would be like all the carpenters forgetting about the stuff like blueprints and sitting around discussing which brand of hammer is best.

^^Very true^^

All that said, I like a .300 or .338 Win Mag hammer for elk.

Daisy red rider / copperhead BB's

It's more like, should I use the 20lbs sledge or the claw hammer. Now where did that fly go.

Just goes to show that the world is full of superb elk cartridges and appropriate elk bullets.

Outside of specialized varmint equipment, it would be difficult to select elk medicine that is truly bad.

(I'll still take the .300 Winny, though)

I'm old enough to remember before nail guns, carpenters did argue about hammers, especially framing hammers. don't believe me, Google framing hammer, see how many varieties there are. As a hunter, your choice of weapon and caliber, is that of a personal tool opinions vary.

There is some excellent advice above regarding calibers. I have and swear by a custom Remington 700 in .300 Weatherby magnum. With that rifle my longest one shot DRT was just over 500 yards on a big 5 point bull. Yes without a muzzle brake it does punish at the range. But so what, concentration overcomes recoil.