Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk bullets - calmly

I shot my first elk back in 1966 with a borrowed .30-40 Krag and whatever factory bullets my Uncle gave me with that rifle. 13 hits later that bull was finally on the ground...2 bullets through the antlers, 3 bullets creased the hair on the top of his back, and 7 more in various places until he finally stopped broadside about 50 yards from me and I put one just behind his shoulder. The best thing that I learned from that "hunt" was to not aim for the head when the animal is so far away that the bead front sight completely covers the elk.

I shot my next 8 elk with my scoped .30-06 shooting 150 grain Hornady or 180 grain Sierra cup and core bullets. All were shot just behind their shoulders and most were one shot kills. None of those bullets completely penetrated the animals.

My next elk was a big 6x6 bull that I shot in Montana's Absaroka Wilderness while I was on my first DIY, solo Unlimited tag bighorn sheep hunt. My rifle on that hunt was my .257 Ackley that I had built for deer size animals. This bull stopped broadside about 75 yards from me and simply dropped dead where was standing when my little 117 grain Sierra Gameking bullet hit him. That bullet hit a rib just behind his shoulder and bullet and bone fragments litterly shattered his lungs and heart, and didn't cut the rib cage on the off side.

When I built my .257 Ackley I also had my .30-06 re-chambered to .30 Gibbs. With the increased velocity of the Gibbs I switched to 180 grain Nosler Partition bullets, and I shot my next 20 or so elk, and 2 Sirias bull moose, with that combination. All were broadside, just behind the the shoulder shots, and most were one shot kills. I found most of those Partition bullets just under the bulls hides on the off shoulder.

In 1973 I also killed an elk with my Herter's recurve bow and a Fred Bear broadhead. It was a 10 yard spot and stalk shot with the arrow entering just behind the bull's shoulder and the point exiting just behind his off shoulder. When he ran through the thick oak brush both ends of the arrow broke off, leaving about a foot of the shaft in his lungs. I wouldn't call a broadhead slicing through an animal's lungs "massave trauma" compared to the large, bloodshot wound channel that a high velocity, high energy bullet would make with the same shot. My arrow shot elk simply drowned in his own blood.

It's energy that drives the arrow or bullet deep into or through the animal.

In recent years I've killed 2 elk with my .300 Weatherby and a Barnes 168 grain TSX bullet and a 168 grain Barnes TTSX bullet. The first bull was about a 100 yard broadside shot that entered just behind his left shoulder and exited behind his right shoulder. He ran 3 steps spraying blood 10' from each hole and collapsed, dead. I was supprised at the small amount of blood damaged meat compared to damaged area from the Partition bullets of my previous elk.

This first pic shows the TSX bullet entrance hole through the hide and into the chest cavity, and the second pic shows the exit holes of that bullet.


When I shot the second bull with my .300 Wby, I didn't follow my personal rule of "not shooting an animal that I want to eat in the shoulder". Because TSX bullet made so little meat damage on the bull that I killed with it, and the only shot that the second bull gave me was a front quartering shot, I shot him on the point of his shoulder. It was also only about a 100 yard shot. The TTSX bullet hit and shattered his upper front leg bone just below the shoulder blade, completley bloodshot about half of his shoulder meat, continued through most of his body, and stopped just under the hide of his off side ham.

I continue to use cup and core bullets for hunting with my .257 Ackley and 7mm Rem mag rifles, but just about all of the animals that I've shot with my .300 Weatherby and my .375 RUM were with either Barnes or Hammer mono copper bullets.

I can think of about twenty head of game Ive taken with the TSX and TTSX bullets. They ranged from 7mm (284) to 30 cal (30/06) to 340 Wby to the 375 H&H and from 140-gr to 168-gr to 210 to 270 in the 375. Muzzle velocities ranged from 3100 (284 Win) to 2850 (30/06) to 3100 (340), and about 2750 (375).

Game from smallest to largest was a nice whitetail buck to 6x6 bull elk and probably a heavier Burchell’s zebra. Included in the sample was a black bear, a heavy old mule deer buck, a kudu with most of the other plains game antelope, and a bunch of bull elk.

As I remember back, all were broadside shots except two. The exceptions were the big mule deer buck that got up from his bed and was taken right under the chin. The 140-gr TTSX coursed the length of his body and was found by his scrotum. So maybe 4’. The other was the black (blonde) bear that was a quartering away shot.

That mule deer bullet was one of three ever found out of the twenty. The second was under the off-side hide of a waterbuck, have first broken an unnoticed finger-sized branch about ten feet in front of him. It stay on course but flying sideways still penetrated the bucks chest. The third was from the offside hide of the big mare zebra, having broken her “shoulder blade” on entry.

Ranges ranged from ~ 100 yds to near 500 yds, lasered or walked off

These bullets were uniformly the most accurate bullet from my assorted rifles. The 284 hand loads would go under 3” inches at 400 yds for three shots and I shot several 100 yd less than half inch groups for three with the 375. The 30/06 was likewise accurate. The 340 lagged behind these a bit but but was easily good enough to 500 yds.

There are a lot of good bullets out there but when I found these Barnes’ bullets I was finished looking for any big game hunting I would undertake.

I was calm while I wrote this…

Do any of you guys purposely shoot for a shoulder hit on bull elk to anchor it on the spot? Talking .30-06 168 TTSX. Yes, I know there will be some meat loss.

Yes for the same reason Aces said and on both deer and elk. I dont use Barnes bullets however.

Do any of you guys purposely shoot for a shoulder hit on bull elk to anchor it on the spot? Talking .30-06 168 TTSX. Yes, I know there will be some meat loss.

I wouldn't bet against that combo! I have 3-400, 7mm 160 gr Partitions on my reloading bench. All I need is a 7mm cartridge and rifle.

Do any of you guys purposely shoot for a shoulder hit on bull elk to anchor it on the spot? Talking .30-06 168 TTSX. Yes, I know there will be some meat loss.