Elk Hunting

[Woodrow]

I have a Super Blackhawk that I would like to take elk hunting.  According to the regulations manual it looks like with the right ammunition it is legal.  Has anyone used the .44 mag for elk?  What kind of results did you get?

[MS Hitman]

I helped recover a nice elk bull shot nine times with a .44.  The shooter got a bit carried away and I think the first four would have done the trick.  If I remember correctly, it was the Federal factory ammo loaded with the Nosler bullet.

[jcunclejoe]

This is just my opinion as a humble elk hunter.
If you are going to hunt elk with a 44 you should use a 300 gr bullet and shoot for the middle of the front shoulder. Use either a 300 gr Nosler partition or the 300 gr Hornady or any hard cast 300 gr bullet.

Practice every chance you get and try to get within 50 yards.

Elk are big tough critters and the best way to put them down is to break bone and provide enough penetration to get into the chest cavity. The last thing you want to do is use an expanding bullet (meant for heart /lung shots) and hit bone with that. Or the other bad scenario is to use a hard cast or non expanding bullet and poke a hole through the lungs without breaking the front shoulder. Either one of these and an elk is likely to run for miles.
A combination of broken shoulder and lung shot is the best way to put them down.

Now, I understand that the most important thing is shot placement but that only works if the bullet is up to the job.

Elk are big, beautiful, majestic, tough, onery, runnin, tenacious critters that deserve the utmost respect. It is our duty to do everything in our power to harvest them cleanly. In my opinion that is done with the shoulder / lung shot and plenty of penetration.

Good luck hunting.
Joe

[DakotaElkSlayer]

Joe,
I really enjoyed your insight in your previous post.  I have a question about your comment of going through the lungs with a hard cast...that the elk will run for miles???  Wouldn't a hard cast with a large meplat blow completely through the animal causing its lungs to collapse and "bleed out" pretty quickly?  Sorry if the question is silly, but I have no experience in this matter, but it makes sense to me. :grin:

Jim

[TScottO]

I don’t know about elk but I do know a 410gr slug through both lungs, middle and a bit high, on a whitetail will allow him to run a hundred yards or better. With lung shots you need to hit the animal in the lower portion of the lungs that way the lungs do not have to fill up with as much blood before they will leave a blood trail. An animal will bleed out quicker with lower lung shots as well. The lower lung shot may also provide a chance to take out a few major arteries too.

A lesson or two learned the hard way…

Take Care,
Scott

[jcunclejoe]

Great question Jim,
I have heard that an elk can produce 1 quart of blood per hour due to the large amount of bone mass that they have. I would not like to give them the chance by putting a hard cast through the lungs.
You are correct a proper bullet with a large meplat should produce a large wound channel and allow the animal to bleed out quickly.

The country I hunt in is steep and heavily timbered in the Cascade mountain range. If an animal can run for 2 minutes they can go from a couple of hours pack to 2 days by only traveling 1/2 mile. So if I was planning on a heart/lung shot I will use an expanding bullet to maximize the damage.  I much prefer to use a good penetrating bullet and break at least one front shoulder to get them down as soon as possible.

Scott has an excellent point also, if the hit is high from a hard cast bullet there will likely be a small exit hole due to the non expanding nature of the hard cast bullet. That will take time to fill up the chest cavity and there will likely be no blood trail at all. I know no one likes to spend all tay tracking or searching for a wounded animal.

Another point is that with a hard cast, why not go for the shoulder, you will be able to eat right up to the hole. AND even with an expanding bullet through the shoulder, I would rather loose a couple of pounds of meat than the whole critter.
Meat loss can be minimized by soaking the bloodshot area in cold salt water. If you knead it into the meat it only takes 20 minutes to remove all of the bloodshot. The sooner after the kill the better (easier). The salt and water do not hurt a thing. As a shoulder shooter I know.

Joe

[sawfish]

I have to agree with Uncle Joe on this one.  Elk are big boned, tough, creatures with a tenacity for life that cannot be justified on paper.  Some are tougher than others.  They can cover a lot of distance in a very short period.  In my more reckless days, we hunted the over-the-counter public land elk hunts in Colorado.  

The hunters were so thick that if you did not put your elk on the ground, you would likely have him shot/shot at by another hunter.  This resulted in numerous arguments over who actually killed the elk.  Hot tempers and loaded guns do not make for a happy time.  I adopted the strategy of big gun, big bullet, shoulder shot and keep shooting until the elk is on the ground.  That worked for me.

[Pinkerton]

I havn't had the chance to take elk but have shot plenty of good sized mulley and whitetail. I've seen them run 100+yrs with a dead solid heart shot at times and was told by an old hunter to place the bullet just behind the line of the shoulder and midway between the bottom of the chest and the backbone (seems I read about this somewhere also about hunting large African game). The idea is that the bullet will likely take out the large vessles from the top/front of the heart and some frontal lung tissue and also be close enough to the spine to cause some CNS shock.

I've tried this on the last two deer I've taken and slam-bang like sack of wet ca-ca to the ground they went. One with a 444 marlin another with a 270WSM at 75yrds and 180yrds. I was impressed and both seemed to do what was suggested about the damage.

So what I'm wondering is would this be a suggested shot placement for elk also. I know two deer don't make a scientific study but I'm just wondering if any of you have ever heard of this or what you think.

Thanks.

[DakotaElkSlayer]

THANKS UncleJoe!  I can definately see how you would want to anchor them on the spot in the rugged country you hunt.

Man, this is a great forum!

Jim

[Mikey]

The last Elk I took was a 750-800 lb cow and I took her at 100 yds with a 330 gn 444 hardcast slug with a large metplat from my 444.  I put my crosshairs just behind the shoulder and at the shot she took a step and the slug hit about 6-10 inches behind the aiming point.  She took about 5 wobbly steps and just as she faltered (started to go down) I put another one right behind the shoulder.  Upon discovery, the first slug had put a square hole through her chest and the lower part of her lungs.  The second shot went through the top part of the heart but she was already on the way down when that one hit.

The guys are right, Elk are big tough critters, and just one slight movement on their part can throw off your bullet impact significantly.  I was looking to put that girl in my freezer and didn't want to lose a lot of meat.  The same slug on a 400 lb Russian Boar hit behind the head and took out 5 lbs of good shoulder meat.  I am afraid that if I had put the slug through her shoulder I would have lost a considerable amount of Elk.  As it turned out, my first shot on the Elk was a good one - 5 steps and that was it.  HTH.  Mikey.

[handirifle]

Pinkerton said:

I've seen them run 100+yrs

Dang, That's a long time to run.  Didn't know they even LIVED that long :-D

[lisa1lacy2]

it good to hav al the people smart to catch you were yo goofff up :-D

[Pinkerton]

I've seen them run a 100+yrs

And they sure do get skinny after running that long  

Dang, That's a long time to run. Didn't know they even LIVED that long  

 
missed a "d" in that abbreviation. I'll let you guess what finger hits that key [/quote]

[rockbilly]

:oops: My friend who owns a ranch near Cortez CO hunts elk with a .243.  Most of his kills are dead in their tracks from a 100 grain bullet through the heart.  According to him, very few run after being shot.  I have killed two elk, a young 4x4 bull and a cow with my 6..5x55.  I didn't want to use it, but woke up in camp opening day and found I had left my .300 Win ammo on the dashboard of my truck which was parked at a motel about 25 miles down the hill.  Both animals were killed with one heart/lung shot.

I don't recommend the .243 or the swed, point is, a well placed bullet will do the job regardless of size (with in reason).  I agree that any hard cast 300 gr bullet will do the trick if you can hit the MARK at 50 yards or so.  I don't think I would want to shoot much further than than that unless you have tons of experience with the pistol.

[sawfish]

About the only thing that I learned I could always count on when elk hunting was "Nothing".  There are a lot of "probablys", but not too many "definitelys".  About the time you think you have them figured out, elk will do something totally unexpected.

You can "probably" kill an elk with most any caliber.  We have all heard the story of the then world record grizzly bear being killed by an Eskimo woman with a .22 rifle, while picking berries.  However, that would not be my caliber of choice when facing down a charging grizzly.  There is a big difference in shooting a calm undisturbed, animal on a private ranch and shooting one that has been chased over half the mountain by orange clad flatlanders.  

The 6.5 x 55 Swede is an excellent cartridge, and is usually the go to caliber for Moose in its home land.  I do not know if a Colorado Elk is tougher than a Swedish Moose, but sometimes it sure seems that way.  Just another case of picking the gun/caliber to fit the game and hunting conditions.  

There is no absolute right, or wrong, answer that fits all game, all hunters, and all locales.  My choice is still the big gun with a greater margin of error.

[fennell]

I don't know about Elk but just killed a Water Buff with a 44 mag. Used the 275 gr Cast performance WFNPB behind 21 gr of 2400  and reg CCI 300 primer for 1467fps in a Ruger Hunter. All but two of 3 shots shot  all the way through at 50 yds. The first one was behind the shoulder low in the chest and went out the other side. The others went through the off side shoulder and were both under the skin on the off side. Retained weight was 226 gr and 217 gr. I agree a 300 gr would probably be better but this bullet would probably work on ELk. The same bullet was responsible for a Moose and compelely penetrated at 75 yrds and broke the offside shoulder. so not bad here either. Hope this helps and good luck.

fennell

[baitwaister]

Have used a 41. mag and 30-30 barrels on my thompson and have taken elk with them. None have gone far.  I think that any big game animal can travel a distance when hit in heart and lungs.  They are dead they just don't know it.  I shot my moose at 40yds through the front shoulder with my 7mm Mag and 175 gr nosler partition loaded hot.  He still started to trot away and did not go down until I put the same load in the back of the head.  Shot placement is the deal...If you want them to go straight down you have to hit them in the neck, spine or head.  None of those shots are what I like to take.  Granted you put a bullet the size of small bowling ball traveling 1000fps or faster into one there is going to be considerably more shock value and MAY drop him in his tracks

[cobrad]

Every elk I've shot or seen shot ran off, usually 50-100 yards. The only ones that didn't were CNS shots, or through both shoulders. I've seen them shot in the shoulder, but without adequate penetration, and escape. IMO, the .44 with heavy hard cast bullet is a better bet than the possibility of inadequate penetration with an expanding type bullet. I plan to hunt elk myself this year with a .44 mag pushing 320 gr hard cast's at around 13-1350 fps. I don't think one will go beyond the usual hundred yards with a solid double lung shot, but with this bullet I will try for a double shoulder because it won't ruin meat the way my magnum rifles do. Garrett ammo states on their web site that their 330 gr hard cast .44 mag load usually penetrates a large Brown Bear  from chest to hips on a straight facing shot. I would expect that sort of performance on an elk as well.