I need some rifle advice for hunting in bad weather

[slim rem 7]

 i do believe swampman knows what hes talkin..im not sayin the others are wrong..
 just that for an first time elk hunter .. id think takng his advice will leave you
with the enough gun if you can hit the thousand pounder in the right spot..
 now if you got another choice that you know well. thats the right one for you..
 to me its all in knowing the gun,,and its capabilities in your hands.
 perhaps some could report on experience where they tried an elk and feel they were under gunned with thier choice..

[publius]

Everyone has given great advise of course. As for as the muzzle cover, tape and condoms will work fine but I use small tight fitting black balloons. they fit better than a condom( unless you use extra small ones, ha ha) don't leave adhesive like tape and look better.

[rickt300]

I'm pretty sure I don't care what my bad weather rifle looks like. My two favorite deer rifles are nicknamed "Ugly" and "Bitch".

[Coyote Hunter]

The 7mm Mag is almost as good as the .30-06 if you can get it to handle heavy bullets & get the bullets to remain in one piece. 

Anyone who contends sub-30 cartridges are inadequate for elk either have very little or no experience with them or they are lying through their teeth.  In either case they ignore the many tens of thousands of elk successfully taken with such cartridges every year.

My elk hunting mentors used 7mm Rem Mags and had done so successfully for many years when I chose mine in 1982.   Mine has never disappointed.  The 7mm RM was my only real elk rifle for 20 years and most of that time I shot 160g bullets at less than 100fps over 7mm-08 velocities.  My hunting buddy got his about 10 years ago and his has worked flawlessly as well.  Since 1982 I have seen a lot of .270’s used and have no problem with their ability, either.

I agree that a .243 is on the light side and is best used in the hands of an expert – indeed I often recommend a .30-30 with 170g bullets over a .243 Win for youngsters.  The .257 Roberts wouldn’t be my first choice for elk but with 120g Grand Slams, Partitions or A-Frames it is not an unreasonable choice for shots out to 300 yards.  The .25-06 is a better choice and the .257 WBY is pretty authoritative.    The 6.5’s with heavier bullets will easily do the job and the .270 Win with good 130’s or better is a perfectly fine choice although my counsel is generally toward the 150’s when using standard bullets.

You get quite a bit more recoil for nothing. 

As so often is the case, you are completely full of it – lots of opinion wrongly cited as fact.  Demonstrably so, as actual comparisons show.

Below are some numbers for the .30-06 and 7mm Rem Mag using data from Nosler’s  ‘Reloading Guide 6’.  All loads use Reloder 22 powder and Partition bullets. The BC’s of the bullets, as stated by Nosler:
.474 = .308/180g
.410 = .308/165g
.475 = 7mm/160g
.434 = 7mm/140g

For recoil calculations a 8.3 pound rifle/scope combination is assumed.  Zero is for MPBR (Max. Point Blank Range) assuming a target 6” in diameter.

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Load         Powder    Velocity    Recoil    Zero/MPBR    400yd drop/FPE
.30-06/180    61.0g    2872fps    24.66fpe   245/288yds   -16.8”/1875fpe Highest recoil, most drop
7mm/160       63.0g    3058fps    23.55fpe   258/303yds   -13.4”/1920fpe

.30-06/165    63.0g    3002fps    23.91fpe   251/295yds   -15.5”/1730fpe
7mm/140       67.5g    3340fps    23.52fpe   279/327yds   - 9.9”/1935fpe Least drop, most energy

If you take a look you will see the 7mm RM delivers more energy at 400 yards with less drop – and with less recoil.  Could be why so many smart hunters have chosen the 7mm Rem Mag over the years.

Magnums are unnecessary in North America.

The logic that comes to that conclusion could just as easily come to the conclusion ‘Magnums’ are unnecessary anywhere in the world.    There is often a benefit to using them, however, and absolutely nothing wrong with doing so.