Late 2023 Elk Bullet Updates?

[LRRPF52]

[LRRPF52]

[grayfox]

That Colorado hunt was the one I was thinking of!!!
That was a beauty! Note however, also, that she put 3 shots into the bull at that distance.
So testimony to her practice routine!

Problem for OP is, for elk in Ky you have to be .277 or larger for rifle...

[LRRPF52]

[Rodedawgg]

Well, I have an upper on the way or at least "processing" lol), and now have some of the 123gr Hornady Black ELDMs. Now I just gotta wait and see how I like em. Thanks for the advice on them...may try out the 123gr SSTs when I see some to see if they shoot any different. I'm excited to start working with them not just to see if I like them, but to start working on building my own accuracy out farther. I gotta say, when I took one out of the box, I had to laugh that so much potential is in such an unassumingly tiny package. Astonishing what something that adorable is capable of. I'm definitely excited to try out the Grendel.

As for the .308 and the Ham'r rounds...

I think the Ham'rs are optimized for LFPs. They claim under 200yds it's a viable elk round, but they also were dissing on 300blk as "exploding" on the skin when it hit a dear in the shoulder...which I think was probably bad bullet choice for shooting at bony bits. I don't like that kind of self-promotion. But still, it's designed to be a 30-30 in an AR15-sized package. With (potentially) better bullets.

I figured the 125gr 308 may have been a bit light for the elk, at least in a traditional bullet. I did find HSM makes a low-recoil 150gr that has an MV about 2350. I could see if I like Ham'r/30-30 velocities (and recoil) for the low, low price of $3 a round (where's my vomiting-in-horror emoji?). Still, $60 is a lot cheaper test of the recoil than than a whole upper or new T/C barrel. And I know it's a specialty bullet with a small market so the cost needs to be higher, it's just way more than I've ever paid for cartridges before. Acclimating to the new realities....

Yeah, I was asking about 6.8SPC for the KY elk restrictions, just in case I get to give it a go there. There's nothing I've found in the 27 calibers between a 6.8SPC and 270. I'm not willing to deal with 270Win recoil, and if I have to load those down, I may as well load the 6.8 up (for my T/C). 6.8 can be loaded into lower 270Win territory; at least in the Speer 15 manual it can. My others don't take the 6.8 as high, but Speer has a recipe for a 130gr at 2600fps. and it uses less powder than a 270 for the same velocity at a given weight (again, in Speer 15). It all might be more academic than anything in the long run. Maybe the Kentuckians can figure it out and come down in caliber requirements. Does any other state have a caliber requirement that big on elk?

I don't have a lot of excuses to get more rifles, at least not to keep. I'm in a cycle of figuring out what works best for me so I can strip back. I don't have a lifestyle where I can justify a bunch of rifles.


LRRPF52...
Yeah, I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out shot placements on things in the past year. That video of the girl taking the elk is one of the things that got me looking seriously at the grendel. And I also agree (due to a year or so of lurking here to learn best placement with various grendel bullets) that the Backfire dude shot the wrong spot for the bullet. I can't depend on altitude improving expansion thresholds, though. Here in the east, our biggest mountain is a bit under 6700ft. so average elk altitudes are more likely 3000-4000ft. I think you guys out west would have to fall down a well to hit our altitudes lol. I agree that KY should change the law, Virginia only has a 24 caliber restriction, and they're doing fine. And if you find an elk outside the 3 managed counties (which you can only hunt if they draw your name), your deer tag lets you harvest an elk. It's rare that it happens, but it does from time to time. And according to Virginia DWR, those elk outside the manged counties wander in from KY. I reckon a Virginia 24 caliber is more potent than a Kentucky 24, 25, or 26 cal lol.

I will look up Xman's threads, thanks for the tip.

Excited to try this grendel thing after nearly 2 years of looking into it. I really hope I enjoy shooting it lol.

Thanks!

[Stinky Coyote]

my response to that guys video...

"-eld-m been my go to for 15 head of Alberta big game over 5 seasons, 6 species wolf to moose, 10-420 yards, 163 yard average shot distance, 13 yard average recovery distance, walked up to everything after shooting, run them at moderate velocities and they are magic so long as you're matching sd for game intended, I get shorter recoveries and more drt's than I did with bigger/faster cartridges running accubonds, if anything was going to save you on that muley hit it would have been the eld-m doing more work in shorter span, nothing short of a bazooka can save the day on a bad hit, and...

-for your long range stuff you bet speed up your shot sequence, lrh is defined as 0-600 or more accurately end of mpbr to 600, the laws governing this is tof, field conditions accuracy, and live animal factor, moderate amount of people end up consistent killers to 450, very few to 600 and anything beyond that is a tiny percentage called elrh and not worth the time to be a consistent killer out there as your way past diminishing returns in terms of prep/practice/gear etc. once you go past 0.5 seconds tof (~450-500 yards) and 0.75 seconds tof (~600), it's no different in the bowhunters world, run your tof's on 50-70 yard arrows...same thing, the odd archery guy can kill up to 100 yards but they tend to spend the year with the bow in hand, same limits apply to bowhunters as gun hunters, field accuracy drops, and most people regardless how far they practice to or compete will still stay 600 or less on game gun and 70 or less bow and maybe unable to verbalize exactly why...I'm doing that right here and now, most can't read wind better than 20" max to get on edge of kill zones and know you'll land within the balloons, that could be 10 mph at 600 or 30 at 400, field accuracy due to many obvious reasons will not be nearly the same as bench accuracy...call it 1.5 to 2 moa and again start pushing the edge of kill zone size flexibility with the wind and tof factors, and ability for animals to move....these laws keep this lrh defined to ~600 for 2400-3100 fps modern projectiles game

-keep on learning and doing, I went up and down ladder, now happy to keep big game to ~400 even though I practice to much further and only go beyond that if 'need' to like you did here with that muley doe follow up, no limits for coyotes though, the more you see this 40,000' view the less you'll keep trying to push past these distances here as the odds exponentially start moving away from your favour from 0.5 sec tof onward and there's lots of other things to do in the outdoors than live with a gun in your hand "

[MachV]

Just did an autopsy on an antelope that was hit at 300 yards in the shoulder. A finishing shot was needed as the bullet didnt penetrate the shoulder but did totally @#$% it up. Now that same bullet has dropped 6 other antelope in their tracks from 125-453 yards as long as it goes in the chest cavity.
I personaly would not purposely use the Grendel for elk but if my elk tag would have been valid while hunting antelope a couple days ago a nice bull would received a double tap to the lungs ????