Sum up "what have you taken XYZ with?" Threads

[noslerpartition]

Wrote it in the elk thread:
As a man with not one, but two rifles (30-06 and 6,5 Creedmoor):
The cartridges vary widely through the "what have you taken XYZ with?":
What are your experiences? Going down to the 6,5 Swede for critters bigger than deer up to the really heavy hitters - did you see major differences? I guess distance matters a lot.
So what worked and what didn't (and why?)?

 

[Blkram]

All I have used from the 6.5x55 to the 376 Steyr have worked, because I did my part.
None have "not worked".
Some have taken more than one shot to finish the job, but mostly due to bullet placement (e.g., single lung hit due to quartering angle when animal moves during shot), not cartridge performance, or the rutted up bull that just didn't realize he was dead yet. And if the animal is still up or moving, I put in a finishing shot; cheap insurance, and keeps the animal from suffering longer than needed.

 

[salmonchaser]

I know a number of people who have taken elk and moose size critters with 243 or 250 savage class cartridges. As was noted confidence and skill of the shooter plays an important roll in the effectiveness of the round. Shoot anything between the slats, double lung them, they will almost certainly die. I shot a charged up elk five times in front of the diaphragm at =/- 300 yards one time, I was young and shooting fast, he would have likely fallen over pretty soon, but it was then I became convinced I needed more gun. Not for the elk presenting a perfect shot but for the elk that built their reputation as bullet sponges. For when things don’t go perfect.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I shot my first bull with a 308 Baer using 165 Partitions at 3300fps. It was a spike at 100yds. The first shot was in the lungs. He stepped behind a bush and then stepped out again. I shot him again in the lungs. He stepped behind the same bush and back out again to receive shot 3 in the lungs. He did it again but on the 4th shot he took a step as I fired and I hit him in the liver. He finally dropped after that shot. All 3 of the lung shots you could of covered with a softball and all 3 bullets were under the hide on the back side. The 4th shot exited. After that I built a 358STA and killed 5 or so elk with it before I built a 375-358STA. At the time the bullet selection for fast 35 calibers was terrible and that is why I built the 375-358STA. That is the most I've ever had to shoot a elk and it happened to be my first elk. I haven't used Partitions since. I know many people like them but I've seen them perform that way on several other elk too from various calibers. IMO you either need 2 holes, a in and out, or you need to cause massive tissue damage without a exit. I always thought the in and out holes was the best idea until I tried Amax bullets and then later Berger and ELD-M's. Now that is all I shoot. The "explosive" type bullets make smaller calibers act bigger because they do so much internal damage. The are not ideal for shooting through heavy muscle or bone though. I've only had a couple times where I've had to put a rushed shot in a elk and hit heavy muscle and/or bone. It stopped the elk but it destroyed a bunch of meat along the way.

 

[salmonchaser]

The least amount of damage I ever had was the bull I shot with the 577NE. Hole in was the diameter of my thumb the hole out only a little bigger but it was if a garden hose had been hooked to his blood supply. Lost maybe two palm size sections of rib meat.

 

[RL338]

No replacement for displacement is my motto now. 4 of the last 5 deer I took were with the 416 Wby and the other one was with my 300 Wby. 4 of the 5 were with Barnes TTSX and the other was an 500gr Hornady A-tip. Instant dead deer and no meat lost , just what I want.

 

[Blkram]

My first caribou was with a 375 Win at 100 yards...5 shots with 200 gr Power Points in the boiler room and about a 4" group as the bull was spinning and stumbling from the shots, but refusing to go down. First shot was at a relaxed bull. Recovered bullets showed classic mushrooms and were found within the thoracic cavity... the others exited. Nothing left of the lungs and heart. Caribou aren't known to be tough to kill, or for the tenacity that elk or whitetails have. But there are certain animals that just take more killin' before they give up the ghost!

 

[JD338]

I have never not had a cartridge or bullet not work for me. I always have had more than enough gun for the task at hand.
Having said that, I have had a fair amount of experience with the 338 RUM and it works very well on moose, elk, black Bear, mule deer and white tail deer. It's my favorite round for crop damage deer hunting and other than 2-3 white tails that ran a short distance, everything else has dropped in it's tracks to a single well placed shot.
Hitting a big game animal with the 338 RUM is a sight to behold.

JD338

 

[xphunter]

Wrote it in the elk thread:
As a man with not one, but two rifles (30-06 and 6,5 Creedmoor):
The cartridges vary widely through the "what have you taken XYZ with?":
What are your experiences? Going down to the 6,5 Swede for critters bigger than deer up to the really heavy hitters - did you see major differences? I guess distance matters a lot.
So what worked and what didn't (and why?)?

Distance does make a difference or changes things for me, as I want my impact velocity to be faster, way out there, hence a bigger case capacity.
Distance also brings the environmental factors, such as wind, and how varying terrain creates more complications, hence more case capacity, and reasonable BC bullets, that do a good job on elk. If, I am stretching things out, I am going to go with a 7mm or a 30 caliber for elk

 

[KinleyWater]

This is a very good question, and has raised some interesting conversation; which has morphed from what did not work, to what did not work as expected/ intended. And, beyond that, some of the conclusions drawn based on those experiences. First, thank you all for sharing, and thanks again to all on this forum for being able to do so in a respectful manner. Personally, I think one of our challenges is in finding the right tool (right load) for the intended job. I have a 200 grain Hornady Interlock load, which I had considered a general-purpose load, until I had one blow up on a deer shoulder last year. I still think it's a great load for deer, but would not consider it for a second on elk. To remedy the issue for my bear hunt this year, I loaded a 250 grain Speer, which killed my bear very dead, but not "on the spot", in spite of the damage. In both cases, the loads "worked" in the sense they killed the game animal, and in both cases, they didn't "work", at least as I had envisioned they should.

 

[xphunter]

Stretching things out for me when it comes to elk, it’s going to be in the 550-600 yards range or further.

 

[35 Whelen]

I used an old 6.5x55 to shoot dozens of big Red Stag on New Zealands South Isle. They are no harder to kill than a big Maine Whitetails, it would flatten em...... Ditto with the Chamois/ Thar.

 

[Firebird]

No science here or opinions just a story or two related to the topic.
A decade or so ago I was invited to hunt whitetails in Nebraska with a family of four grown men. I had never been there and they had been several times and had places to hunt sort of figured out. On the drive there I heard several stories about them wounding deer and lost deer and how high strung whitetails are. . .
The night before the hunt they very literally dumped a pile of loaded ammo onto the bed and started picking out the shells their rifle shot. .25-06, 7mm rem mag, 7mm stw and a .243. Even in the same caliber they had different bullets-some of the 7mm stuff was Partition and some ballistic tips. I had my 7mm-08 and feared I was undergunned for these unkillable corn fed brutes! Plus I had simple Sierra pro hunters, which were surely too fragile to kill a big buck!
My favorite story to that point was that one of them had mistakenly purchased 7mm-08 ammo for his 7mm rem mag and had actually knocked a good buck down with them. As two men approached the buck it came back to life and ran off and no surprise he was unable to get another bullet into the deer!
And he blames the bullets!!!
I killed a little 9 point with no effort and was purely amazed that the pro hunter broke the spine and still exited. I shot a doe that ran a short distance then dropped. Shot through the vitals, no fuss, easy recovery. Those guys shot and killed deer but there was another lost buck and one of the deer was hit so high that the bullet barely caught skin and I have no idea why the deer dropped at all or let the shooter finish it off at close range. The motley assortment of calibers and bullets and lack of skill still brought lots of success home as we all filled our tags.
The following year I did some load work up for two of the guys and made sure their scopes were “on.” Most of them were sighted in for 300 yards for some reason. We all spent time on the range one Saturday getting scopes adjusted and we all got to where we were using the right ammo, no more mixing calibers and types of bullets. Did you know that nosler actually makes several types of bullet-you can’t just buy a box of nosler bullets?!
That year there was no picking ammo out of a pile on the bed or guesswork. I had my old .30-06 and one of the geniuses commented that he wasn’t sure if the -06 was still a good cartridge or not. I refrained from punching him since I wanted to be invited again. The best part of course was the nice ten point I killed-the biggest their group had taken to that point. That was a Sierra gameking and worked awesome.
I went afew more years before I couldn’t take the shenanigans of that group any longer. I haven’t been to Nebraska in years but I loved that place and would like to go back and sort out a place of my own. I loved the meat and got a couple bucks mounted and shot some pheasants and quail and ducks and furry stuff along the way.
The guns and bullets all worked just fine and some shooter education made a big difference and they still go kill nice deer there. But the shooters must do their part first or the best tools in the world are useless!

 

[DrMike]

Excellent story to emphasise a truth that is too often overlooked. It isn't the arrow; it is the Indian.

 

[Blkram]

Excellent story to emphasise a truth that is too often overlooked. It isn't the arrow; it is the Indian.

Hey! That's my line! LOL

 

[DrMike]

Hey! That's my line! LOL

Really?

 

[xphunter]

Distance does make a difference or changes things for me, as I want my impact velocity to be faster, way out there, hence a bigger case capacity.
Distance also brings the environmental factors, such as wind, and how varying terrain creates more complications, hence more case capacity, and reasonable BC bullets, that do a good job on elk. If, I am stretching things out, I am going to go with a 7mm or a 30 caliber for elk

Let me add to this...
When stretching things out, I will use a the 6.5's now as well, since I have had experience with cartridges like the 26 Nosler, with the heavier for caliber bullets for elk. The exception to that is I would use a 127 grain Barnes LRX for distance with the 26 Nosler, because of it's bullet design (It has slower minimum impact velocity than most conventional bullets).