Elk are a thick skinned, heavy bodied, incredibly tough animal. Over the years we have seen a lot of them lost for lack of exact bullet placement with a lighter caliber rifle. If you are thinking about buying a new rifle for western big game hunts our best recommendation would be the 7mm Remington Magnum.

The 7mm will handle everything from moose to antelope and does a superb job on both elk and deer. This caliber shoots flat and still carries a wallop at long yardage. One of the best things about the 7mm is that it does not produce bad enough recoil to commonly cause shooters flinch. Most of the hunters we know who shoot this rifle are deadly accurate with it when it is time to perform. We like the 160-grain Nosler Partition with this caliber.

In our experience the 270 and the 30-06 are limited in an elk hunting application. They are fine out to 250 yards with precise bullet placement but are very unforgiving at long yardage or on a quartering away shot.

We have witnessed a lot of problems with semi auto rifles. They tend to jam up in the cold and are generally less accurate than a bolt action at long range.

You need to know where your rifle shoots with your chosen bullet weight at all distances between 30 and 500 yards and know your shooting ability and the limitations of your rifle.

About one third of the bulls our hunters take are in light timber at distances under 100 yards. When tracking elk to their bedding areas in thick lodgepole pine, shooting distances may be as close as 30 yards.

An additional third of our kills result from cross meadow shots in the 100 to 250 yard range. Long distance aficionados account for the final third of our harvest. They are able to take advantage of opportunity for cross canyon and open park shooting out to 400 yards.

Whatever the caliber we would recommend you seriously consider bringing a gun that is of the mountain rifle design: compact scope, bolt action, medium weight stainless 26" barrel, matte finish and a lightweight synthetic stock. In a perfect world the rifle with scope would weigh under seven pounds.

A narrow sling, moderate size front scope bell (40mm) and bikini scope cover will help the rifle slide freely in and out of your saddle scabbard.
The long adjustment nobs on tactical or sniper scopes will not fit in a scabbard.