I’ve never understood the passion with which some people will defend their favorite minimalist caliber. .243 for elk? .223 for Midwestern whitetails? 30-30 for buffalo? Sure, why not. Any of those animals can be killed with a .22 long rifle. But that’s not the point is it?
Oh, but I know what you’re thinking:
I have two PhDs, one in ballistics and one in American Big Game History. I happen to know for a fact that 200,000,000 buffalo were killed with a 30-30 or smaller, and 300,000,000 elk were killed with a .243 or smaller. If it worked for the old timers it will still work today. Stop talking smack on my favorite minimalist caliber!
Right. I just said that you can kill all these animals with a .22lr. Obviously those listed cartridges worked in their time and would work today. You know what else worked in it’s time? Horse drawn wagons. Amputations without anesthesia. Mercury as a treatment for whatever ails you. Those things all worked in their time, but science provided us with better options. If someone’s going to cut your leg off, why not use anesthesia? If you’re looking at a 350 class bull in a meadow 250 yards away, why not be happy you’ve got a 300 magnum or at least a .270? If you can’t handle the massive .270 recoil you probably should be hanging with T. Michael Riddle and shooting something that can’t get out of the pen if you wound it.
Will that bigger bullet help you if make a bad shot? Yes. A .30 caliber hole in the liver is better than a .24 calliber hole. But that’s not really the question. A .30 caliber hole in the lungs is better than a .24 caliber hole. But that’s not really the point. A few years ago I was on a rifle elk hunt in Colorado that went bad when a guy who was way too pretty to be elk hunting shot a bull in the lower front leg. A massive tracking operation was undertaken in which they jumped that bull a couple of times. Let’s say you’re on that tracking team when the bull hobbles out into a clearing 150 yards away. Your opportunity is to shoot into a back hip and hope you get good penetration. Still want that .243? If you say yes you’re lying. You want a bullet with the mass and energy to bust through bone and maybe two feet of tissue before getting into the lungs. You want an elk gun. You never know what will happen on a hunt, but one thing is for sure… bad things will happen. Mistakes will be made, and sometimes you can’t wait for the perfect shot you promised you’d hold out for.
So now you’re thinking of extending my logic right? You’re about to argue that by my logic you should be shooting a .50 BMG or bigger. No. Obviously that’s stupid. What you should be shooting is whatever reasonable elk caliber you can shoot accurately and carry comfortably. For some that may be a .338 in a 6 pound gun. For some it may be a .270 in an 8 pound gun. But unless you’re a 12 year old girl I think we can all agree that you can do better than a .243.
What prompted all of this? I stumbled across this wonderful piece written by a real elk hunter. I bet he watches more elk get killed in a month than I’ve seen in my whole life. He tells the story of watching a bull get shot many times in the chest by a 7-08 and then run off (after getting shot in the jaw).
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