Deer to elk, 60 yards to 600 yards ... what rifle are you grabbing this year?

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I hunt the big body, Roosevelt Elk, in the black timber rain forests and clear cuts of Western WA State. When hunting the timber I use a 444 Marlin® with a hardcast handload of 300gr LFNGC from Beartooth® Bullets. Conversely when sitting a clear cut where a shot can be "Really Out There" my gun is a Ruger® No 1 in 7mm Remington® Magnum. It is loaded with Hornady® 154gr SST® Superformance® (#8601).
 
I have a personal limit of 400 yards on game, but if I had to stretch that I'd use my Tikka t3lite in 30-06. Just went and shot it a few hours ago and it's ready for deer and elk season. It'll get shot a few more times in the next few weeks, but my first cold bore shot center punched the 1" aiming dot on my target. Second one was right next to it. It'll do...
 
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Sako A7 again for me in 30-06. Still flinging those 180g Accubonds at 2,875 with a full case of Reloder 22.

Sorry for the double picture…. If elk wasn’t on the menu, I’d be shooting a lighter caliber. But it is on the dinner plate thank goodness!

That rifle must be named "killer". !!!

Lighter caliber? Naw...just load her down if you need a lighter caliber. Down to .303, 7.65, 300 Savage or even .30WCF if desired. And in .30 caliber, a bazillion-million-quadrillion choices of bullet weights and styles. I love the .30US, we don't need no stinking lighter calibers! :)
 
Hmmm, 100 to 600 yards. Well, that is possible where I have my tag this year, though I shot my deer in the same area last year at about 40 yards with a .30-06 Tikka and 168 grain Speer HotCor over IMR4350. Given the possibilty of a long shot on elk out to 600 yards, I would opt for my favorite High Power Metallic Silhouette rifle: Tikka T3 Lite in .270 Winchester with a Vortex Viper 6.5-20x50 shooting the Berger 140 grain Hunter bullets over IMR4831. This particular rifle will put 5 rounds inside 2-3/4" at 500 meters (roughly 547 yards) so little worry about 600 yards.
 
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Well, it turns out that I lied about which rifle I was going to grab but not about the critter or the range. For all those that had a hissy fit at the idea of shooting at an animal 600 yards out, I shot this nice white tail at 156 yards yesterday afternoon after getting within 200 yards undetected and belly crawling to a large fence post 156 yards out. I waited for an hour or so for him to stand up and then dropped him like a sack of spuds. I could have shot him from the house which would have been about 375 yards but given the conditions yesterday (shooting position and wind) there's no way I was going to do that.

It was difficult to get a photo of him bedded down so I was surprised that I was able to get a half decent shot of him. The view is taken from where he dropped and the tractor bucket is 72" wide to give some idea of his size. He's about as big as I've seen up here.

In case anyone is wondering why I don't have a sling on the rifle, it's because I don't like sling swivel studs and I don't like the alternative eye bolt/stud sling system that Tikka uses since it's too noisy. I ordered some QD cups from GrovTec last week that will be here tomorrow. I should have taken care of this months ago but it slipped my mind.

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That's a Dandy !

Thanks. :) I've been watching him for a few months and thought that he'd been poached a few weeks ago. My neighbors called me to tell me that they found a dead buck on their property, a nice 5x4, so I suggested that they call the game warden. He came out and informed my neighbors that the buck had been shot with an arrow or a bullet, couldn't tell which given the decomp, and I asked if I could have the antlers since I suck at finding sheds unless one falls on my head!

I'll probably get this one mounted to join the mule deer and elk on the wall.
 
I know this isn't the knife forum but I do want to give a shout out to the Casstrom knife that I've now used on three elk and two deer. I'd rather have a Kydex sheath for it as opposed to the fancy leather thing shown, but for a do it all, super sharp, extremely practical, easy to clean, fixed blade hunting knife I don't think I could find anything significantly better. The blade is 3-7/8" in length.

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Well, it turns out that I lied about which rifle I was going to grab but not about the critter or the range. For all those that had a hissy fit at the idea of shooting at an animal 600 yards out, I shot this nice white tail at 156 yards yesterday afternoon after getting within 200 yards undetected and belly crawling to a large fence post 156 yards out. I waited for an hour or so for him to stand up and then dropped him like a sack of spuds. I could have shot him from the house which would have been about 375 yards but given the conditions yesterday (shooting position and wind) there's no way I was going to do that.

It was difficult to get a photo of him bedded down so I was surprised that I was able to get a half decent shot of him. The view is taken from where he dropped and the tractor bucket is 72" wide to give some idea of his size. He's about as big as I've seen up here.

In case anyone is wondering why I don't have a sling on the rifle, it's because I don't like sling swivel studs and I don't like the alternative eye bolt/stud sling system that Tikka uses since it's too noisy. I ordered some QD cups from GrovTec last week that will be here tomorrow. I should have taken care of this months ago but it slipped my mind.

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nice work! what cartridge load and suppressor? please
 
**** a little blacktail Forky today at 80 yards. So I let him down easy with a Ruger $1 in 270 wby.

I'm opportunistic. You shoot what you find. Kind of hard to put a stand up in Oregon. It's also illegal to bait. Elk, you gotta pay to play and then work your ass off.
Last year, I saw 3 bulls. At 2400 yards. I didn't even think about taking a shot. So, for elk, I bought another rifle. Winchester 1885 in 300 PRC. That'll hold out to 600 if I can do my job.

I'm ok with my results, but I may have to break out the 300 H&H if Winchester doesn't get my rifle back before Elk season.
 
nice work! what cartridge load and suppressor? please

Thanks. I used my favorite factory hunting ammunition i.e. Federal Premium Vital-Shok 180gr Trophy Copper. Quite the mouthful but I've shot more than a few Trophy Copper variants and haven't found any factory ammunition that will match it for accuracy and terminal performance. I've shot three elk and four deer with .300 WM and .308 Win Trophy Copper loads from a little over 100 yards to a little under 400 yards, never recovered a bullet and no animal has gone more than 10 ft before expiring. Did I mention that the stuff is accurate?

The suppressor is a SilcencerCo Omega 300. It does a great job of directing the noise away from the shooter. I clearly heard the bullet "thud" as it made contact with the deer.

For the record, if you're of the opinion that a 180gr bullet with a MV of 3,000 fps is too much for a white-tail at 156 yards you won't get any argument from me. I would have much rather used a .308 Win but it didn't work out that way.
 
I know this isn't the knife forum but I do want to give a shout out to the Casstrom knife that I've now used on three elk and two deer. I'd rather have a Kydex sheath for it as opposed to the fancy leather thing shown, but for a do it all, super sharp, extremely practical, easy to clean, fixed blade hunting knife I don't think I could find anything significantly better. The blade is 3-7/8" in length.

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I like the knife, where did purchase it ?
 
I like the knife, where did purchase it ?

It was a gift from the owner of Spartan Precision but you can buy them from bladehq.com . They have the black handled version of the knife I have and an orange handled version of the 4" blade. That Sandvik 14C28N steel is the bees knees. I've always liked Scandinavian design and quality and Casstrom is no exception. There are similar knives on Bladehq but often made from junk Chinese steel.

Casstrom No. 10 SFK Fixed Blade Knife Black Micarta (3.75" Satin) - Blade HQ

Casstrom No. 10 SFK | Fixed Blade Knife | Orange G-10 (bladehq.com)
 
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