.308 for Mule Deer and Elk?

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All right some great information here on this thread and some that is NOT right at all!!!

Birdbuster,

Sir you are giving out some REALLY bad information about Colorado hunting.

You can buy over the counter elk tags no problem no worries. You can buy left over elk tags online right now with nothing but the stroke of a key. I have two elk tags this year a bull tag in unit 7 10-20 through 10-28 and a cow tag in unit 471, 11-3 through 11-9. That is 16 days of elk hunting for $80.00 for the two tags. If that is big bucks to you sir you need to stay home. You can't afford hunting.

PS there are 1100 left over tags for bulls in unit 7 alone! thousands more in all the other units!

Go get on the Colorado DOW web sight and have a little look see under left over licenses.

I also bought a left over deer tag in unit 105 and an over the counter archery tag in 104 and 105. There are also left over antelope tags.

As far as bird hunting goes i hunt dove out here to the east. there are thousands of acres of planted sunflowers and other game bird attracting fields out here. Sometimes the dove hunting is Argentina hot some times it's cold it depends on the weather more than anything. I have never paid to hunt birds out here. Most guys will let you hunt on their property if you ask nicely.:)

The waterfowl hunting is also fantastic up north.

Gaiudo,
IT IS NOT TO LATE TO BUY A BIG GAME LICENSE AND GO HUNTING THIS YEAR. Do not let this piss poor information on this thread get you down. If you have any questions about how to buy a license for the 2007 hunting season please feel free to PM me. That goes for any of you guys wanting to hunt elk this year in CO.

AS far as the .308 and hunting elk or mule deer my personal get er done .308 Win load is the Federal HE 180 gr Nosler PT.

If your rifle will shoot them it is a "killer" load for the .308. 5 round cap for hunting in CO.

Just to reiterate there are THOUSANDS of left over licenses for elk for this season on public land they are $41.00 for a resident.

Go hunting and I want pictures of you and your elk and your M1.:cool::)
 
That M1A is going to get real heavy at 11,000 feet. You are going to be climbing some real steep slopes. The weather will go from below zero to 70 degrees or better in a day. The .308 will do the job. I use 165 gr boattails. My 308 is a Remington 700. I also shoot reloads. After the first year hunting for elk I got a .300 Winmag. I use 180 gr bullets in it. Better down range terminal ballistics. Last year I went to lighter rifle, a Winchester .325 with a fiberglass stock. Better terminal ballistics yet. 220 gr bullet. I would strongly suggest that you pick up a 30.06 with a 3x9 varabile with a wide field of view.
They have them on sale this time of the year. Sight it in with 180 gr bullets.
Pick a good hot accurate load. You can get over the counter left over tags. You just might not get the area you want. Good luck.

If you want a place to sight in PM me.

Semper Fi
 
Gaiudo,

Here's the skinny on 308 vs 7.62x51mm that you have to worry about.

Typically, 7.62x51 military is loaded to slightly less pressure. Military brass also has much thicker case walls, so using milsurp brass, smaller charges give the same pressures. Of all the commercial brass I've tried, I like Winchester best. It holds up well and has more capacity so you can squeeze some extra velocity from it without running high pressure. Remington is too thin and Federal is too soft.

You'll get a max of about 2600fps from a 165/168gn bullet in a 22 inch M1A at reasonable pressures. This is more than enough to get the job done. Many loading manuals have loads specifically for the M1A as opposed to stabndard 308.

The few rounds you'll shoot hunting won't hurt the gun even if they are fairly hot. You can safely use just about anything sold over the counter, but stick to bullet weights under 175gn.

Just recall that this rifle was designed for ammo like M80 ball - rounds around 150 gns at about 2800 fps.

The current load I am playing with is 43.5 gn AA 2520 under a Speer 165gn BTSP. 165gn Sierra game kings also perform very well in my rifle.

Don't worry about blewing up the rifle. Just stick to loads in the middle of the range and work on accuracy. 2500-2600fps is normal and very effective.
 
Just your typical deer rifle.

GunTech ~ Nice! Might have to make room in 1 of the vaults.

Gaiudo ~ 308 will work just fine for both . . . as H&H said: Send pics!

Have a ball!
 
Unfortunately I will be missing big game season this year. I am home in December for a couple of weeks but I will not have time to prepare otherwise I would look in to a plains deer license. So I will probably just hunt small game and or geese. I will have to look on line to see what will be open season wise.
 
Great info, I'll be spending my time this week either reloading or else getting tags.

It sure is nice to be part of a community that can figure stuff out. Thanks! I'll post more questions as they come, as I try and figure this Colorado hunting thing out. I admit, its a whole new word out here! However, the incredible amount of public land and walk-in partnerships makes me want to learn the system really fast.

The only thing that complicates it is that I only got my CO driver's license a couple months ago. Boy, did THAT throw a chink in things! I went in yesterday to get tags, and they require six months after the license change, regardless of how long you've lived here. So, I bought all my smallgame and waterfowl as a non-resident, and will wait a couple months until I'm resident to see if I can still pick up some left overs. I just can't pay 500 bucks this time for an elk tag, when there's plenty enough otherwise to keep me busy.

I'll be getting into doves this next week, hopefully, and then spend some time exploring the area. I'll get a Wyoming antelope for now so I can get into some big game. Too bad, my ignorance did bite me in the tail this time, but I hope to make the best of it.

Nick
 
There's been some really bad information posted in this thread about CO hunting rules and regs. Go to http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting to get the real stuff. Seasons aren't all the same length, and you aren't restricted to one combined season. You aren't restricted to one license per specie. You aren't too late to buy a license, and finally, residency isn't based on when you change your drivers license, unless it's been changed in the last year or so (I don't think it has.)
 
H&H
I want to hunt elk this year in Colorado. All it would take is time off a plane ticket and don't tell my wife I came back and headed straight to the mountains. Just kidding it just happens to fall right outside of my leave schedule and next year if I come back the tax man will get me so I will have to wait until 09 but I have put in for preference points for all my tags as well as Bighorn preference points. So in 09 I will live on the mountain chasing big critters. Until then I will be content to chase varmints and waterfowl in December. And who know I might get to go to Africa next year since I am close already and have to stay out of the country. We will have to see how everything works out.
 
Seasons aren't all the same length, and you aren't restricted to one combined season. You aren't restricted to one license per specie. You aren't too late to buy a license, and finally, residency isn't based on when you change your drivers license, unless it's been changed in the last year or so (I don't think it has.)
Click to expand...

ORG,

Thanks you sir! And you are correct whoever told Gaiudo that residency is based on the amount of time you've had a Co DL is WRONG! I am guessing he went to a Walmart or some such to get his license and was edumatcated by one of them there license professionals.;) It is based on when you first moved here. I've seen that same crud posted at a walmart before it's wrong.

Poor guy has been getting some really lousy information.

Quicktime,

I wish you the best for your upcoming hunting season and I am all for your Africa plans. GET ER DONE!
 
Reaaally......


Yep, got the "walmart" treatment, was told that my DL had to be issued six months ago before I could apply. Also, the website license application requires a DL for hunting purposes, so I assumed that was the way it worked.

Just need to get someone to accept something like my electric bill or whatnot.

Thanks, THAT was enlightening.

Nick
 
My thought on the M1A is I ain't getting any younger and totin' that thing over mountain canyons would be a chore. I'd rather hunt with my little M7, myself. I'll also echo that I prefer my 2x10 Weaver to any fixed 10 power for hunting. I leave it set on 2x when walking, use higher powers only if needed. I ain't one for high power scopes while hunting on foot. Sitting in a stand, frankly, I'd rather have 4-6x, nowhere near 10. But, a variable cures any power problems.
 
MCgunner,

I think scope power has a lot to do with terrain. Where I hunt, there is a lot of open country mixed with greenstrips. When I hunted antelope, I had a 3.5-10X leupold. I had it set on 10x the whole time, as shots were in the 300-500yard range. A fixed 10x would have been fine, and that is what I am going to.

Conversely, the area where we hunt whitetail ovccasionally has a shot over 300 yards, but you can also have snap shots a 50 yards or less, so I plopped a 2.5-10x Nikon on my M1A.

Yes, the M1A is a tad heavy, but after hauling around a 17 pound 40X last year, it's going to feel mighty light.
 
I limit my range to no more than 400 and hopefully less than 350. My range finder only goes to 400 yards and usually only about 350 due to poor target reflection, but that's fine cause I ain't making any longer shots. I'll get closer or I won't shoot. I have made 350 yard shots on coyotes with it set on 3x. I don't see the need for more than 6, really, especially for elk. Only time I ever use 10 is at the range. If you trip over a mulie in heavy cover, a 10x ain't gonna cut it. I've done that even in rough country with sparse vegetation in New Mexico.

My little M7 weighs about 7 lbs with scope and sling. It totes about as easy as my contender, LOL, and it is a 1 moa gun. That's what I'll tote in rough country. I've carried my Savage 7 mag in the mountains. It's about 9 lbs with a rather heavy 3x9x44 Weatherby Supreme scope on it. That thing gets old fast in rough country.
 
H&H,
I haven't even tried for elk this year, nor do I care to hunt them due to the enormous size of the animal (Don't have the freezer space). I mentioned elk, but addressed my misfortune with deer and antelope. And if there is a way to hunt in more than one of the short 7-8 day deer seasons then I would like to know about it. If you think that Colorado has a hunter friendly system set up then you must have a screw loose. That is my opinion and I am sticking to it.
As far as money, I don't recall knocking any such tag costs. I was talking about the costs of paid and/or guided hunts. Next year I won't have to deal with Colorado anyway.
 
bullelkCusterCounty.jpg

You're right that elk and mule deer are larger than most white tailed deer. But it is thickness of the chest wall and shot placement that at a hunter needs to consider most of all. Even a 750 lb herd bull can not stand up to a well placed soft nosed bullet that strikes the chest from a broadside angle.

Doesn't really matter what the diameter of the bullet is as it flies toward the target. What DOES matter is how the bullet behaves when it strikes thick hide and heavy bones on it's path to the chest organs. For example, a Premium bullet fired from 6.5mm Swede will out penetrate 338 MAG. I know this to be true as I've guided many Easterners and Californians. I've seen the innerds of many bull elk!

I've taken 17 elk with my .308 and most fell to plain 180 grain Remington core-lockt bullets. No kidding. But since 2000, I've been greatly pleased with Winchester Fail Safe 150 grain bullets. Years ago, I was very focused upon hand loading the 165 grain Sierra Game King for maximum velocity and trajectory. But truthfully, it killed no better than plain 180 grain factory ammo.

You'll have no problems toppling Colorado big game with your .308 if you wait for a good shot and make the first one count. But plan to shoot the bull again in the chest. The magnum fanatics don't comprehend basic math but two well placed .308 bullets cause far more damage than one 340 Weatherby MAG bullet. Check the charts and do the math if you disbelieve me!

Good hunting to you.
TR
 
I load 140 Barnes X bullets for hogs. Very tough bullet, solid copper, 100 percent weight retention, and the SD of a 160 grainer. They work great on hogs. Wondering if anyone has used 'em on elk, or at least a Barnes X of some weight? It's got a great BC, too, and shoots faster than a 150.
 
I saw a Barnes X taken out of a deer; wow. I imagine it would do great on Elk. GunTech, have you tried the Barnes X in the M1a? Or was that too "slippery" as well to cycle properly?

I looks like I'll be hunting antelope in Wyoming here in a bit, as the extra tags are only $41 (doe and fawn). Anyone know how to properly grill antelope? I've heard they can be kinda stringy. And as I'm in Aurora, can anyone suggest a decent area in WY to buy an antelope tag for? Looks like a friend of mine and I are going to head up there next month and crawl around a bit. If there are good locations in the South-Central/South-West portion of the State that could cut down our driving time. On ammo, I imagine those 150grain Federal partition cartridges would work just fine on antelope. Probably not as flat shooting as the SGK's, but I've got tons of the 150s to shoot up.
 
Have not tried X bullets. Haven't seen any for a while. I am curious to see if the Nosler E-tip will function.

For my turnbolts. I've been using TSX exclusively. They take a bit more work to shoot accurately, but they will shoot like match bullets.

Here's 5 rounds at 100 yards. 0.221 CTC

tsx.jpg
 
I've been thinking of picking up a lighter turnbolt for the longer mountain hunts, something like the Remington Mountain rifle, or similar models. Those TSX bullets would be quite the ticket to shoot through them. Any hints on the loads you're using?
 
Another Vote For Tsx

They are awesome performers on game and as you can see are match grade in accuracy.

This is a group from my .375H&H 20" carbine.

375tsxgroup.jpg
 
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Gaiudo,

The load is on the target:

168gn TSX
41.5gn VV N135
LCM brass
CCI BR-2 primer

The trick with TSX is to get the seating depth correct. Barnes recommends 0.030-0.070 off the lands. You will have to play with the depth until you find the 'sweet spot'. It will be very evident, as group sizes will suddenly shrink.

I load several rounds at each OAL - 0.030, 0.040, 0.050, 0.060, 0.070 and see which groups best. Then I tweak depth again in 0.001 incremenets when I have a rough extimate of ideal seating (did I mention I was anal?)
 
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