Math
Never shot an Elk because we have none in my country. Instead, we have lots of wild boars, that are quite smaller than an elk, but no one here uses less than 180 grains bullets in 30.06 sprg. (and we usually shoot at no more than 150 meters away). I fact, I never saw 150, 165 or 168 grains bullets (in 30.06), and I hunt for more than 15 years.
And I tell you why, using a very recent example: generally I use the cheapest ammo (prvi partizan, sellier & bellot – usually east Europe ammo) to shoot targets and more expensive ammo (federal or norma) on game, all with 180gr bullets. Obviously, I choose ammo with the same impact point, so I can switch between the cheap and the expensive ammo without surprises, lol.
Two weeks ago I spend the entire afternoon shooting prvi partisan ammo to pinpoint the scope (3-12x56), and when the night came I went to the bushes waiting for wild boars. I have a semi-auto rifle so that night I put 2 federal trophy tip bullets in the magazine and one prvi partizan in the chamber – the scope was so fine tuned that I thought that I would kill a rabbit in the eye, lol.
About 11.30pm a big boar appeared on the horizon and started to descend the hill, stopping at the middle. As the moon was not too high, there were some shadows and I couldn’t see the piggy very well (the distance was about 100 meters). But I decided to take the shot anyway. Forgetting that I was about to shoot a prvi partizan, I aimed to the front left leg.
The prvi partizan has a soft point and doesn’t have a bonded core, so expands very rapidly and fragments when hit hard surfaces. When my bullet hit the boar he dropped instantly, because he absorbed all energy. After the glare from muzzle I could see clearly the boar laying in the ground, so I laid down the gun and look for my cell phone. As I was doing that, the boar gather some strength and dragged it self to a heavy bush area near by. I call some friends with dogs and although the boar was right there, no more than 70 or 80 meters from the point he was shot down, we couldn’t find him (the bush was so heavy that we were carrying the dogs in our arms, and if we drop them they wouldn’t reach the ground by 50 cm or more lololol).
What happened was that the pvri partizan hit the boar in the front leg, on heavy muscle and bone area, expanded very rapidly and didn’t penetrate enough. A federal trophy tip, at that angle, would most likely pierced the boar one side to another (90% of bonded bullets exit the boars no matter the size, distance or angle), dropping him permanently in his tracks.
When shooting the boar, if I remembered that there was a prvi in the chamber, I would aim at the “soft engine room”, at lungs. There would be probably a run, yes, but for no more than 20 or 30 meters. And I would bring that 90 or 100kg of bacon home.
So, if you are thinking of using light bullets, do your math well. What you put in chamber determines what comes home at the end of the day, or night.
Ps: Federal ammo (with bonded bullets), here in Portugal, is about 80 euros a box of 20 rounds (1 euro is 1.25 dollars, more or less). But we can get them for 50 if we always buy from the same store, with discount. Prvi is sold for about 25 euros, but we can get them at 18 euros. Try to buy ammo from same store, to get discounts from seller. Don’t use supermarkets.
