I started Elk hunting last year, but was unable to harvest an animal. My question is concerning ammunition choice. I shoot a 300 WSM, and I hand load all my ammo. I have some loaded in 150 grain Ballistic Silvertips, which will work but I feel may be light. Should I go up to a 180 or even a 200 grain bullet?

 

Would you need to depends on who you ask. I personally would bump up to a 180gr or bigger bullet just because I like to have a lot of knock down power. I use a 300 wsm 180 gr Xp3 bullet in my loads. I love that round it packs amazing punch and it is accurate to boot. You will get a ton of different answers to this so the main thing is make sure that you can place the round where it needs to and you will be good to go.

 

I think the shock wave will make up for the light load, but next time you load some up step up a notch.

 

ditto on the 180gr- that will do you good for those big ol' montana elk. off topic- whats your elevation? parents house got a couple early inches the other night from the passing storm

 

No sir. Elk are big critters and I'd use a larger bullet, but that's just me. I don't want an elk or other animal wandering off because I was trying to save myself a couple ft/lbs of recoil or whatever.

 

IMHO I would go no lighter than a 180 grain. Although I hunt deer in north central PA there is a huge elk herd there so I am no stranger to the size of these animals.

I use a 150 grain .270 for deer and wish they made a 180 grain in that caliber.

Best of luck with your hunt this year and post some pics of your success!

 

They do make 180 grain .277 caliber bullets, and Modern Reloading (2nd Edition) by Richard Lee has a few loads for 180 grain jacketed .270 (as well as 160 grain jacketed). I am not aware of anybody that manufactures ammunition in that format though. Its been a while since I had a .270, but I could never find anything bigger than 150 grain.

eta... this made me curious, so I looked around for a couple minutes and found some 160 grain manufactured rounds but haven't found any in 180 grain.

I live on the hillside of Butte around 5400 feet or so. Homestake pass, which is right next to Butte, is the Continental Divide at 6500 ft or so. And yes, I woke up early labor day and there was snow on cars and roof tops. It snowed until about 8:30 am. Higher up it actually stuck to the ground for a day.

 

A 180 grain 300 WSM will kill anything in North America. Lots of people try to over-do it. I have a question for people who say "bigger, bigger..." Have you actually had a well placed shot on a large animal NOT kill it?

In 2004, I shot a Caribou at 225 yards with a 62 grain .223 (AR-15). It took one step, and died immediately.

 

I couldn't agree more, its not just the size of the bullet but the velocity.

 

No.... but thats not the point. Regardless of how good you think you are, mistakes happen. We are only human. While I know a 150 grain will down an elk, I do have a couple concerns. First is, even with a well placed shot, how far will the animal travel. This is important when hunting in the mountains. It goes too far, and becomes much more difficult and dangerous to retrieve the animal.

Secondly, a responsible hunter will use enough bullet so that a imperfect shot will still kill the animal, rather than just wound it. Take for example, 2 years ago I was deer hunting with my 300 wsm, 150 grain handloads (probably a little over kill). I took a shot on a doe at about 300+ yds. Cross wind, deer angled towards me at about a 45 degree angle, and about 100 ft below me. I missed by about 3-4 inches, which because of the angle ended up being a shot missing the lungs/heart and instead hitting the gut, and exiting the hindquarter. Because of the size of the round, it put the animal on the dirt. Had I used say a 110 grain load, she would have been able to run off.

 

I disagree. There is nothing wrong with that load for that animal at that distance. I think the responsible/sensible thing to do would be to work on your aim and/or not take a shot you're not comfortable making. There is nothing worse or more cruel than wounding an animal and not finding it.

I am not knocking your shooting ability, I just don't agree with using a bigger bullet to make up for a misplaced shot.

 

Just for the record, in the military I never qualified below expert for both rifle and pistol. I put hundreds of rounds a year through my hunting rifles, and have put thousands of rounds through my pistols (over 10,000 through my 1911 alone). I consider myself a pretty decent shot, but very minor mistakes in wind and/or elevation adjustment can put your round off. The shot I described, I was very comfortable with the distance. I have made shots at that distance many, many times. Anybody that has hunted in that part of the country will tell you 300 yd shots aren't uncommon. I judged the wind at about a 6 inch hold at that distance (~10mph), if the distance is closer to 350 yds wind adjustment should be closer to 8-9 inches. If its still 300 yds, but wind is ~15mph your adjustment again goes up to 8-9 inches. And for the record, I don't have a range finder or a wind speed gauge so I have to estimate the old fashoned way.

That being said, I'm not knocking your choice. Nor am I saying that 150 grain bullet isn't big enough with a well placed shot. I also agree with you that there is nothing worse or more cruel than wounding an animal and not finding it. My argument is, I feel the responsible thing to do is to use enough bullet so that an imperfect shot still downs the animal. Which in wide open, windy country imperfect bullet placement happens frequently regardless of how well you prepare.

 

Oh... and for those interested, I did some loading today.

50 rounds total
180 grain Nosler Partition
62 grains Hornady H4350
CCI Mag large rifle primer
30 New Winchester Brass and 20 once fired Winchester Nickel plated brass
Using my RCBS Rockchucker and RCBS dies.

According to Ballistics tables, I should be shooting about 0.6 inches lower than the 150 grains, which will put me at 0.9 high at 100 yds and 0.6 inches low at 200 yds with my current setup. I'll probably go out and re-zero at 200 yds before the season starts though just to be sure.

 

For people who really know how ballistics work, I've got no problems with what they choose to shoot... leave it up to good judgment and call it good

Being from Alaska, and an avid hunter, I get questions all the time, like "how come you use a .300 WM on moose? I'd use a .375 HH" (or whatever, fill in the blank) A couple months ago, I was at a Cabelas (in TX)just killing time when a guy was at the counter and said he was heading to Alaska on a bear hunt, and what he should take. The guy behind the counter says "oh, I wouldn't take anything smaller than this .460 Weatherby" Arghh, I just shake my head.