So I finally got drawn for my first elk hunt that ended up being a cow hunt instead of the bull hunt that I wanted. That was OK by me because I'm in it for the meat first, and there is always next year for a bull hunt. Anyway, so my buddy and I were glassing for roughly 2 hrs on a crater ridge while we slowly walked around the outside glassing different hill sides. Finally ran into a heard of cows, roughly 8 of them or so and a few spike bulls along with them. So we range them out and they end up being about  385 yds out so I  decide to set my turrets and take a shot since they are giving me plenty of broad side shots.

I find a steady rest and take a shot at one of the older cows, shot misses I was about .5 MIL too low. We wait a few as I set my turrets back to my original zero and slowly head toward where I shot. Out of a juniper pops a younger cow and I decide to take the shot, about 350-375, using about 3 MIL holdover. First shot connects high on her left rump, she jumps but doesn't take off. I take another shot and my buddy calls the miss due to being high, take another shot and miss just left, take my last shot and connect just behind the heart/lungs(405yds). She hits the snow, struggles to get back up and disappears past some junipers. We wait it out for about 20 min and go on the look for her.

Took about another 20 min to finally find her not far from where she was shot bedded down. My buddy and I spent the next 7 hours gutting her and packing her out. I learned a ton on this hunt and it will definitely help me on the next one. The main piece of information that I took home was that 308 will absolutely do its job on an elk, however the shots should be kept sub 200 yds IMHO. I was using my DPMS 16" and hand loaded 168g TSX coming out of the barrel at roughly 2500ft a sec. At 400 yds the TSX had plenty of energy to kill, yet didn't exit which now that I look back is not good at all. If she decided to keep running there was little to no blood trail to follow, and a good chance I would have lost her.

I will be stepping my elk gun to a magnum, 7mm rem mag to be exact.

Picture of the hill side we glassed them on, and a beautiful view of northern Arizona



And the beautiful creature that is giving my family 180 lbs of food

congrats on the cow, should be 180lbs of good eats.

congrats nice pic and good eatin!

Congrats!

If there's anything better than elk meat I haven't found it

Thats what I keep hearing, the only elk I have tried was about 6 years ago and it was from an old bull. I am looking forward to the processor calling me to com pick it up

Congrats on the kill.  Sometimes semi autos are great to have,  i wish i had mine two years back when i shot in front of a monster bull on the move with my 7mag bolt gun, only had time to load one round, by the time i got my next round out of my pocket he was gone.  buck fever plus being caught off guard lead to a sad hunter.

Great story! What unit were you in? I bagged my in unit 10 on the Friday before the end of the season lol. (Talk about cutting it close). Grats on the successful hunt!

were you able to save the hide? if so what are you going to do with it?





good job.

See some people DO need 30 round mags to hunt.

Good job OP. I agree that .308 is not the ideal gun for a long shot on a mature Elk. Imagine if that was a trophy Bull?

.308 is great for deer though.

Thanks! I was in 7E, got her the second to last day. The pressure sure is on when it gets close to the wire.




I didnt save the hide as I am not sure how to, or what to do if I did save it. I would love to tan it and use it for a rug if it was something I could DIY for next time. If you have any tip I'm all ears.




LOL yeah, even though I only had about 7 rounds loaded out of 19 potential I love hunting with full size mags mostly because I can and good ol' Arizona allows it. I took my javilina earlier this year with one 69g HP but had a standard Pmag in because i could. Showed a bunch a guys at work and they all about crapped themselves, I love the responses and it flushes out some fudd gun owners who disguise themselves and "freedom loving gun owners"

If I am lucky enough to get drawn again next year I can tell you the .308 will be staying home, especially if I get drawn for a bull. I got really lucky this time but will not rely on luck for the next hunt. That said if I could guarantee that I could take a broad side shot within 200yds I wouldn't hesitate to use the .308 with the same load. The .308 will definatly get the job done but you just never know what shot they are going to give you. I was unprepared for anything over 250yds as far as my dope chart so ill take this as a lesson learned.

Not being a dick but the 308 it plenty if the shots are not in the "rump".  Of my just over 20 elk less that half fell to magnums. First shot clean hits will stop the adrenaline rush in the critter and a 168 thru the lungs is very deadly even at 308 velocitys. We all make a bad shot but shooting more with a rangefinder may help. Don't give up on the 308 just get more field type practice in.  Congrats on the first elk and welcome to a new addiction.

Not a dick at all, this was my first actual big game and am always looking for tips/advise. What is your furthest shot with the .308 and how did the bullet preform? I absolutely plan on getting more practice in and will be the first to tell you that I was not near proficient enough as I should have been. I will end up with both a magnum bolt and 308 bolt I will just have to see how both preform and how I am at distances.

Seriously? 308 is a great cartridge for elk.  For deer 270 or 243

FWIW,

The absolute best, and only drop on the shot, elk shot I have seen was a cow shot at 325yds with my 7-08. It was perfectly broadside and unaware of our presence. I ranged her and called the hold for my neighbor. She took one step backwards and fell over.

Shot placement and quality bullets are everything. Don't let that stop you from going bigger, if you can shoot bigger accurately.

Good job and welcome to the elk addiction!