big bore

[cowman]

Hello witch is a better cal for elk. Plese no grey area thanks Jerry

 

[BrownBear]

Plese no grey area thanks

There is no black or white in a gray world.

 

[longcruise]

Hello witch is a better cal for elk. Plese no grey area thanks Jerry

Talking round balls here!

.54 is well proven. Anything larger would therefore be as good or better.

.50 is also used. .50 is grey area for me but others have fine success with it on elk.

Anything under .50 is probably a poor choice, IMO.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Not knowing your hunting background or shooting ability, I'd vote for the bigger bore size.

 

[roundball]

Not knowing the hunting conditions or the average shot distances in your hypothetical, without hesitation I'd reach for my .58cal.
Far rather have plenty and not need it than pass on a trophy because I needed it and didn't have it.

 

[gsday]

As others have said, "bigger is better".

Practice, Practice, Practice!

.54 and up will do fine.

Many guys have killed elk with 50's, but as a general rule .54 and up.

I shoot a rifled .62.

Greg

 

[cowman]

thanks for the replys my pic would be a 54 withround ball and about 120 grs I hope that to be good to 100yds thanks jerry

 

[longcruise]

thanks for the replys my pic would be a 54 withround ball and about 120 grs I hope that to be good to 100yds

Nothing wrong with 120 if your rifle shoots it well. Just FYI though, we have proven on several occasions that a .54 ball driven by 80 grains of ff or fff is deadly on elk. Just sayin.... :grin:

 

[Kentuckywindage]

50cal with a good quality conical, no problem!

54cal + for patched balls and pushed with a good dose of powder.

 

[cowman]

barns 300gr pistol bullets are supper deadly and kill as well as any high power at 100 yds or so but I like using round balls thanks jerry

 

[Rat Trapper]

Hello witch is a better cal for elk. Plese no grey area thanks Jerry

I'd go with a 54 a Hornady great plains conical, Ox-Yoke felt wad over powder and 120 grains of powder. In my younger days I worked for an outfitter in Colorado. An elk can go places that will make you wish you had not shot him. Make your shot count and use enough gun will make things a lot better.

 

[Herb]

Well, a .58 is better than a .54 is better than a .50, roundballs. Here is Don Coombs with a .58 Bill Large-barreled Hawken by Ike Bay of Oregon, which I had to adjust some and then work up loads for. His load was 130 grains of Goex 3F with a roundball. A load of 120 grains in a .50 might have killed this elk, the same load in a .54 would have, but the .58 did. He hit the large front leg bone, which is where bigger is better. Any of those balls would have gone through the ribs.

 

[roundball]

It's a powerhouse for sure, and at distance too. After using .40/.45/.50/.54cals, then shooting PRBs out of a .58cal I knew I truly had a big game caliber in my hands.
Personal opinion is year in and year out a .58cal PRB arguably offers the best balance/combination of velocity/trajectory/energy/penetration for big game

 

[BrownBear]

Personal opinion is year in and year out a .58cal PRB arguably offers the best balance/combination of velocity/trajectory/energy/penetration for big game

I'm with you. Bigger is certainly better when there are questions of adequate performance.

Following that line of thinking, I even verged beyond 58 to 62 caliber since I'm in serious bear country. I had to back down to 58 caliber, because by the time powder charges were high enough (160 grains of 2f) to give the trajectory I wanted, I was getting beat up too badly. I can shoot 120 grains of 2f all day long in a 58 without discomfort.

I might come back around to a 62 if I put together an English sporting rifle or some other model with a straighter stock and bigger butt. But for now, in the guns I own, hot 62's are a little beyond me.

 

[cowman]

oh yes thatis solid talk and the 130 gr 3f is right on i think that is the right track with a round ball thank you very much Jerry

 

[BrownBear]

Then you get into the question of ball weight. In pure lead a .490 round ball weighs 177 grains. A .530 weighs 224 grains, a .570 weighs 279 grains, and a .610 weighs 342 grains.

 

[Spikebuck]

I even verged beyond 58 to 62 caliber since I'm in serious bear country. I had to back down to 58 caliber, because by the time powder charges were high enough (160 grains of 2f) to give the trajectory I wanted, I was getting beat up too badly.

Brownbear: May I ask what your trajectory goals were? I ask because I am sighting in my .62 Jaeger I built at this time. Right now I'm playing with 100 gr 2F KIK and a .600 roundball. At 25 yards this made a group slightly larger than a quarter (5 shots)and about 1 1/2" high. Just this weekend I worked on 50 yards...same load...and was about in the bull...so I lost around 1 1/2-2" from 25 to 50 yards. I suspect that at 100 yards I may lose another 5 or 6". 100 yards is pretty much my limit with open sights.Even at that, if I sighted in 2" high at 50, I suspect I have a "single point of aim" load with 100 grs and a 325 gr Round ball.

Just curious what others trajectory is on 62's...maybe I'll lose more than another 5 or 6 " from 50 to 100. My goal is a 0 to 100 yard load that's good enough to put it in the lungs of a whitetail with pretty much a single aiming piont (give or take a tad).

 

[BrownBear]

Brownbear: May I ask what your trajectory goals were? I ask because I am sighting in my .62 Jaeger I built at this time.

I sight in all my "big game" guns (anything used for deer or larger) to hit point of aim at 75 yards. With that, I want them to also be hitting no more than about an inch or inch-and-a-half high at 50 yards and not more than about 3"-4" low at 100 yards. Any more than that, and my little pea brain has trouble keeping track of sighing adjustments! :rotf:

Seriously, what I'm after is "point blank" holding anywhere out to 100 yards. If it gets too high at 50 I have trouble with head shots on small game, and if it gets much over 4" out at 100, small sighting errors or mistakes in range estimation are too likely to cause me to miss or wound.

 

[Spikebuck]

Brownbear: Thanks for the info. Your goals and mine are not much different (except that with a .62 rifled firearm I'm not worrying about small game). So will be interesting as I progress with my load workup on my 62 Jaeger how close I come and with what charge.

 

[BrownBear]

...except that with a .62 rifled firearm I'm not worrying about small game....

Actually I recommend you give some thought to that. Using reduced charges in large cals to head-smack small game is about my favorite form of practice. It gives me many days more field time per year with the big bores than I ever manage for big game. And all that field time and all those mushy bunny heads sure pay dividends when I do manage some big game hunting.