big game rifle

[FASTFRED]

I am a firm believer in big bore rifles for western game in the elk class...Have shot both 62 and 69 cal rifles with 160 to 180 grain of FFg on many elk...They don't go far if any when a good shot is made with those calibers/loads...Can recommend a heavy caliber, if you can shoot it well, as the recoil IS something to write home about...Punishing is the word...Point of impact is the MAJOR aim of any hunter and absolutely necessary...I am not only talking about hitting where your aiming here, but also aiming where you need to strike thru the vitals...

Majority of my shots on elk have been from a sitting position at from 10 yards to 130 and a little more, but have taken some offhand shots out to 60 or so...I am confident at the longer ranges so I take those shots when a have an animal in the correct position...

Since 1991 I have been shooting a fullstock 58 cal flintlock Hawkin I built prior to hunting mountain goats in Colorado that year...Since that time I have harvested mule deer, elk, antelope, bear, mountain goat and bighorn sheep in Colorado with that rifle...Can recommend that caliber as my choice for an all around big game hunting weapon for carry weight (1 inch AF barrel under 36, perfer 34), knockdown, flat shooting, and reasonable recoil in an iron cresent butt plate...570 round ball with 120 grains of FFg, 80 to 90 grains when shooting with the guys...

I know the rifle well and my ability with it so will take shots out to 150 if they present themselves...This year's bull elk was at 130 across a gulch from a sitting position...Shot went 6 inches high and about a foot left, not great, but still entered the vitals...Not an instant kill for sure..Went 50 yards, and I waited a full hour before following up, second shot was not required...

I have had my share of misses and screwups, but have always been a good tracker so have had very few losses...Anyone who has hunted, knows that things can go wrong and do even if the right choices are made, and game will be lost...Anyone who says diffent has either never hunted or is a liar..

Enjoy my 40 poorboy flinter for smaller stuff and walkthru's and have even taken a muley with it, but don't feel it is enough for deer size game and up...

My opinion, so take a shot... ...The Lizard..

 

[Big Hammer]

Lizard gives good advice on all points. I have a couple of really good good half stock Hawkens, one a 58 and the other a 62. The 58 is 1 1/16 across the flats, 35 inch barrel. Weight is perfect, it carries like a dream, and it is ACCURATE. It also hits like the Hammer of Thor. The rifle weighs 11 pounds. Hit one with this and a patched round ball and 120 grains of Goex 2f, and he goes down and stays down.

The 62 is 1 3/16 across the flats, 35 inch barrel, and while it is a good shooter, it does not have the gilt edged accuracy of the 58. Both rifles have 1-72 twists, by the way, and both will cut playing cards. This rifle balances well, and weighs just under 13 pounds. Surprisingly, on deer, black bear, and feral hogs, it does not kill as well as the 58.

If I had to have just one rifle PERIOD it would be a 58 Hawken shooting a patched round ball. From 200 yards in, it flat gets the job done.

 

[FASTFRED]

Big Hammer is right on the money for an all around caliber for bigger game...The 58 round ball gun is very hard to beat...Shoot mine with 60 grains for cards and target gongs under 50 yards, very pleasent...

Have a 62 haft stock percussion based on a Hawkin 1/2 stock, Cherry corners lock, single trigger, flat to the wrist trigger guard, iron mounted, with a 34 inch 1 1/8 inch GRRW 1 in 72 twist barrel tapered about haft length to just over 7/8 of an inch...Was my main stay till '91 when I went flinklock all the way with the 58 full stock...

My 62 is very light, about the same as a centerfire...A REAL please to pack...Used it in a full length scabboard on the horse for years...Lost it one year in a snow storm, scabboard and all, backtracked till the snow covered the horse prints, then plowed accross the mountain side and found it hung in the brush...Was probably the most reliable rifle I have ever had and as a result probably lead me to the flinter route...Maybe it just got too easy and I was loking for more of a challange...

The 58, 62 and 69's with a heavy load and a slow twist will accurately drive a round ball from one end of an elk to the other in a straight line and end up under the skin on the far side...Believe you can make some confident shots with those calibers on elk I would not feel confident trying with a 50 cal or even maybe a 54, especially at range...

Made an uphill shot on a bull elk one year at 60 yards...Could only see his head and neck...Forehead angled down looking at me...Aimed and hit between the eyes, brain shot with no glancing off the shull business...Knew it could do it so I didn't hesitate...

Real bottom line here is not only energy (foot lbs), but the deicipation of that enery as it passes thru an animal and I believe diameter does make a difference even through it probaly can't be shown by mathmatics...Those round balls turn into a disc twice their diameter somewhere between the in and under the far side skin...If foot lbs was the bottom line and only measure, we would all probably be shooting conicals as they have the most mass per diameter and calculate out to the max foot lbs per a given velocity...

I'll leave you with a quote from an oldtimer, cowboy, and hunter from western Colorado..."Pack the biggest gun you can carry, If you can't carry it, Get a horse!"

The Best in your hunting adventures...I remember the hunts, stalks, and friends most of all and kills way down below those three...The Lizard...