8 Great Elk-Killing Calibers You Can Depend On

Elk are awesome. They are big, stinky, and during September and early October, bulls bugle. The haunting sound of a deep, guttural bugle will rattle your bones and speed up your circulatory system.

With each passing year, the romanticism of elk hunting grows. Assemble a panel of hunters who've never been west of the Mississippi River and ask them the one animal in North America on their bucket list, and you'll get the answer of "elk" more than any other.

For this reason, the price of outfitted elk hunts has risen. It's challenging to find a quality outfitted elk hunt for under $10K. Of course, there's always the do-it-yourself route, but if you're a non-resident and want to go the DIY route, be prepared to shell out $1,000 for an elk tag. No, I'm not trying to discourage you from coming West and chasing elk. You absolutely should. I'm just painting a picture of the expense.

Why?

So, when you earn your one opportunity at a bull elk, you'll have a rifle/ammo combo that gives you supreme confidence and will lead to meat for the freezer and a set of heavy antlers for the wall.

Here are eight excellent elk calibers to consider.

.300 Win Mag

The very idea of choosing one elk caliber for the rest of my hunting days makes me nauseous, but if my hand was forced, it would be the .300 Win Mag.

Introduced in 1963 by Winchester, this highly versatile .30-caliber cartridge was an immediate hit with big-game hunting enthusiasts. Derived from the still-popular-today .375 H&H Magnum, Winchester shortened the .375 case, blew it out and necked it down to accept a .30-caliber bullet.

The .300 Win Mag sizzles, and when you combine velocity with a high ballistic coefficient bullet, you get extreme accuracy and deep-penetrating knock-down power. Elk are big ungulates. It's not uncommon for a mature bull to weigh more than 700 pounds. Their bones are dense, and their physical toughness is unrivaled. Still, the biggest of bulls is no match for the .300 Win Mag.

Another benefit of the .300 Win Mag is that it's an excellent crossover caliber. Ammunition is easy to find, and bullet grain weights between 150 and 200 are standard. I prefer a 190-grain bullet, such as Winchester's Expedition Big Game AccuBond LR, for elk. The bullet posts a muzzle velocity of 2,900 fps. For medium-sized game, such as deer, I prefer Federal's 165-grain, 3,080 fps muzzle velocity Fusion Soft Point.

7mm Rem Mag

Introduced by Remington in 1962, the 7mm Rem Mag is arguably the best all-around elk caliber of all time. With a bullet diameter of .284 inches, the 7mm Rem Mag produces less recoil than the .300 Win Mag, and bullet offerings in a variety of styles and grain weights are available.

The 7mm Rem. Mag shoots high BC (ballistic coefficient) bullets at a high velocity, which means less bullet drop at longer ranges. My go-to 7mm Rem Mag bullet is Hornady's 162-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter. I've killed elk to 562 yards and clanged steel to 1,200 yards with this .631 (G1)/.318 (G7) BC, 2,975 fps muzzle-velocity bullet. At 500 yards, bullet drop from a 24-inch barrel is 35.6 inches, and the ELD-X bullet hits with 1,860 foot-pounds of energy. Elk goers love the 7mm Rem Mag because it's offered in a variety of rifle styles and barrel lengths, and it produces less recoil than the .300 Win Mag because it still delivers maximum lethality.

6.8 Western

A newcomer to the growing list of favorable elk calibers, Browning's 6.8 Western brass wears a .277-inch bullet. It is a short-action caliber that enables a shorter cycling stroke when firing a bolt-action firearm. Though factory ammunition is difficult to come by—made only by Browning and Winchester—this caliber has what I call the "it" factor.

A shortened .270 WSM, the 6.8 Western allows for longer, heavier bullets with higher ballistic coefficients to fit in a standard short action. Pushing a heavy-for-caliber bullet at high speed with pinpoint accuracy has created a cult of 6.8 Western shooters, and that cult continues to grow.

Over the past two years, I've harvested two elk—one at 101 yards and one at 330—both with Browning's 175-Grain Long Range Pro Hunter with Sierra Tipped GameKing bullets. My six-shot chronographed speed rating, using a Browning X-Bolt 2 Hunter Composite bolt-action rifle with a 24-inch barrel, is 2,810 fps.

The short-action 6.8 Western promises performance with significantly less recoil than larger magnum calibers. Recoil reduction is so significant that my 13-year-old, 110-pound soak-and-wet son will use the X-Bolt 2 Hunter Composite chambered in 6.8 Western on an upcoming pronghorn hunt. My son, Brody, discovered he could shoot, remain in his scope and make a quick follow-up shot if necessary.

7mm PRC

I have a love affair with Hornady's 7mm PRC. In 2023, I harvested two bull elk and one enormous 564-pound Colorado black bear with Federal's Terminal Ascent 155-Grain 7mm PRC ammo. The TA bullets scream from the barrel at a tick over 3,100 feet per second, and to date, it is the single most accurate caliber I've discovered.

Hornady launched the 7mm PRC late in 2022, and its popularity as an all-time great for elk continues to grow. This caliber delivers high energy and high ballistic coefficient with pinpoint accuracy and extreme knock-down power. Using the .375 Ruger parent case, which allows for more case capacity than the 7mm Rem and the .280 Ackley Improved (also referred to as two calibers in this article), the 7mm PRC utilizes a fast 1-in-8 twist rate in most barrels to stabilize bullets weighing 180 grains or more. With G1 BC ratings in the .650-plus range, the 7mm PRC creates less side-to-side wind shift, less drop and is just flat fun to shoot.

While Hornady's 175-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter ammo is ideal for elk, I've had excellent terminal results on elk, deer, bear and pronghorn shooting Federal's 155-grain Terminal Ascents.

.280 Ackley Improved

If you forced my hand and told me that I could only have two elk-killing calibers in my gun safe forever, the .280 Ackley Improved would be my second choice.

Over the years, I've taken down multiple bulls, bucks, bears and pronghorn with this wildcat cartridge. Parker Otto Ackley, a top-tier gunsmith and cartridge designer, gained fame for developing the .280 Ackley Improved. What I love about the caliber is that it's offered in several ultra-light mountain hunting platforms, such as those from Kimber, Browning, Weatherby, Christensen and others.

Comparable to a 7mm Rem Mag with significantly less recoil, I've taken numerous elk at distances ranging from 200 to 500 yards. Although I wouldn't recommend shooting a mature bull beyond 500 yards, ammunition like Nosler's 160-grain AccuBond Trophy Grade ensures precise accuracy and devastating killing power on big bulls.

It's an outstanding, all-around big-game caliber I rely on often. I know several sheep guides who brand the .280 Ackley with 160-grain AccuBond Trophy Grade as the deadliest sheep pairing ever created.

Loaded with Nosler AccuBond bullets, the white polymer tip ensures smooth sailing accuracy and flawless chambering. Like many bullets designed for precision accuracy, these Nosler bullets feature a boat-tail base to facilitate expansion. Big mushrooms make big holes.

28 Nosler

My first experience with a 28 Nosler was watching my best buddy dump three shots into a sub-5-inch group into the lungs of a 737-yard bull elk. Two months later, I used the caliber to shoot a 536-yard aoudad in Texas. It's a killer caliber, and the shortened and necked-down .300 Rem Ultra Mag case allows for increased powder density. Ballistics are excellent, and because the caliber powers heavy-for-caliber bullets at such high speeds, wind drift is reduced.

One problem with the 28 Nosler is the limited selection of ammunition. While the caliber is becoming increasingly popular, it is not readily available, especially in box stores. My good buddy, Jason Weaver, the fellow who crushed the bull at 737 yards, is sold on Nosler's 160-grain AccuBond Trophy Grade. The bullet hits with 2,080 foot-pounds of energy at 500 yards and, if zeroed at 200 yards, only drops 29.8 inches, which is impressive.

300 PRC

Hornday's PRC lineup is impressive. In 2023, I took down bull elk with Hornaday's 6.5, 7, and 300 PRCs. I wanted the PRC Slam, and I got it. While the 6.5 PRC is a tick light for elk, the 300 PRC is everything elk hunters could want and a bag of chips. Additionally, the caliber is suitable for hunting moose and grizzly bears.

Developed by Hornady in 2018 to meet consumers' demand for high-performance, long-range .30-caliber cartridges, the 300 PRC is now firmly rooted in elk-caliber lore. As with many calibers in this article, the 300 PRC pushes long, heavy, high-BC bullets at high speeds. This reduces wind drift, drop, and bullets like Hornady's 212-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter crush. In 2023, I made a 364-yard, cross-canyon shot with a stiff left-to-right crosswind on a 300-plus-inch 6x6 bull elk. The bullet impacted exactly 1.76 inches right of the mud-stained spot I was aiming at. The bull was dead before he hit the ground.

Although the caliber produces more felt recoil, especially when paired with an ultra-light rifle platform, it is a flat-shooting killer that ensures maximum terminal performance on elk. And unlike the .300 Win Mag, the 300 PRC doesn't require deep bullet seating to fit in a more standard magnum-length action, which means more case capacity, resulting in increased velocity.

.45-70 Government

I'm a horseback hunter, and there are times when I prefer to slip through dense, dark timber looking for bedded bulls. When I do, I prefer a fast lever-action rifle in a caliber that will take down a bull elk. The .45-70 Government is one such caliber.

Not a long-range elk-killer, I recommend keeping shots inside of 150 yards. Most .45-70 Government rifles feature short, maneuverable barrels, making ammo like Winchester's Super-X ideal. I like the 300-grain .45-70. The 300-grain jacketed hollow point ensures explosive impact and consistent expansion. A straight-wall round, the bullet leaves the muzzle at a respectable 1,880 fps, and if zeroed at 100 yards, the drop is a manageable 12.2 inches at 200 yards.

Final Thoughts

Think about how you like to hunt elk or how you dream of your elk hunt happening. Match your rifle caliber to how you hunt, spend time testing different ammo options and getting to know your new elk rifle, and chances are good you'll be driving home with a rack in the back of your truck and a Yeti full of protein-rich meat.

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