Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Breaking Elk shoulders

I will let you know how 6mm match bullets do around oct/Nov...my guess is, just fine out to waaay further than I'm willing to shoot. (700yds +)

I think they might do ok at distance but how do you think they will do at 50 yards? In my opinion that’s were bullets will be separated.

Particularly with a direct hit on a shoulder joint...

I suspect they'll do fine from muzzle velocity to 1800fps. If I get the opportunity I'll see...for "science".

Gasp....not the shoulder joint! 😱

A very interesting, informative and entertaining thread. I have come to the conclusion that many here need to study the anatomy and skeletal structure of an elk.

I was on an elk hunt in NM about 12 or 15 years ago and after I had tagged out on a nice bull my guide and I helped another hunter track down a bull he had wounded. We finally caught up with the poor bastard and killed it after he had shot it 5x at various ranges and at various angles. I can't remember all the details, but I do remember he was shooting a 300 Win Short Mag and 165 grain Winchester Ballistic silvertips. Not one of the bullets penetrated any big bones or got to any vitals and the elk was running around the mountains with various horrible flesh wounds when we finally caught up with the elk and killed it. I asked the hunter why he chosen that particular load to shoot and he told me it was the most accurate of various factory ammo he had tried. I killed my bull on that hunt with 2 rounds out of my 300 Win mag at 425 and 440 yards respectively with 180 grain NPs. One shot went entirely though the bull breaking his off leg between the shoulder and elbow on the way out and the other all the way though hanging up on the offside hide after breaking his off shoulder.

How does this relate to this thread? In my experience, when you are shooting at large animals with thick hides and heavy bones protecting their vitals, accuracy is important, but not as important as bullet construction and performance.

Just my humble opinion.

How thick are elk hides? How heavy are the bones?

Hyperbole and Fudd lore rule the day!

I'll play. 140 match bullet impact velocity around 1800. Bull elk on and offside shoulders. Never took a step.

jake gyllenhaal wallpaper

2 years ago- first bull with my 26 Nosler. Launched a 140 Accubond at around 3400 fps - high broadside shoulder shot as this spike was in a large herd and I didn't want it to run off with the herd. Impact velocity was probably over 3000 fps at the 127 yards distance he was at. Accubond went through both shoulder blades, a rib on each side, just nicked the bottom of the spine and was found on the far side just under the skin. Bullet was a perfect mushroom but did very little damage to meat and didn't penetrate the far side skin...