Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Breaking Elk shoulders

Mike, you need to change your sig line.

Nobody ever asks how you're doing.

no words of wisdom here ,but i used these Hammer bullets this year they seem very impressive so far on deer , but i have not shot a bull elk yet with a Hammer bullet either but i have shot 2 medium bulls and 1 giant bull that scored 376 B.C. with my bow so i see know reason why a good bullet won`t work just fine . if all else fails for you just go back to the old Nosler partitions or the new Hammer bullets ? i have skinned and capped 100`s of animals including some huge bull elk , the only bullet that i would not ever use again is a Remington Cor-Lok i have seen some poor things in the body of an animal with this bullet ,makes me shake my head. i am not a writer or work for any company so i can say the truth what i and some others have seen.

Perfect. However, I wonder if a non-partition bullet, perhaps a match bullet, would do the same thing?........

No dog in this one, but which match bullet would you use to do the same thing? Or try?

We’ve used the 220 Scenar from RUMs and 30 Noslers but only on deer and black bear so I’m all ears.

Well a 140gr eldm at 50ish yards worked pretty well for me this year. Broke the on-side shoulder and exited....

Then a few days later, damned if it didn't happen again at about 200yds on another bull. 140eldm, broken shoulder, and exit...

Thanks JH. Was not questioning if it could happen I was just wondering what you’d used or seen used.

That’s pretty bad ass it smashed that knuckle joint and trucked out the far side. That’s no easy feat for any bullet.

Thanks for the intel.

Sorry, wasn't trying to be a jerk or anything.

Nope, didn’t take it that way at all.

Anytime I can learn from others about how the different bullets work is cool with me.

Which cartridge did the 140 get launched from?

I saw piss pour results from 178 eldx's from a .308 on a caribou and .30-06 on a moose, both at close range. I'll never use them.

I used the 147 ELD on deer from the 6.5CM launched at 2775 on deer for a season. It was awesome on deer, typically awesome blender effect and I never caught one but I never shot anything really on a tough angle or drilled heavy bone. I thought they were awesome on deer. The 212 ELD from the 06 was awesome on elk, that bullet hammered a leg bone but was caught on the hide on the far side.

Jackson Handy,

Interesting information--but when you say the bullets broke the shoulder, what part of the shoulder did they break?

Shoulders can be a great place to put a bullet in the right situation or a terrible place, depending on a lot of factors you can't always control..

About 3 years ago my brother and I were hunting cow elk and came across a couple traipsing through the woods. I got to a vantage point first and a cow popped it's head out, but it was downhill from us fairly steeply. I shot aiming for the shoulder and the elk ran off and led us for a long chase of at least a mile, leaving a scant blood trail. When we finally caught up to her and ended the chase, I found the 338 WM placed the 225 Partition exactly where I aimed, but it deflected along the shoulder blade and came out the bottom of the belly, below any vital organs but did rupture the lungs only slightly on the lowest edge. Almost no meat damage and we got lucky and she fell about a half mile from a road and my other brother, son, and nephew were available to help drag it out. Had a similar experience with my son's 300 H&H AI on an elk a few days later shooting 180 Hornady Interlocks. Never did find that one and I was watching when the bullet hit the shoulder at a quartering away shot. The ripples of the bullet impact started at the shoulder and went all the way to her back hips and the blood trail was enormous but obviously not sufficient damage to vital organs. We searched for miles with everyone in camp (6 of us) ...

I prefer to put them in the lungs, but sometimes you take the shot that is presented to you...

All these stories about odd happenings when a bullet seems to be placed correctly but the bullet has other ideas.... That's why I almost always keep shooting until they fall over!
Please forget about bragging of your "one shot" kills, and don't worry so much about holes in good meat or trophy capes. Odd things happen, and an extra hole or two is just good insurance. To prove my point, watch videos of guided hunts, especially in Africa. The guide almost always has to say "shoot again" because so may hunters are in the habit of admiring their shots, are not prepared to shoot again, and haven't trained to shoot again quickly and effectively on moving, wounded game.
I'll gladly take the elk on the ground with two or three holes in it vs the one in the bush with a hole in it somewhere....

I believe in that theory also castnblast, but sometimes you just don't get a chance at a second shot... my son's elk was in a herd of about 30 elk trotting through the woods and after his shot all heck broke loose... no chance for a follow up shot without hitting another elk... just as an example...

It looked like on my elk the bullet impacted directly on the spine the runs along the scapula, but it was so phugged up it was kinda hard to tell. On my buddies bull (using my gun/ammo) I don't know as I didn't process it, just quartered and packed it out.

With the damage/trauma I observed, I have zero doubts when it comes to that combo (140 eldm / 6.5 creed). It didn't "blow up" at close range, that's for sure.

But by all means, shoot what you want.

As a disclaimer I did shoot my bull more than once. I shot him two more times off hand as he ran from my left to right. Two follow up shots were in the lungs behind the shoulder and also exited. My buddies just did the dead shuffle after the shoulder shot, on follow up damn near same hole and he dropped. He didn't go anywhere.

I think you misinterpreted my post about the 200-grain Partition--or didn't pay attention to the details.

It hit the "big shoulder joint," which on a mature elk is about the size of a softball, and not only consists of some of the hardest and thickest bone on an elk, but major ligaments that help hold it together. The bullet not only broke the joint into pieces, but the shot was NOT broadside, instead quartering to me. The bullet then went through both lungs and EXITED the rear of the ribcage on the opposite side of the bull--after penetrating at least three feet of elk beyond the shoulder joint.

That is not anywhere close to the same thing you just described. I am NOT saying those bullets' performance won't work. I have killed quite a few big game animals with Hornady bullets of various kinds, including both kinds of ELDs, some from from the 6.5 Creedmoor--and have been standing alongside hunting partners who did the same.

A good example is the 300-pound mule deer buck I killed in New Mexico a few years ago, with the 143 ELD-X. The range was only 100 yards, and the buck was standing broadside in a patch of Gambel oak where the only exposed shot was the "high shoulder." The buck dropped, and it turned out the bullet had broken both shoulder blades and the spine, ending up under the hide on the far side.

But nothing you describe is anything close to how that 200-grain Partition performed on a mature bull elk.

I'm sorry, but I don't think the "big shoulder joint" is made out of different bone. It's an elk. You use what you want, but from my experience there isn't a shot on a "mature bull" I wouldn't take from muzzle velocity to 1800fps with a 140eldm..143...147 whatever. Partitions or bonded bullets aren't a necessity and probably actually cause less trauma vs a cup/core type bullet.


It's works, because elk aren't bullet proof.

Thanks very much for your response, because it provides me with an excuse to write an essay on this entire subject--which I'll get paid for.

One of the interesting things about this subject is how few elk hunters have actually pre-tested various bullets at different velocities on various sorts of bone, including fresh shoulder joints. I started doing that a while ago, along with a friend who was interested in the same thing.

You're right--elk shoulder joints are still elk bone. But in any fairly large animal they are somewhat differently constructed, due to being weight-bearing. In fact, one basic zoological principle is that both bone and, especially, larger joints increase in thickness at the square of the rate of overall animal weight increase--along with being harder.

Have considerable experience with ELDs, especially in 6.5mm. They're very good bullets--but they're still cup-and-cores. And have seen at least four cup-and-core big game bullets of various brands from 120-150 grain fail to penetrate beyond the shoulder joint of deer, even at moderate velocities. Their remains were all found just behind the joint, lying against the ribcage. In fact, have even seen so-called premium bullets do the same thing when placed in the shoulder joint of buffalo. But that's another subject....

Thanks again!

Shouldn’t I get a cut for starting this mess…lol

I would like to see a article on this done. Start with the 243 Winchester and end up with the 338 Winchester with a 257 weatherby and a few other high velocity cartridges thrown in. I think it would be very interesting.

Looking forward to this article ...