Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Breaking Elk shoulders

I was watching the net the other day and a guy was talking about how good the 7mm Remington magnum was a great all around rifle. The guy went on to say the 7mm Remington magnum was a good elk rifle as long as you shoot them behind the shoulder. He stated that if you keep trying to break elk shoulders with a 7mm Remington it would let you down (he preferred a .33 caliber rifle).

Two things he did not mention was bullet type of range.

I have only hunted elk with a .30 caliber magnum rifle and haven’t killed enough to have a opinion but I just can’t see a quality bullet from 150 grains and up not breaking shoulders.

Anyone have a good quality bullet not make it through a elks shoulder?

Man, I live to smash elk shoulders with my 7 Magnum. That stuff is pure internet or folk lore. A decently built 7mm bullet will absolutely crush a bulls front legs, no if, ands, or buts about it.

Funny. When I was a kid, and everyone in my neighborhood had to have a 7mm Remington Magnum for elk, the rationale was that it busted elk shoulders so well. It was the epitome of the westerner's "big gun."

I watched my brother shoot a big cow square in the shoulder with the original 150gr Ballistic Tip from a 280 and the bullet obviously failed. That bullet worked great on neck and ribs shots though, which is what brought down that cow. The shoulder hit caused a massive, shallow flesh wound, 5-6 inches across, but didn't bust the bone or get to the ribs. Neither of us understood anything about bullets back then, except that hollow points popped, and standard bullets didn't. I'd never even seen a bullet "fail" before.

I have killed elk witha 7 mag, .06, .308 and a few more. Most with a heavy for caliber bullet or a partition As state the quality of the bullet has a lot to do with breaking shoulders, but am not a fan of that shot.

I have read some guys say they would rather take home half an animal with shot up meat than none. I'd rather wait for abetter shot presentation and take home a whole animal with no blood shot meat

I've shot a number of elk with a 30 cal Accu-bond. It'll easily break a shoulder bone on the near side but then it falls apart. The pieces will really tear up things inside, though. One time I found the bullet casing against the far ribs but not the bullet core. It showed up months later when we cooked the heart.

What are you calling a "shoulder"?

Since you're talking about breaking it, I assume you're talking about bone. Is the bone the scapula or the heavy upper leg bone/knuckle? Or are we just talking the shoulder meat and the ribs behind it?

+1

Front or rear shoulder?

Rears are way tougher!

You're just busting our azzes with those comments...

Who me

"Busting our azzes" get it?

Should have said "busting our shoulders."

Too much meat damage but 7mm RM is perfectly capable as is 7mm-08 and 270 with proper bullet and range.

140 grain 6.5 mm VLD for me, at least twice and I suspect a few more times. Some folks have great luck with that bullet but I have not. Any other decent bullet has had zero issue breaking elk shoulders for me.

In years past, I dug a couple of mushroomed .284-.308” C&C bullets out of elk shoulder bones, scarred over from hunters past. I have zero clue about weight, impact velocity, shot angle or the like. These were years ago and bullets have come a long way since so I am not sure it is a valid comparison now.

About any bullet will just poke a hole through the blade of a scapula. You need to hit the joint between it and the humerus. I prefer to hit a bit farther back, just above the point of the elbow, not worrying about breaking the bones. Do that and you've got heart and lungs. It's not going far. I've shot 3 of my last 4 elk there and none went 5 yards..

Oh I saw what you did there buddy!

I am interested in what you think about it though. I haven't ever seen any 270-7mm-30 have much trouble breaking the scapula or the knuckle joints on elk if they were good bullets.

I’ve saw quite a few broken by the 162gr Hornady SPBT out of a 7mag and even more with the .277 150 Partition.

Never saw one fail to bust at least one shoulder and keep trucking on into the good stuff.

140 eldm's work pretty well on elk shoulders

Brad,

If that was directed at me I would say leg bone/knuckle is what I consider as the shoulder.

30-06, 165 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip @ 2940 fps mv... 340 yard shot.

Bullet blew right through the scapula, trashed everything, broke the off-side scapula, but didn't make it through. She was down & dead within seconds.

Sadly I didn't find the bullet while field dressing.



Regards, Guy