Things that run through my mind while at work...

[220yotekiller]

In reality when you are hunting timber a iron sighted carbine would be pretty darn good, my wife shot her elk last year at 80 yards in thick timber, that's about as far as you can see in that area. In my opinion a lever action 30-30 or 45-70 would be ideal.

 

[chrispbrown27]

No one has mentioned it, but the famed mountain men that blazed the trails west certainly didn't have a 300 H&H in their hand. They brought down more elk and even grizzlies with those muzzleloaders than most of us will ever come close to. Hell, maybe even more than most of us will even see in our lifetime.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I know what went through that moth's mind when I hit it in the headlights last night. His butt.

 

[OntarioHunter]

No one has mentioned it, but the famed mountain men that blazed the trails west certainly didn't have a 300 H&H in their hand. They brought down more elk and even grizzlies with those muzzleloaders than most of us will ever come close to. Hell, maybe even more than most of us will even see in our lifetime.

Yep. And I'm sure there were a lot of animals roaming the mountains back then that were packing lead from the trappers' black powder catapults. If there had been better technology, they would have been using it. They went with top of the line rifles and let the Indians shoot muskets.

 

[Stocker]

Yep. And I'm sure there were a lot of animals roaming the mountains back then that were packing lead from the trappers' black powder catapults. If there had been better technology, they would have been using it. They went with top of the line rifles and let the Indians shoot muskets.

Again, the question is will it kill an elk, not if it’s the best.

 

[BackofBeyond]

Come hunt the North Idaho rainforest and tell me a .30-30 isn’t ideal.

Killed my first two elk with a .30-30.

 

[JShane]

I'm usually thinking about how much longer before I'm headed home. And on Fridays there's the ever present thought of what beer I'm bringing with me.

 

[Letthemgrow]

And on Fridays there's the ever oresent thought of what beer I'm bringing with me.

Shit . . . I thought I learned a new word on HT today and it turns out you just misspelled present.

 

[mtmuley]

Come hunt the North Idaho rainforest and tell me a .30-30 isn’t ideal.

Killed my first two elk with a .30-30.

I really want to kill an elk with my Grandfathers 94. I'm as guilty as the next guy getting caught up in the cartridge crap. Seems like these days if you don't head into the hills with the newest bestest you can't kill anything. Makes you think. mtmuley

 

[MITCHMO]

I love the history of what gun I’m taking. My old 94 comes out a lot when I’m deer hunting. I know I have to quit 20 min early and limit my range with iron sights but I know that going into it. I guess I would ask why people would think a 30-30 is no good when knowing a bow is extremely lethal. You don’t shoot an elk in the shoulder and you limit your range with both. Makes sense to me.

 

[hank4elk]

If you can't kill an elk with an .06 and a Corelokt, stay on the porch. mtmuley

Pretty sure those 1st 2 bulls suffered from corelock in 30-30 and the next 2 from the -06 variety

 

[BrentD]

Some famous western guide/outfitter guy wrote a book on elk hunting and personally perfered the .30-30 as an elk rifle. I think that is the only book I've read about elk hunting. When the cartridge came out, it was touted as the "laser" of the day and the ultimate elk cartridge. Of course they didn't really say laser I suppose. But it was a speedy "flat shooter". Personally, I like rainbows.

I'd use one, if I had one. A 93 Marlin in 30-30 would be a nice rifle for elk or anything else, if you want to go smokeless. However, I'd stick with lead/tin bullets, if I was going to hunt a .30-30.

 

[RobertD]

You people are warming my heart with these stories about killing elk with 30-30s and deer with slug guns.

Fun fact: I killed the first three deer of my life with slugs from a pump action twenty gauge that my grandpa gave me. I might need to try and knock one down with a shotgun again one day

 

[chrispbrown27]

Foster slugs out of a smooth bore will put a big hole in anything it hits. I shot a small buck one year as he walked straight at me up a hill. At first, I was dead set on not shooting him but when he got about ten feet away from me I decided I needed to defend myself. That slug hit that deer and he tumbled head over heels back down the hill. Hit him like a freight train.

 

[Stocker]

30-30 Accelerator bullets are great for coyotes. (If you can hit them, the sabots sometimes make them inaccurate) They were hard as hell to find for a while, but I thought maybe someone was making them again.

 

[RobertD]

Any of y'all ever shoot Brenneke Rottweill slugs?

We (me n @CowboyLeroy ) had those for our twenty gages. We thought those rounds, with their clear casing, were the coolest things ever. I felt like I had an RPG in my hands. Knew if I could ever hit one that baby was going down like Frazier!

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

No one has mentioned it, but the famed mountain men that blazed the trails west certainly didn't have a 300 H&H in their hand. They brought down more elk and even grizzlies with those muzzleloaders than most of us will ever come close to. Hell, maybe even more than most of us will even see in our lifetime.

Kinda helps if you hunt 365 days a year with no seasons, can use dogs/bait/poison/buffalo jumps and there are no property boundaries so you can just pursue them forever.

I wonder how “good at hunting” Boone would actually be when faced with modern constraints. Can he kill an elk in 5 days in CO confined to a little box, not allowed on private and required to use a very specific implement?

Kinda like reading the pope and young/ Fred bear/ Jack O’Conner hunting stories… man were those guys flinging lead and arrows everywhere.

Anyway to the OP I’ve killed 2 deer with slugs and 1 with buckshot. My only hesitation with an 870 for elk would be the weight, it’s just big and heavy compared to my rifles. Also if you look at the ballistics, a slug gun actually has more energy than a .45-70.

 

[BrentD]

... Also if you look at the ballistics, a slug gun actually has more energy than a .45-70.

Pretty anemic 45-70, I'd say.

 

[44hunter45]

I know what went through that moth's mind when I hit it in the headlights last night. His butt.

He won't have the guts to do that again.

 

[44hunter45]

Kinda helps if you hunt 365 days a year with no seasons, can use dogs/bait/poison/buffalo jumps and there are no property boundaries so you can just pursue them forever.

I wonder how “good at hunting” Boone would actually be when faced with modern constraints. Can he kill an elk in 5 days in CO confined to a little box, not allowed on private and required to use a very specific implement?

Kinda like reading the pope and young/ Fred bear/ Jack O’Conner hunting stories… man were those guys flinging lead and arrows everywhere.

Anyway to the OP I’ve killed 2 deer with slugs and 1 with buckshot. My only hesitation with an 870 for elk would be the weight, it’s just big and heavy compared to my rifles. Also if you look at the ballistics, a slug gun actually has more energy than a .45-70.

This -
@Big Fin aside,you want to be careful meeting your heroes. I have not met Randy. We seem to end up in a lot of the same places, just never at the same time.

There are plenty of people around Lewiston, Idaho that are not O'Connor fans. There are lots of local stories of O'Connor playing out, "We knew it was going to be a gunfight."