180gr vs 200gr

[danptobin]

Which would be better for an Elk Mule deer combo hunt 180gr partitions or 200gr partitions? Rifle will either be a 300wsm or 300 win mag.

[Hellrazor]

I would use the lighter one. Flatter shooting and more velocity.

[Mike in tx]

I have never gone elk hunting but I am working up 180 grain Ballistics in 308 NM

[versifier]

I would ask the rifle and go with the bullet it likes best.

Nothing you hit properly with either one of those choices is going to know the difference.

The 180PARs work well on moose, I know that from a DRT experience, but the range wasn't really long. So do the Sierra GK's, 165 & 180SBT's, but again the ranges I have seen them work at aren't overlong.

Placement. Gutshot with the best premium bullet or a cheap remCL or a $50+ carbon fiber arrow and broadhead or a hand-whittled crossbow bolt is still gutshot. Anything through the boiler room or shattering the upper spine kills it, cast or jacketed.

You know as well as I do any rifle will tell you what it likes if you ask it, so give whichever one you choose an adequate selection of good hunting bullets and see what shoots best. Some rifles don't like PAR's, some do. Nothing but good things about Barnes X's in very large game and at longer ranges too. Some rifles don't like them, either, and some love them. Maybe you get a rifle likes most anything, maybe you get a picky witch. Some leave scars. Rifles are like women, life is what it is.

I never hunted elk, on a moose within 200yds I'd shoot a cup&core bullet I knew was subMOA accurate in the rifle and trust to careful placement, but I would rather go with a premium performing hunting bullet that was adequately accurate to the job (3MOA or 9" pieplate @ 300yds) if I had the option over a much more paper accurate c&c. Why take the chance of bullet failure on the hunt of a lifetime? Sometimes all you get is a quartering shot.

Me, I'd be thinking about the 6.5Swede and 140gr PAR's and GK's out to 300yds. Or a 175gr cast Cruise Missile within 200. Moose, caribou, deer, no reason to think they wouldn't do the same job on an elk. And the benchwork is downright pleasant compared to the bigger .30cal magnums.

[danptobin]

Thanks. Want the bullet to go through the elk but also expand well on the mule deer. The 300wsm and the 300 win mag I havent loaded for yet. The wsm is a blr and the win mag is a bpr that im bidding on with gunbroker after many tries it looks like I might finally win this one

[versifier]

Definitely test the X-Bullets along with the PAR's then. Recoil gets fierce as bullet weight increases. No need for any more than 180gr unless the rifle likes it best. I hope you get the rifle.

[danptobin]

Thanks Tom ive been trying for 2 months almost had a 7mm mag but got out bid at the last minute. Did win a 30-06 today like that alot more then any 7mm but the 300win mag is what im really after. It will be my first belted magnum. Hopefully ill be more impressed with its accurate loads the mu 7rum accurate loads. The rum seems to shoot best at standard rem mag velocities. The 30s have more bullet at any speed wich i like. I really like 35cal but to get them fast enough to shoot flat makes alot of recoil

[Hellrazor]

I have one of the baby belted mags... the 264 in a pre64. That things shoots really nice.

[versifier]

No reason to shoot a 200 in an -06 and put up with the recoil if there's a 180 that will do the job. The 180PAR's are moose killers and will shoot flatter than 200's. So will a 165PAR too (DRT @ 220yds, 870lb bull) and it shoots even flatter. Still the question remains: What will the rifle like? More bullet choices in .30cal than any other. Thousands. And so the fun begins with another rifle. I hope the rifle likes PAR's, that's always lucky in a big game rifle. In fact, I hope it's one of those .30cal keepers that puts just about everything from 150's to 180's into the same 4" circle at 200yds like my .308. But there are plenty of other different premium hunting bullets if it turns up its nose at the first choices you offer it.

I expect target rifles to be picky, directly proportional to their level of accuracy, but I hope for tolerance in a hunting rifle, that it will shoot most appropriate loads acceptably for the game to be hunted, not tack driving accuracy, but dependable minute-of-deer accuracy at whatever range you practice at. But every so often out of the blue you get a hunting rifle with both that kind of accuracy and that kind of tolerance as a gift from the loading gods for finally sacrificing those annoying proselytizing fanatics at the correct moon phase this month or some other equally unpredictable act on your part. Sometimes you're lucky enough to find more than one in the course of a lifetime. You just never know. But isn't that the fun of every new rifle, finding out exactly what you've got and what you can and can't do with it?