Do you love Elk hunting? Well Dave and I have some of the best cartridges you're gonna need on your next Elk hunt. Hello friends and lovers this is Dave Trillo and you're listening to the Ammunition Guide podcast brought to you by none other than ammo.com. Chris today we're talking about the big boys not the biggest boys in North America but ranking right up there the Elk the Rocky Mountain the Roosevelt whatever you want to call it and naturally you're not gonna use your 556 to drop one of these badminton. Yeah there are some caliber minimums that we need to talk about here for Elk and if you need any of these cartridges make sure you click that link down in the description or the pinned comment get your free 20 dollar off coupon from ammo.com and while you're there make sure you slam that like button and the subscribe button become a member here at ammo.com and join our ever growing community here on YouTube but Dave you are absolutely right we have got to have a bigger projectile for an Elk because these things are big. They're big boys and kind of put it into context they recommend that you hit a white tail with at least a thousand foot pounds of kinetic energy. An Elk they advise 1500 foot pounds and all of these cartridges on our list are definitely gonna do that now these are in no specific order but we're gonna start with the smallest one that we would recommend and go up from there to some of the big boys and our first one on our list is gonna be a bit of a newcomer to the shooting community and that is the 6.5 PRC. This is a big one that that was really designed for long distance shooting but naturally it's it's exceptional power makes it very authoritative that hundreds of yards down range for Elk it's growing quite a follow-up. Yeah the 6.5 PRC has a really cool history behind it it was developed by Hornady and they basically said okay let's make the ideal 6.5 cartridge and that's exactly what they came up with with the 6.5 PRC it's gonna give you that long range potential that if you're hunting out maybe in the great planes or you're gonna have a longer range shot available to you and this little 6.5 bullet can really pack a punch and you know the next one on our list is gonna be a classic hunting round that can definitely take a deer and it can take an Elk as well and that's the 270 Winchester. Yeah classic this one is beloved for moose hunting as well so it's certain a pack the punch you need to drop an Elk. Yeah the 270 is an incredibly versatile rifle cartridge it's great big game hunting cartridge has been used for basically everything across North America except maybe bears I don't think I'd take it bear hunting but I mean this thing has gone over to Africa. Jack O'Connor of course the name we have to mention you know attached to the 270. Yeah now we're really obligated to mention Jack O'Connor bring up the 270 it to be sure he wasn't drop an elephant or cape buffalo of it this thing the Thompson's gazelles and Gem's Bach it just dominated overdeveloped. Excellent choice for Elk and another one that's a little bit newer to the scene but I think really has the potential to kind of go somewhere is the 6.8 Western astounding long range plastics just such exciting stats behind this round that you'd love to see it become kind of standard among the planes hunters at least. This is a great choice again if you're going to be a long distance hunting now you know Dave touched on something that is really important to mention here and that's ammo availability and right now finding 6.8 Western ammo is a task if you have one but if you really like that ballistic performance that it offers it definitely has some advantages over some of these other rounds on our list. Browning and Winchester I believe for the only company's making 6.8 West. Just be aware of that if you want to get yourself a 6.8 Western but definitely check into those ballistic sails you won't be disappointed. This next round on our list another great long distance cheater that has been around for a while is the 7 millimeter Remington Magnum. America's second most popular Magnum rifle Magnum rifle cartridge. Yeah the 7 millimeter Rem mag is one of those cartridges that again really just kind of is that perfect marriage between you know the trajectory the speed and not being overly oppressive in terms of recoil. The only one kind of keep in mind about this is it's a little more available than 6.8 Western but it's still not still not the most popular rounds you could be a little bit restricted to what you what you can chamber. Yeah that's the only downside to the 7 millimeter Rem mag of course is finding that hunting ammunition that you want to find in the loading that you like so if you do find it make sure you snag it all up and make sure you've always got enough rounds for hunting season but if there's one you're not gonna have problems finding ammunition for it's got to be the 308 Winchester. That's I believe America's second most popular center fire rifle cartridge so yeah you're gonna find tons of it you're gonna find cheap training ammo and the fact is it gets the job done it works great on elk. It's one of the one of the three major 30 cows that are used for elk and the fact that it's so popular it kind of makes it I think the best first choice for a newcomer. It really is because like you said versatility is the name of the game with the 308 basically anything you could possibly want with the 308 and it just does a great job it's a really good compromise between you know the size of the cartridge giving you enough power versus not being so overly oppressive that it's hard to shoot or it's overly expensive to shoot and I think that's why the 308 makes a great choice because you can buy a lot of ammo for it even in bulk and another American classic that preceded the 308 just a little bit is the big game hunting classic the 30-Oz6 Springfield performance wise almost indistinguishable from the 308 and that's not by accident 308 was designed to replace the 30-Oz6 really it's it's you're gonna get a bigger rifle with the 30-Oz6 has a long action instead of a short but you're gonna get satisfaction of hunting with the quintessential American cartridge it really is Dave and it's one of those ones that has taken basically every game animal on the North American continent at this point from my understanding and the beautiful part about the 308 6 is there are so many different types of hunting ammunition available for it because it really fell into that role after the military moved away from it after the Korean War yep they had all those mountains of bulk and everyone could get a rifle for $12 in the mail and a 30 8 6 just became the standard American hunters route it really has and another one that is seeing both some military service right now and is seeing a lot of work in the big game hunting community is the 300 Winchester Magnum always got a point out that if you ever climb the fence outside the White House so you can pick roses and a rose garden which Chris and I do not advise doing some very serious people are gonna be looking at you through the class on a 300 win mag rifles that is right Dave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is completely covered with 300 win mags that's what the secret service is using on top of there right now to protect the president of the United States and absolutely powerhouse round that has been around for quite a while and wasn't initially made to protect the president but it was made to be a big game hunting cartridge that's true Winchester wanted to get in on that action so they introduced I think it was in 1962 they came out the 300 win mag and it just caught fire it was beloved pretty much on introduction again you're gonna find that that ammo you need to get the job done trained hunt and for a variety of applications it really does everything you could possibly ask for us so if you're looking for one rifle to do everything probably a 300 win mag is gonna be one of your top choices but yeah that 308 win mag gives you a little bit flatter trajectory than the 308 and the 30 got six like we just talked about but it does give you a little bit more push back on the shoulder when you pull the trigger but the performance that the 300 win mag gives you oftentimes can offset that if you're willing to take the recoil and we were talking about belted magnum and the last one that's gonna make our list here for the best L cartridge is gonna be actually the belted magdom that came before the 300 win mag it's the 338 Winchester mag. A classic yet you're gonna you getting even farther effective range this one only comes second to the 6.5 PRC as far as effective range is concerned. I'm not mistaken. I think you're right Dave the 338 win mag is just a powerhouse round I mean this is a big honking 338 caliber bullet going down the barrel and yeah it definitely can get the work done and it's a great long distance option available for you now it's not a three-threat lupua magdom those are two different things but yeah the 338 win mag came out first before the 300 win mag and then yeah the 300 took off after that you were gonna feel the kick on this one oh yes this is a hard puncher it is you got to pay for that power for that bigger bullet but if you want to make sure that you're putting the elk down the 338 win mag is the way to go so tell me down in the comments if you're an elk hunter what do you like carrying out in the woods what is your go to elk cartridge and what did we miss what did we leave off our list that we should have included and don't put the 50b mg because that that's not appropriate for elk okay maybe it is but guys make sure you get when you down there leave that comments let us know make sure you click that like and subscribe button and we'll see you out on the range