Best western elk rifle under $1,000

I like the advice about a slightly less expensive gun or smaller caliber, however, if I have roughly $1500 to spend ($1000 on the gun, $500 for the scope), why not spend a little more and get a Winchester M70 or Ruger Hawkeye, rather than a Remington 700 or the like? I’m just curious about this, because I’m sure you guys have much more experience than me.
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There are plenty of Remington 700 rifles you can't think about buying for 1k. Rem700 is a better rifle than the Hawkeye. Nothing wrong with a Win 70, but it's no better than a 700.
 
My go to rifle for 20 years was a .270 Win. It’s been on more Elk, deer, and antelope hunts than I can count. Your .30-30 or .375 will do just fine.

Load your .375 with some 270 or 235 grain bullets for something flatter shooting than the .30-30 if you want, and have at it.

You don’t need the biggest magnum around to hunt elk, I’ve seen them taken with 7.62x39. More important to me would be hunting with a rifle and load you have experience with, and confidence in.
 
Crankylove said:
My go to rifle for 20 years was a .270 Win. It’s been on more Elk, deer, and antelope hunts than I can count. Your .30-30 or .375 will do just fine.



Load your .375 with some 270 or 235 grain bullets for something flatter shooting than the .30-30 if you want, and have at it.



You don’t need the biggest magnum around to hunt elk, I’ve seen them taken with 7.62x39. More important to me would be hunting with a rifle and load you have experience with, and confidence in.
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Absolutely agree!
 
On fitness. When my son was i the Navy he brought a fitness freak home for a weekend. We spent a lot of it down where I used to train, lot's of hills. Damn near killed the guy! You might be good to go in Pa but air get's a lot thinner out west!

The best western elk rifle. Well what do you consider best? I use a 1903 custom Springfield 30-06, works fine. Have killed three with my 6.5x06, one shot each. I don't own a stainless rifle and you couldn't give me one, same goes for plastic stock's. I don't think you want to know my idea of best.

The farthest I've ever shot at a game animal is 330 yds, a deer and did it just to say I did. Lot of people from back east get some strange idea's in their head about what is needed to hunt out here! I've had two 338 mag's and a 7mm mag. You couldn't give me another magnum of any kind! Probably the best hunting rifle I ever had was a Rem 660 in 308 with a 20" barrel. Some how my kid has it now!
 
FrankenMauser said:
You don't need "long range" capability for elk. You just need patience.
Anything suitable for Mule Deer will do an Elk just fine, given the same respect and understand of the cartridge's and rifle's capabilities.
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Yup, perfectly stated
The vast majority of game Ive taken over nearly the last 10 years has been with a 77/357
Range is typically 100 yards and under (which is 'real' hunting IMO) this includes Elk
I live in the Southwest 'high desert' and hunt from about 5k to over 10k elevation
 
"You don't need "long range" capability for elk. You just need patience."

Define "long range" in the context of this comment.
In general, I adamantly disagree with this comment when referring to those who don't live in or close to elk country. Let's say an out of state hunter has 3-5 days to hunt. That hunter doesn't have the luxury of "patience" most of the time.
IMHO, the hunter should carry the most powerful rifle he can shoot accurately and be prepared to take or limit his shots to the range at which he can assure proper placement.
I've shot elk as close as 40 yards and as far as 400 using 7mm RM mag and 300Win mag but can no longer handle those big boomers. My hunting partner used my 25/06 to make a one shot kill @ 354 yards last December proving that under certain conditions, a .28" + magnum is NOT required. Under other circumstances and hunting conditions, I wouldn't even consider such a small caliber for general use.
 
Depending on the conditions of the hunt, i'd emphasize the rifle weight and quality of glass as mentioned above. Unless you are being carted somewhere by a Sherpa, most elk hunting I've done involved ridiculous hikes, rugged terrain, and terrible weather. The shots taken in low light, after the rifle has been banged up while strapped to the side of a pack. Last thing you'd want is a cheap scope mount to bump off zero, or a fogged / dark lens resulting in bad shot. Sometimes you might wait for days to pull the trigger once, so no room for missing.
 
OP seems gone, but I’ll give it a go.


To me, a person should be looking to shoot elk somewhere around 300 to 500 yds max range with a normal rifle. Elk can be shot further with specialized setups, but those weigh a lot more.

Frankly, I would be out looks no for a 7-9 lb std rifle with a 1-2lb scope and mount setup. I would be looking at 270 win through 300 Win mag in cartridges. They’ll do the job without excessive recoil.

If you want lightweight, Kimber makes some nice light rifles. Otherwise Winchester m70 or Ruger would be my choice. Winchester builds one of the nicer rifles out there, IMO, but Ruger makes a nice rifle with integral scope base. I think I would buy the Winchester.

Now, here is the trick. You sound like you live a flight away from your hunt. That tells me you will have quit a bit of money into a hunt and failure would be expensive. This is why I have and practice with iron sights on my rifle. Well, those aren’t exactly common anymore. I ended up going with a Ruger African in 6.5x55 to get these. They also made that in a 7x57. Might be worth paying somebody to put them on your rifle or buying one with them.
 
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" most elk hunting I've done involved ridiculous hikes, rugged terrain, and terrible weather."

I did my share of those when I was younger. No longer young, I'll admit my last two elk were shot from the passenger seat of the guide's Toyota.
 
The .300 Winchester Magnum is far too much gun for deer anywhere. Never mind elk. There's no game, of any kind, in North America that requires a .375 H&H or any other magnum, including the biggest bear there is.
Any non-magnum .25 calibre and up will do nicely. Which commercial hunting rifle makes little difference. They're all pretty much the same thing.
"...air get's a lot thinner out west!..." It's not the 'west' part that makes it thin. It's all that 'up' that thins the air. https://elknetwork.com/how-to-avoid-altitude-sickness/
 
The .300 Winchester Magnum is far too much gun for deer anywhere. Never mind elk. There's no game, of any kind, in North America that requires a .375 H&H or any other magnum, including the biggest bear there is.
Any non-magnum .25 calibre and up will do nicely. Which commercial hunting rifle makes little difference. They're all pretty much the same thing.
"...air get's a lot thinner out west!..." It's not the 'west' part that makes it thin. It's all that 'up' that thins the air. https://elknetwork.com/how-to-avoid
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You go hunt a Griz with a 257 Roberts if you like. What people "need" is a very subjective topic. You get right down to it, we don't "need" to Elk hunt. Most of the "magnum is overkill" crowd just wish they could handle the recoil and shoot them well. If I am going to hunt Elk, what is wrong with me taking my 7 RUM instead of my 7-08? As far as that goes, when on horses and not lugging it around, what's wrong with the 338 Lapua?
 
T O'Heir being from Canada, doesn't understand need has very little to do with things in the good O'l U.S. of A! We often own what we do because it's our right and we can. I may be wrong, but people who grew up in firearm restrictive countries have a difficult time understanding this.
 
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Wow, thank you everyone for such great info! I got more information and help that I could’ve asked for!

It seems like the consensus is to buy a more reasonable caliber and to focus on being light and durable. Seems like solid advice. I’ll keep my eyes open for a good deal on a rifle, and I’m not going to restrict myself to only a 30 caliber magnum.

However, if I can comfortable shoot a bigger magnum, why not go for it? I don’t mind shooting my .375 H&H at all, and I can shoot a .30-06 all day.
 
Shooter2675 said:
I don’t mind shooting my .375 H&H at all, and I can shoot a .30-06 all day.
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I don't know what your .375 H&H weighs but usually they are heavier rifles plus the recoil impulse doesn't seem to be as fast as the newer magnum rifles. The .375 H&H usually feels like a heavy push, a light weight .300 Magnum will usual have a sharper recoil. You can add a muzzle brake to your rifle to take the recoil, but you pay with increased muzzle blast that can cause you to flinch as bad as sharp recoil.

What type of rifle is your .30-06, from your first post I gather it is some kind of full dress military rifle 1903/A3, 1917, or M1? I can tell you these are heavy rifles that take recoil as well. From experience I can tell you that I don't want to shoot many 180 grain loads from my FWT .30-06 and I tend to stick to 150-165 grain bullets or less.
 
Define "long range" in the context of this comment.
In general, I adamantly disagree with this comment when referring to those who don't live in or close to elk country. Let's say an out of state hunter has 3-5 days to hunt. That hunter doesn't have the luxury of "patience" most of the time.
IMHO, the hunter should carry the most powerful rifle he can shoot accurately and be prepared to take or limit his shots to the range at which he can assure proper placement.
I've shot elk as close as 40 yards and as far as 400 using 7mm RM mag and 300Win mag but can no longer handle those big boomers. My hunting partner used my 25/06 to make a one shot kill @ 354 yards last December proving that under certain conditions, a .28" + magnum is NOT required. Under other circumstances and hunting conditions, I wouldn't even consider such a small caliber for general use.
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Call "long range" 350-600+ yards.
Most western hunters do fill the majority of their tags (deer, elk, antelope, javelina, moose, whatever...) at less than 200 yards.
But, most of us also have plenty of 300-400 yard shots in the archives, as well. (I have never met a hunter that doesn't, except for a guy that filled all of his tags from his kitchen window each year.)

On some hunts, the animals, weather, migration timing, whatever it may be, makes for a hunt that may require a longer shot than desirable. But stretching out to 350 yards is substantially different than just saying, "I don't have time to get closer!" and just launching bullets at the first (seemingly) legal animal that's seen a 600+ yards.

Let's say an out of state hunter has 3-5 days to hunt.
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Depending upon the state, unit, and season you're hunting, that may be all that resident hunters get.
There are big game seasons in a couple western states now that are TWO days. That's it. Two days. No one has much time - resident, or not. ...But that doesn't mean that everyone should start sending Hail Marys across the canyons and sage flats, in hopes of connecting at 800+ yards ... and then trying to figure out how to recover the animal when they realize there's a river or shear cliff in the bottom of the canyon.


Patience is absolutely required, unless you're no longer hunting. If you're just killing animals from the passenger seat of your guide's Toyota, then patience is optional.
 
There's not any game yet that I've encountered in north America that couldn't be taken with a well-concealed grenade buried in a bait pile.
 
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