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Hunting & Fishing Short action elk cartridge?

That's a tough one. I have hunted with Elk hunters who shoot them all, except for the .243. All with excellent results. Good luck choosing !! It would probably boil down to which one shot the best with an Elk load I felt comfortable with. Also, the optics on each would matter (making it even harder to choose).
 
I'm going with a lightweight 6.5CM build. We have killed 5 elk with 143 ELD-X's and I'm going to load a few leftover Accubonds for my elk hunt in a few weeks.
 
I’m about to have an elk rifle built for a Wyoming trip and think I’d like to stay in a short action.

I’d like a little more punch than a 6.5 creed, and I’m not worried about recoil, barrel life, etc.

Suggestions?

Thanks again for the suggestions. I had to postpone the hunt but decided to go ahead and try out a 7mm Sherman Short mag.
 
I killed a big bull with a 270wsm pushing 140 accubonds. 1 shot thru the lungs, took 2 steps and went down. I'm currently having my old 300wsm rechambered to 6.5PRC and would not hesitate to use it on elk. If you don't reload the hornady ammo has done well for me too.
 
I killed a big bull with a 270wsm pushing 140 accubonds. 1 shot thru the lungs, took 2 steps and went down. I'm currently having my old 300wsm rechambered to 6.5PRC and would not hesitate to use it on elk. If you don't reload the hornady ammo has done well for me too.

Thanks - I used to reload everything but time is a little harder to come by these days. One thing I liked about the Sherman vs some of the other wildcats is being able to buy bass from them without having to form anything.
 
You will still need to FF 7SS brass. It will come similar to the 7SAUM brass and requires fire forming.
The good thing is my fire forming loads were still .3-.4 MOA @ 85-90% top end speeds. I used quite a few for hunting.
 
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Keep the 6.5SS, 7SS, and 300SS reports and input coming!

The 300SS shooting 215Bergers withing 100fps of the WM with quite a bit less powder sounds interesting.
 
I second the Sherman Shorts! I've got a long action 6.5 Sherman and have been contemplating adding a 7SS to the safe.
 
I had a 6.5 SAUM built this past year for elk, mulie, and antelope hunting.
 
My buddy just nailed his second one down in New Braunfels here in Texas with his old 30-06 and no it wasn’t on a nice high fence private game ranch.

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