Bullets for Elk

After shooting several of my freinds guns, Ive finally decided on what pistol I plan to buy. It is a Ruger Super Blackhawk in 44mag.But here is where the questions begin.My prey is going to be deer and elk. For the deer, I've already had a few freinds suggest some bullets. However none of my freinds Elk Hunt so I am in the dark on whether there are any loads out there for Elk. What I am hoping to find is a factory bullet becuase I do not have much room for reloading equipment. But I may have to if there is no factory loads out there. Any of ya'll got any suggestions ?

300 grain XTP -- haha! And y'all thought I was going to say cast!

you would have but they usually are hard to find factory loaded.

280 gr. - 300 gr. Corbon ammo. There is also Buffalo Bore and Grizzly ammo.

CorBon loads the 320 grain hardcast bullet for the .44 magnum in their Hunter Line; I believe this bullet was designed by SSK Industries, ie. Mr. JD Jones, as they used to sell just the bullets and I have some. I had a cylinderful of these in my Super Blackhawk I wore on my hip when I hunted Alaska in 1985, as a back-up gun. I would use those OR the 300 XTP's as Whitworth said. Or maybe load one or two XTP's in the cylinder backed up by the hardcast, as they sometimes do in Africa.

Food for thought, let the debate come on!

Not at all hard to find. Even Federal loads the cast core line of ammo and it is outstanding. That said, I really do like the 300 grain XTP in .44 magnum.

The 44 magnum is a very popular hunting caliber & with heavy bullets its taken lots of elk. I've mostly used 250 gr Keith's but the heavier bullets (280-300 grs) are better. You don't need tons of velocity with the big, heavy slugs, find a load that you are accurate with & it will get the job done. A 100 mph fast ball is no good if it isn't in the strike zone!
As mentioned there are many good factory loads out there that will work, just stay away from hollow points & anything soft, big game requires big bullets.... & tough bullets.
I would suggest Buffalo Bore or something similar, I never shoot factory ammo so others are more qualified here.

Dick

I'd go with Nosler partitions if you can find them, in factory ammo they are loaded as the partition gold also if you noticed the first page of this sight gary was using winchester ammo in his 454 called dual bond so that may be something to look at. I too like the XTP Mags but if I had my choice I'd shoot nothing but partitions when shooting jacketed bullets but they are not available in all calibers and nosler has be revamping it's handgun partitions so I'm not sure where the 44 falls in since I don't have one anymore. If you use hardcast you have to break the elk down which means a shoulder or a hip or if close enough and confident enough a spine shot but even a shot through the vitals may end up in a long tracking job. If you've already hunted elk you know what I'm saying about how tough they are.

Ron Reed & company load a bunch of stuff in 44, including naked boolits. And, they do so at "factory" pricelines. Give them a shout, I used their stuff exclusively until I got the equipment.

http://shop.reedsammo.com/category.sc?categoryId=42

A LFN style hard cast flat point will make short work of any Elk hit through the vitails. Breaking an animal down is a good idea, but not at all a requirement. I have shot a lot of Elk sized and larger game with a wide flat point hard cast like the LBT LFN and WLFN and any shot through the vitails does not require a long tracking job.

Lynn Thompson used the Hornady factoy ammo loaded with the 300xtp in Austraia to take many Water Buffalo. They seemed to work purdy good for him, but as sixshot stated .....hundred mile per hour fast ball out of the strike zone is no good. I've never hunted elk and have no experience with game that size, but from what I seen on Lynn's video, I would not be scared to use them on elk.

Another vote for the Hornady 300 gr. XTP. Gregg's suggestion of the Cor-Bon 320 gr. load should also be very good, but I haven't tried it personally.
Bull elk can be tough. I like the 400 gr. XTP in my .475's for them.

Thanks for the suggestions ya'll !!! By the looks of what people are saying most are recomending 300gr and up. So I'll look into them and let yall know how it goes. Once again thanks everyone !!!!

Welcome to the sight JBATTE!!

Another vote for the 300 XTP!

A heavy for caliber bullet (300grs.) + through the lungs + inside 100 yards should be a good formula to follow for your Super blackhawk vs elk question. Good luck, James

I have no experience whatsover when it comes to elk, but I recently did a somewhat extensive test of .44 (.430) bullets in the 265-310gr range. I hope to have the time to write something about that test here soon.

The 300gr XTP performed very well i my tests, actually somewhat better than the 300gr Swift A-frame (which is, as I understand it, a Nosler Partition with bonded lead cores). The A-frame's precision was better, but not by much, and it is three times more expensive than the XTP.

But the maximum penetration in wet paper of the XTP - from 50 meters (55 yards) was about 54cm (21+ inches) whereas the best hard cast (not to mention the Belt Mountain Punch bullet) were in the 70-80cm (27-31") territory. So if penetration is the key, non-expanding bullets is the way to go.

However, I concur completely with James' recent post - a broadside shot on an elk within 100 yards would be fine even with an XTP, as long a major bones are not in the way. Ribcages of most elk would be less than 21". I would probably use something harder though, just to have the margins on my side.