Coues Sniper Report post Posted March 21, 2017 If you have a good load with the amax's, stop there. Excellent hunting bullet, and you can stop the money spiral testing new loads. Thanks Coues Sniper, Yes I have great groups with the A-Max Bullets however last season my son shot his bull elk with it. He dropped the elk in its tracks, he was flopping around for a couple of minutes so we got closer to put another round in him and he just got his footing and took off. Very Little blood (4 drops) and to make a long story short we could never find him. I feel if we had a better bullet like a Berger or ELD-X the initial devastation would have been greater and we would have never lost that bull. I have shot many Coues Deer with the A-max with no problems but an Elk is a lot bigger. I just never want to have that happen again... Sorry to hear that happened to you. The Berger and A-max are similar bullets in that they are both thin jacketed and frangible, so I imagine performance in your situation would have been similar also. Having said that, I wouldn't likely use the 168's for elk either as I prefer overkill. My elk/deer hunting rig is a 300 Norma pushing the 230 grain Bergers. Good luck to you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firstcoueswas80 Report post Posted March 21, 2017 If you have a good load with the amax's, stop there. Excellent hunting bullet, and you can stop the money spiral testing new loads. Thanks Coues Sniper, Yes I have great groups with the A-Max Bullets however last season my son shot his bull elk with it. He dropped the elk in its tracks, he was flopping around for a couple of minutes so we got closer to put another round in him and he just got his footing and took off. Very Little blood (4 drops) and to make a long story short we could never find him. I feel if we had a better bullet like a Berger or ELD-X the initial devastation would have been greater and we would have never lost that bull. I have shot many Coues Deer with the A-max with no problems but an Elk is a lot bigger. I just never want to have that happen again... That sounds like a shot placement issue, not a bullet issue. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stallone A. Report post Posted March 22, 2017 If you have a good load with the amax's, stop there. Excellent hunting bullet, and you can stop the money spiral testing new loads. Thanks Coues Sniper, Yes I have great groups with the A-Max Bullets however last season my son shot his bull elk with it. He dropped the elk in its tracks, he was flopping around for a couple of minutes so we got closer to put another round in him and he just got his footing and took off. Very Little blood (4 drops) and to make a long story short we could never find him. I feel if we had a better bullet like a Berger or ELD-X the initial devastation would have been greater and we would have never lost that bull. I have shot many Coues Deer with the A-max with no problems but an Elk is a lot bigger. I just never want to have that happen again... That sounds like a shot placement issue, not a bullet issue. Yes I agree maybe 2 or 3 inches lower and we would have never had that problem. It was my sons first big game hunt at 12 yrs old, He probably caught him in the back strap and stunned him for a while. However there are better hunting rounds than the A-Max and every little bit counts. All he needed was 2 extra seconds... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firstcoueswas80 Report post Posted March 22, 2017 If you have a good load with the amax's, stop there. Excellent hunting bullet, and you can stop the money spiral testing new loads. Thanks Coues Sniper, Yes I have great groups with the A-Max Bullets however last season my son shot his bull elk with it. He dropped the elk in its tracks, he was flopping around for a couple of minutes so we got closer to put another round in him and he just got his footing and took off. Very Little blood (4 drops) and to make a long story short we could never find him. I feel if we had a better bullet like a Berger or ELD-X the initial devastation would have been greater and we would have never lost that bull. I have shot many Coues Deer with the A-max with no problems but an Elk is a lot bigger. I just never want to have that happen again...That sounds like a shot placement issue, not a bullet issue. Yes I agree maybe 2 or 3 inches lower and we would have never had that problem. It was my sons first big game hunt at 12 yrs old, He probably caught him in the back strap and stunned him for a while. However there are better hunting rounds than the A-Max and every little bit counts. All he needed was 2 extra seconds... dang, that's a bummer! Sorry to hear that for your boy. Did your son dust himself off and get back in the game? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stallone A. Report post Posted March 22, 2017 If you have a good load with the amax's, stop there. Excellent hunting bullet, and you can stop the money spiral testing new loads. Thanks Coues Sniper, Yes I have great groups with the A-Max Bullets however last season my son shot his bull elk with it. He dropped the elk in its tracks, he was flopping around for a couple of minutes so we got closer to put another round in him and he just got his footing and took off. Very Little blood (4 drops) and to make a long story short we could never find him. I feel if we had a better bullet like a Berger or ELD-X the initial devastation would have been greater and we would have never lost that bull. I have shot many Coues Deer with the A-max with no problems but an Elk is a lot bigger. I just never want to have that happen again...That sounds like a shot placement issue, not a bullet issue. Yes I agree maybe 2 or 3 inches lower and we would have never had that problem. It was my sons first big game hunt at 12 yrs old, He probably caught him in the back strap and stunned him for a while. However there are better hunting rounds than the A-Max and every little bit counts. All he needed was 2 extra seconds... dang, that's a bummer! Sorry to hear that for your boy. Did your son dust himself off and get back in the game? It was the last 2 hours of the hunt when he shot him. He hunted for 5 days put 20 miles on his boots and said he can't wait to go again. So I think he wants to get back as soon as possible. The Question is when... Hopefully he will get a coues deer tag this year. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
308Nut Report post Posted March 23, 2017 I've used many amaxs on a variety of game. I also have had great results on deer size game. I've had bad experiences with them on moose. I wouldn't trust them on elk either unless it was the 208. Even then, I'd try extra hard to keep it out of bone. With that, I don't know how much better the eldx will be. If you want an elk load, consider an accubond or similar? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost85 Report post Posted March 23, 2017 I have had a lot of success with amax bullets on a variety of animals. I shoot 130's out of my 6.5 and 285's out of my 338 lapua. I guess bullet construction isn't as critical when it weighs 285gns though. Elk are tough animals. When they are hit high, it always knocks them down and if you don't get the spine, they get up and take off, regardless of the bullet. I have seen it happen close to 10 times i bet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
