“Who wants to go on an elk hunt?” our Editor-in-Chief asked. He’d gotten an invitation from Federal Premium to try out the company’s new 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak round on a Utah elk hunt, and was unable to attend. After waiting what I deemed an appropriate amount of time to let my co-workers respond (approximately 4.5 nanoseconds), I responded in the affirmative. I believe my exact words were something that we can’t put in a family publication, but I was quite excited for the opportunity.
I came to hunting later in life. Much later. While many might start off as a child or young adult, I officially started my hunting career well in my 40s. Sure, there was the occasional varmint shoot with invasive squirrels or prairie dogs, but I consider that more reactive target shooting than hunting (because, no, I don’t eat prairie dogs, and the squirrels were, let’s say, not on the menu at the time). It’s certainly not due to a lack of interest, but simply a lack of opportunity. I never had the good fortune to hunt with my dad or grandfather, and had to more or less figure things out on the fly. That said, when I get an invitation, I’m pretty certain to accept.
So, elk. That’s a significant departure from whitetail deer (I’ve taken two of those, one with a rifle, one with my truck, but that’s another story entirely) or feral pigs (I’ve taken a bunch of those as well). The few deer hunts I’ve been on so far have been either standard deer blind or spot-and-stalk varieties, with guides in trucks or side-by-sides helping to locate and select appropriate animals in the latter. One of the advantages of coming into hunting later in life is I don’t have a lifetime of preconceived notions about hardware and abilities; I don’t have scores of deer racked up with my grandfather’s Winchester Model 70 in .308 Winchester nor decades of experience behind a Marlin 336 in .30-30. I mention this to point out that the idea of taking an elk with 6.5 Creedmoor didn’t phase me, even though the internet tells me confidently that such a task is impossible.
Now, yes, even as a clear novice I know there are combinations that just aren’t ideal. I’m not about to try to take a whitetail deer with a .22 LR, nor would I consider going after a black bear with something less than a .30-caliber. I have a good friend who favors .17 HMR for feral hogs, and (according to him) he has had quite a bit of success with that caliber. Shot placement, in hunting as in the self-defense realm, is key; but there’s simply no reason to take chances in either. Analyzing the energy of the 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak, it has approximately the same energy out to 800 yards as 6.5 PRC. Given decent shot placement, it should be more than sufficient on elk.
I’ll write up the details of the hunt in a separate article, but the gist of it is, I took a 335-yard shot across a valley at my elk. The impact was slightly farther back on the elk than I had intended, and as a result, he took off running—but only made it about 50 or 60 yards before stopping and bedding down. Since he was still moving (slightly) and it would take us quite some time to get to him, I set up to take a second shot to ensure the kill. After maneuvering to get a better angle (he had bedded down behind vegetation, so we moved accordingly), I was able to take a second shot that struck him in the neck, killing him on the spot.
Upon field dressing, the amount of blood loss from the first shot made it clear that the second shot, while certainly helpful in ensuring the animal’s suffering was at an end, was most likely unnecessary—that bull didn’t move from the spot where it laid down initially. The combination of the excellent Fusion tipped bullet and the extra velocity provided by the +Peak ammunition did precisely what it was engineered to do: create massive disruption to incapacitate the animal quickly. While I was initially concerned that my first shot hadn’t been enough to decisively stop the bull, given that he immediately started running, the short distance he traveled before stopping and laying down made it clear that the bullet (and the shooter) had done its job.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the extra velocity added by the +Peak helped contribute to an efficient kill, even on a good-size elk. We were unable to recover the bullet, but the magnitude of the devastation caused was evidence enough that the velocity had been sufficient to allow it to expand completely. While I’ll never know if my second and final shot was absolutely necessary, it certainly ended any question I might have had, in the moment, about the fate of my elk. The accuracy of the Federal Premium 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak allowed me to take a difficult shot at a fair distance, on a small target, with confidence. Power, accuracy and controllability, well, you really can’t ask for more than that.
I’ll add that the other hunter in our group using 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak got within 100 yards of his elk, and his first and only shot downed it immediately. While we all know that anecdote does not equal data, so far, in my experience, the 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak certainly seems sufficient even on an animal as large as an elk. For those who might think that the 6.5 Creedmoor isn’t enough for large game, I understand that one hunt with two elk killed might not change your mind. Given the performance of this round, however, I suspect there will be plenty of supporting data in the coming weeks, months and hunting seasons.
