Lightweight carbine? Heavy magnum? Long-range rig with powerful scope? Many rifles can be used effectively for both elk and mule deer, but the best choice for this combination takes a bit of thinking.

Everybody knows the jingle, "double your pleasure, double your fun. . ." Combination hunts are wonderfully attractive and enticing, because, at least in theory, if you have two tags for two different species you double your chances for success. Surely you'll find at least one of the animals you're looking for, won't you? And if fortune really smiles, you'll come with two great trophies for the expense of just one trip. Not bad!

Unfortunately these things don't always pan out. Reality is that most of our big game species are fairly specialized and while habitats often overlap, what's really perfect for one variety is rarely ideal for another. Too, the even grimmer reality is that with tag draws, quotas, and shorter seasons an ever-increasing part of life, genuine opportunities to hunt two varieties of big game simultaneously are shrinking fast. Still, there are some classic North American combo hunts that have tremendous allure: sheep and goat, moose and caribou. . .and of course elk and mule deer.

If you're going to embark on such a quest the choice of rifles and cartridges has to be made with even greater care than a single-species quest. Sometimes this isn't so difficult. On a classic hunt for Stone sheep and Rocky Mountain goat it's a breeze: Anything flat-shooting from a .270 to a fast .30 will do just fine. Moose and caribou aren't so difficult, either. Moose are a whole lot bigger than caribou, but not particularly tough. Sometimes you have to shoot fairly long on caribou, so you need something reasonably flat-shooting for caribou but big enough for moose. A good old .30-06 would do just fine, but anything from there up to a fast .33 would do the trick.

On the surface, picking the right rig for a mule deer/elk combo hunt would seem equally simple--but I'm not sure it is, especially if you're looking for good specimens. Both animals are tough customers, and in altogether different ways.

Right now there are more elk than at any time in this century, so elk hunting opportunity is better than ever. But good elk are hard to come by. You have to hunt hard and well, and you won't get many chances.

That's just half the tough part; to my mind a big bull elk is one of the hardiest animals in North America. He can weigh a half-ton, and he's stronger than any horse. He isn't bulletproof, but he mustn't be underrated.

Nor should the mule deer be taken lightly. He isn't tough in physical terms--in my view, not at hardy as the whitetail--but these days a good mule deer is one of the most difficult trophies to obtain on the entire continent. There was a time when a decent mule deer was almost a given on western hunts into good country, and although elk tags might have been carried, chances for elk were very low. This hasn't exactly reversed, but what has changed is that the days of easy mule deer are virtually over. This is especially true in the high country they share with elk; mule deer herds in typical alpine habitat have been declining for years. Part of it is almost certainly due to increased competition from elk; in a lot of areas that used to be prime mule deer country there are now, literally, more elk than deer.

So you have one animal that is big, strong, and difficult to hunt, and another that can be an extremely hard-won trophy. In neither will you get a lot of chances, and if you have both tags in your pocket you probably have a lot at stake. Your tags may have been won in a difficult draw, or after stockpiling preference points for several years. If you didn't have to draw, then you're probably in some kind of special situation, private land or an Indian reservation--which means you've invested a lot in the hunt.

Whichever the case, the chance to combine mule deer and elk today is a rare opportunity. You don't want to blow it. Also, your time may be a bit limited--not just by the duration of the hunt or season, but also by the fact that you're trying to find two different animals on one hunt. What all of this means is that you must be fully prepared to take any reasonable shot that is offered.

Elk are big animals, and their pale hides show up at great distances. Even without binoculars it's no trick at all to spot elk at 800 yards. Obviously that doesn't mean you should shoot that far. Maybe cut that in half. With a flat-shooting rifle of adequate power, and a steady rest, and enough skill, you should be able to cleanly take elk at 350 to 400 yards. The animal is huge in comparison to deer, so it isn't all that difficult to hit elk at greater distances. The issue is that you must be able to hit them in the right place, and with enough remaining energy to ensure bullet penetration to the vitals-and enough bullet expansion to wreck those vitals.

Obviously I can't tell you how far you should shoot. Many of us have no business shooting beyond 200 yards no matter what the conditions. Others, a few, given enough time to set up and a calm day, can shoot three times that far with total confidence. You and you alone can determine how far that is, but you want to pack enough gun so that you can shoot with confidence to whatever that distance might be.

A nice mule deer taken with a Rifles, Inc. .300 Weatherby Magnum, synthetic stock and rustproof finish. You could argue that a big .300 is more gun than needed for mule deer--but for elk on the same hunt, perfect.

Remember, too, that long shooting isn't always--or even very often--the norm. You may catch elk in the timber, or you may stalk them along the edge of a meadow. You may bugle up a bull--so you also need to be prepared for a close encounter. I've taken a number of my elk at less than 75 yards, the majority between 100 and 200 yards, and just a few beyond 300 yards. This means that the ideal elk rifle must not only shoot flat and project plenty of energy a long way downrange--just in case--but must also handle fast enough to use in the thick stuff.

Obviously you don't need nearly as much power for mulies as you do for elk. However, you need even more accuracy because your target is about a third the size. For the same reason, you need your mule deer rifle to shoot just as flat, perhaps even flatter, because the smaller target makes ranging errors ever more critical.

Despite all the gloom and doom, there are still lots of mule deer throughout the American West. Finding and taking "any" buck isn't really all that big a deal in a whole lot of places. But a big buck, ah, there's the rub. Big mule deer are scarce--and those that live to become big are much warier than the mule deer we read about. Even though modern mule deer grow ever more wary, they are probably less switched-on and easier to stalk than whitetails. But this depends on the country and how the wind is blowing. Sometimes the terrain and cover allow a close approach, and sometimes not.

The author shot this bull in a high Colorado basin with a .300 Winchester Magnum firing 180-grain Barnes X bullets. The distance was about 350 yards, a long shot on an animal as big and tough as an elk--but the "little" .300 Win Mag was up to the job.

I've taken a lot of mule deer at ranges closer than 100 yards. My "best ever" was taken at just 60 yards. Most of my mule deer have been taken between 150 and 300 yards, so the average shot is a bit longer. Given a choice, I prefer not to shoot at longer ranges and avoid it whenever possible. But I do know how to do it. Several of the longest shots I have ever made have been on mule deer, and while my best buck was taken at close range, my second and third-best bucks were taken beyond 400 yards.

You can take elk with perfect satisfaction with .270s and 7mms all day long--if you pick your shots and do it right. But for me, ideal elk rifles start at .30 caliber and go up to the .35s. The .35 Whelen and its ballistic brethren are wonderful elk cartridges. Just how wonderful depends a bit on the kind of country you hunt--great in close or mixed cover, not so great in open country where you might need reach. Bigger cartridges, like fast .35's and .375's, are effective but not necessary.

To me the "best of the best" cartridges for elk are the 8mm Remington Magnum and the fast .33's from .338 Winchester on up. All shoot flat enough for the longest shots that should be taken on elk, and all have the frontal area, bullet weight, and energy to take elk with authority--with any well-placed shot from any angle. Caliber alone isn't the whole story. An ideal elk rifle should be fairly portable, because elk hunting is extremely hard work. Synthetic stocks and weatherproof finishes are good ideas any time you go into the mountains in the fall, and of course the rifle will wear a good scope. Elk are huge targets, so lots of power isn't essential. My old .338 wears a fixed 4X, enough power for elk even at long range. But it's a variable-power world. If you prefer something between 11⁄2-6X and 3-9X, just keep the scope turned down to no more than 4X until you want more magnification.