Let me provide a little of my elk hunting history before getting to various points about timber hunting. Grew up in Montana but for various reasons mostly hunted deer in the eastern part of the state until I was about 20, when I started elk hunting with a couple of mentors. There weren't nearly as many elk as there are now, and the Forest Service country my mentors hunted was heavily timbered--which is where the elk hung out. Would have to look at my hunting notes to make sure, but don't think I ever shot an elk at as MUCH as 100 yards in those years.
A different group of people hunted each area, anchored around my mentors, and consequently I got to see a variety of bullets and cartridges used, not just my own. Saw a bullet from popular 180-grain .30-06 factory load come apart on a bull's shoulder, just above the big joint--and about a decade later saw a 150 of the same make come apart on a mule deer's shoulder after hitting the joint. Both animals were eventually killed, but neither bullet made it past the ribs behind the shoulder.
Also saw cup-and-core bullets come apart on the neck of a 6-point bull and the rut-swollen neck of a very big-bodied mule deer buck. In both instances the empty jacket of the bullet was found resting against the spine, which wasn't broken. The elk still died, but only because a major blood vessel had been nicked, and it took half a mile to bleed out. If there hadn't been snow on the ground we might not have found it. The deer dropped at the shot, but after a minute or so started to struggle so was shot again. Both of those were 150-grain .270 bullets.
Also had an interesting encounter with a cow elk shot with what was supposedly a deep-penetrating bullet. The cow was trotting away up a hillside less than 75 yards away and the bullet entered behind the ribs on the left side. As it turned out the bullet was slowed by the grass-filled paunch, and only got into one lung, so that elk also went about half a mile before stopping and eventually dying. But there wasn't any snow on the ground and the meat was soured by the time the cow was found. Those aren't all the examples, by any means.
Eventually I decided to try Nosler Partitions, which were the only "premium" bullet available back then--and soon settled on the 200-grain in the .30-06. This was awhile ago when the 200 Partition was a "semi-spitzer," essentially a roundnose, but at less than 100 yards it didn't matter. I never, ever saw any of those same problems again, whether I was shooting at an elk's shoulder or neck, or angling a bullet into the left side up through the edge of the paunch into the chest cavity.
The 200 Partition semi-spitzer was made until the late 70's, when it became a spitzer. I have shot more elk with 200 Partitions from various .30's from the .30-06 to the .300 Weatherby than any other bullet, at ranges from under 50 to around 400 yards, and yes, there is a difference in shooting elk in heavy timber. Often only a small part of the animal is visible, and the right place to put the bullet is the neck, the big shoulder joint, or ahead of the rump into the chest. Often you have to shoot right now or not shoot at all, with no time to wait or maneuver to put the bullet in a "softer" spot.
I am not fond of neck shots, but will take them if the elk is facing directly toward or away from me, because the spine is then centered in the neck. And in my experience with a lot of different bullets, a shoulder joint or even just the edge of the paunch will stop some, or at least slow them down enough to prevent full penetration of the chest cavity.
About a dozen years ago I shot a 6-point bull in thick creekbottom cover at 75 yards. The bull was looking to my left so the spine wasn't centered in the neck, but the shoulder was exposed through a little lane in the brush, so I put a 200-grain Partition from a .300 Winchester Magnum into the big shoulder joint, and the bull went about 35 yards before keeling over. The bullet not only busted the joint but penetrated both lungs and exited the rear of the ribs on the other side.
On another occasion a raghorn bull was already hit in the chest, broadside, but didn't fall. He was across a park at a little over 300 yards and started walking slowly up the far hillside, directly away, but paused at about 375 and I angled a 200 Partition from a .300 Weatherby into his chest, which had to pass through the abdominal cavity. The bull dropped and never moved, because the bullet made it all the way up into the chest. It turned out he would have died from the first shot, but like you I tend to keep shooting until elk go down and stay down.
You know I like Bergers, but I have seen a 185 Berger from a .300 Winchester Magnum fail to penetrate the chest of a 150-pound feral goat from a left-side angling shot, because it hit the paunch. Some of the bullet did make it into the left lung but that was it--and that was at over 300 yards. I am not about the try the same sort of shot with a Berger on an elk in the timber, but with a 200-grain Nosler Partition will take that shot anytime, because I know the bullet will keep penetrating through the chest. These days other bullets will do the same thing, but they didn't exist back in the mid-70's, and after almost 40 years of positive results with the 200 Partition I still use it for a lot of my hunting.
Have since hunted elk in a few other places than Montana, from New Mexico to northern British Columbia, but these days am back to mostly hunting them on public land near home, and the places I hunt are remarkably like the ones hunted 40-some years ago, with plenty of thick timber and only very rare openings where a 300-yard shot might be possible. Most elk spend most of their time in the timber, so that's where they're shot.
Come to think of it, can't remember many elk shot much past 100 yards in the 25 years my wife and I have been hunting our area, but one was the cow my wife killed at a lasered (after the shot) 123 yards last fall. It was angling away to the right, and a 100-grain Tipped TSX from her .257 Roberts dropped it right there. Eileen has shot quite a bit of game with the 115 Berger Hunting VLD from the same rifle, but for a quartering-away angling shot on an elk she also tends to prefer a little more penetration.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
