That's some nice shooting.
Elk don't have targets stapled to their sides and don't care what you hit them with. They're not bullet proof, but if the first one does not anchor them, they can sure act like it. Practical shooting skill is more important than all the measurements we do. ( But it sure is fun to do them.) I've made one shot kills on elk with "cheap" bullets and I've had them take every round my rifle had using "premium" bullets. My closest kill was 12 yards, my farthest 250.
According to Idaho F&G, game meat can sour if the animal is not gutted within 30 minutes of the kill. I interpret this to mean I am not going to shoot beyond what I can quickly anchor and retrieve. That bull in our spotting scope looks close, but there are usually an awful lot of tangles in between you and where you last saw the animal.
There is no info about the freebore of the loads in the pictures,so it's hard to judge much. My rifles will shoot cloverleafs at 100 all day from the bench if I jam the bullet in the lands, but it's no fun sticking a bullet in the throat and dumping powder all in your action while standing at the corner of No and Where. Where there are elk there are bears and cats. I load .010" off the lands and every round gets cycled through the action before it goes in my hunting gear.
As to which of those loads is best? The one you can consistently put in a paper plate at 200 yards from every shooting position.
