Like people, every animal is different. But make no mistake elk and moose are NOT like deer. I'm sure no one on this site has ever lost an animal because of a bonehead shot, but there are many who have (and I've had the bad luck of having to help track many of them). "Dead is dead," but I subscribe to Elmer Keith's philosophy that there's never been an animal that has been "over-killed," because there's been a lot that weren't killed at all because folks were under-gunned or wrong bullet for the job.
I've killed far more Canadian moose than elk, but my personal experience causes me to believe that elk are tougher than moose. I've watched a large cow elk double lunged by a 7mm Mag 160 SGK. The bullet completely came apart and she ran up a hill headed for the next state (lucky follow up is the only thing that stopped her). I've watched a fool blow up a 7mm 120 NBT on a moose's rib. I've had to track bad hits on elk from .338 and seen a too close, heavy bull elk lost to what should have been a killing shot from a .270 with cup & core factory bullets. Yet, my mother-in-law used to kill a moose on her place in Telegraph Creek almost every year with a .250 Savage.
The question isn't what CAN kill an elk (that would be a .22 RF). The question is what is going to reliably kill. If you are willing to pass up poor shots, a .243 is fine. Because my mother-in-law had migrating moose going past her house every day in the fall, she could choose the perfect shot. Yet, are you going to pass up that quartering shot on a 370 bull at the edge of your range? Do you want to have to?
After using most big game bullet out there (including partitions, which are a fine bullet)from New Mexico to the Yukon border, when I was in BC, I started using Barnes exclusively on BIG animals for the penetration and weigh retention. I favor two holes that bleed over one; more penetration also means more internal damage. I had the confidence that no matter how big the bull, I could make a kill shot at any angle as far out as I was capable of making the shot. Did I always need to? No, only once, but I was glad that I had a bullet I could shoot lengthwise through a bull moose.
Well said. I never saw a problem with hedging bets by using something that penetrated and expanded more reliably than a standard C&C.
All bullets are not the same once they hit stuff.
