My experience is that a surprising number of elk do not react to being hit with a bullet in any way visible to me.
There are exceptions such as one whose neck I broke while it was on a dead run and it did a folding skid like an airplane whose landing gear failed as it hit the runway. Far more elk IME show no reaction or react with a slight start as if surprised or bee stung, and then carried on normally. A large bull hit diagonally through the point of his near shoulder with bullet ranging toward offside hip gave zero reaction other than to look around carefully. He did not take a step but folded when my second shot took him behind the ear.
A large bull at 13 yards hit through both lungs while walking broadside to me through timber, paused for a beat and then kept walking for another 30 feet. He fell a split second before I shot again.
A bull on the run at point blank range and hit in his shoulder with a light bullet that did not penetrate more than four inches, ran a few more steps, then stopped, whereupon I hit him again through the lungs. He took two more steps and folded.
IME moose tend to brace themselves to keep standing when hit by a bullet. Elk tend to show little or no reaction and then some of them use their remaining seconds of life to leave the country.
