Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 6.5x55 SE For Elk ?

I am the new guy here but a long time hunter. I started with an 06 and after 13 elk decided it was, under all field conditions on the low end of the scale for what I wanted in an elk rifle. If one makes the perfect/near perfect shot a rock launched at modest speeds will kill most game. However most elk are not killed under ideal conditions or with ideal shots or by the ideal shooter. They can be hit to far back, to far forward they can step out of sight and never been seen again. Several years ago a friend of mine with a 6.5X55 killed three nice bull elk in three years at medium range with three shots. None of the bulls were recovered prior to spoiling they all ran off and were recovered by ravan watching several days later. The last elk that I helped another hunter recover was shot with a .243 at again medium range nine times. If you can pass up the quartering shot, the running shot, the straight away shot then the smaller caliber rifles will do a good job. But if you can't more horsepower is necessary. The point is to kill them cleanly and ethically, it isn't that they are not going to die, they are its that they are recovered, my .02