The argument of "it's not about the power of the round but bullet and shot placement" has really grown. Where that is mostly true, when hunting elk on public land those perfect shots are few a far between. If your sitting on a sagebrush ranch, glassing a herd from your truck and picking the most broad side elk to shoot, I'm sure the smaller rounds work fine. You can shoot, then watch the animal until it falls. But when your hunting in thick cover with no snow and the animals run after the shot, good luck finding an elk after it runs more then 100 yards carrying a little 100 grain bullet in its guts. A .243 would never be my pick for an elk rifle. The past two years both elk I took with my .300 didn't leave a blood trail in the dry Colorado weather, but the elk didn't travel more the 15 yards. After 20 years of hunting elk the only animal I have shot and lost was a pheasant. Bottom line, pick the gun best suited for your type of hunting (if its elk don't chose the minimum legal caliber), learn how to shoot it, learn when to pass on shots, and fill some tags. If you can't shoot a 30/06 then you better know your limitations.
