I'll be more specific, by all means practice and shoot as much as you can with a rimfire, air gun, varmint rifle on squirrels, prairie dogs, etc. and include your 6.5 or other centerfires as long as you shoot a few dozen rounds of your elk rifle mixed in from hunting positions to be familiar with the gun.
I'm of course poking fun at the sissy younger generation like my father and grandfather did before me....I think we are all right unfortunately. I'm not as tough as my Dad was and the generation before him was pretty tough too.
Yes placement is important but why not keep good placement with decently powerful elk guns. They are often hard to kill and stopping them quickly is preferred, particularly if they aren't far from a boundary. If you only have or can afford the 6.5 by all means use it. But jut because I can hit the brain of an elk with my 22-250 doesn't make it an elk gun, good sized bullets moving fast work better.
