I looked this AM and there were 311 replies to the thread by VarmitGuy on what rifle, scope caliber for elk. Looks like a pretty mixed bag to me and was tempted to sort it out by caliber and location...but that passed, thankfully. I have coffee to drink.
Scope used: tactical vs set and forget, may be a interesting commentary...
East of the Mississipi includes exactly 1/2 of the globe, so have thought of my home base as the Great Lake States, or the Midwest. Takes me 12 hours to get to Baltimore and 10 to get to Memphis, both very different worlds from the midwest.
Here we too were subjected to magnumitis marketing, basically at the same time as the rest of the planet via reading gun rags. "More gun" appeared in deer camps for their amazing killing power, not so much the trajectory--trailing poorly hit deer thru cedar swamps gets old pretty fast. Recall a friend raving about his BAR 300WM as a stone dead killer and "softer" recoil--certainly a step up from the lever....but it no longer gets any play. Mags got quite a bit of play for mooses, as there used to be a lot more moose hunting until the changes in Canada. It was a natural to use them on elk--but still further to drive. All in all, I think that the better killing part has pretty much worn off with the experienced hunters.
If it is a rule that the younger guys from the eastern half need more gun, they aren't hearing it so much from their elders as they did once upon a time...
