jorge,
Aside from the local friend who's been using a .300 Savage on elk for decades, in 2017 my wife killed the biggest cow elk either of us have ever taken using a .300 Savage-equivalent handload from her custom Kilimanjaro .308. It didn't even use a 150-grain bullet. Instead it was a 130-grain TTSX at 2850-2900 fps, about all the recoil she can take anymore without getting headaches from the 6-3/4 rifle. The range was around 250 yards, with the elk quartering towards us. At the shot the cow staggered 20-25 yards and collapsed. The bullet broke the left front leg just above the big shoulder joint, and ended up under the hide about half along the ribcage. Astonishing as it might seem to those who believe 100% weight retention is necessary, it lost all its petals (though I found one near the recovered bullet) and retained "only" 62% of its original weight.
