You are overthinking this. Elk are not hard to kill and very few are shot past 200yards. Being 76and working at it for quite sometime, I am working on my 5th dozen of elk kills. Most with a 30-06, either with 180 gr Game Kings, Nosler Partitions, or 220 gr RN. It isn't so much as to what is on the head stamp of the cartridge, but more on the shooter's ability to put the bullet where it belongs.
