I really like my big guns. I have also been killing elk since I was a boy. I have killed elk (as well as other large game) with MANY different rifles and calibers and a whole lot of different bullets for over 1/2 century.
The 2 cartridge you mention are 2 of those I have the most respect for.

I stared with my Dad's 300 Savage in the 60s, and first rifle I ever owned myself was a 270. In my life, the smallest bore cartridge I have ever killed elk with was the 270 Winchester and the largest is a 45-70. The most powerful that I killed elk with is a 416 Taylor .
Many people don't believe me when I tell them what I will now tell you. But this is the honest truth.

Looking at every elk I have ever killed and thinking back to the ones that "bang-flopped" the most--- the ones that hit the ground the fastest were mostly shot with 270 Winchesters and 375H&Hs

I have said many times, and I still say that when good bullet placement was done and good tough bullets (non fragmenting) were used, I never could see any difference in how well a 270, 280, 30-06, 7MM Weatherby Mag, 7MM Remington Mag, 300 H&H, 308 Norma, 300 Winchester, 300 Weatherby, or 338 Winchester killed elk. And of the ones I have personally killed, the ones that ran the farthest after a good hit were hit with 7MM and 300 mags. None went all that far, but the most "bang-flops" I have seen in my own shooting were all from 270s and 375H&H. Kind-da on opposite ends of the line don'tcha think?
Yeah.............they are.

As a side note..........I got very interested in the 9.3X62 about 7 years ago from seeing it used, and so far, if good bullets are fired I see no difference between the 375 and the 9.3X62 on elk. I made one now for myself and I really like it a lot.

That's what I have seen in the 54 years of elk hunting that are behind me now, --- 54 years in several states and in about 10 of those years I was killing elk in several states per year. Those are the facts. I have theories as to why but that all they are. Theories! And I have trouble explaining some things even within my own theories.

Just as an example: I killed elk with some 7MM Mags (Weatherby and Remington) and I used 160 and 175 grain Nosler Partitions for most of them. I used 150 and 160 grain Nosler Partition in my 270s many times. With near identical hits and all within similar ranges, the 270s dropped the elk RIGHT NOW (at the hit or within about 1 second) and the 7MMs let them run or stagger 20-35 yards. Often with 300 magnums, also with good bullets, the elk stagger for 3-4 seconds. Not bad at all.

But the 270s very often simply dropped them. Why? I honestly can't even guess.

The 270 is the smallest diameter bullet I have personally used on elk, and my 150 grain bullets were tied for lightest bullet weight used on elk with 280 Remington,(150 Grain Nosler Partition)
308 Winchester (150 Grian Winchester Power Points) and one shot with a 308 Norma. (Norma Factory load) But I have never shot an elk with anything lighter then a 150 grain although I have seen elk killed with 100 grain 243s, 115 and 120 grain 25s and 140 grain 6.5MMs many times. My one 45-70 kill was with a 450 grain cast bullet, and my "most powerful kill" was with a 400 grain .416 bullet. The 45-70 elk went about 10-15 feet and the one killed with the 416 went about 30 yards and then stood still for a good 10 seconds before falling.

So that's my "report"
Does that make sense? Well.......... it doesn't seem to. But the facts are just exactly what I wrote here. I'll leave it to others to explain it. Because I truly can't say for sure.

What I do feel confident in saying is that the 9.3X62 and the 270 both work REALLY well when you shoot bullet that expand and don't break up.

Last edited by szihn; 07/10/20.