I don't know if it is just a coincidence or what, but I just have not had the same experience as some of you all with bergers and elk shoulders.

Here's typical 6.5mm 140 grain berger performance for me on non-shoulder shot elk. Extra cow at 438 yards away, IIRC. Two shots tight behind the shoulder. She then trotted 20 yards and fell over. Perfectly adequate lethality, but not the exit and instant death performance some of you all seem to have time and time again. They're supposed to expand violently once inside the critter (which these did) but I sure am not seeing exits or instant death like others are. I dug both of these out of the rib meat on the far side, and they were not resting up against the hide like other bullets usually are. I think I have recovered six (6) 140 grain bergers like this now out of lung shot elk, and I can think of four (4) other lung shot elk I shot in which I didn't fish around in the soupy lung cavity to find the expanded berger(s).
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Hitting elk on the shoulder with these has produced nothing but misery for me. Not ruined meat mind you, but rodeos in getting another bullet in them. I'm glad others have found elk bullets that they're confident with in the berger, but I've come to different conclusions with regards to their shoulders.