As an Old Timer with lots of years and game under my belt, I love these conversations. I particularly love those regarding "head shots", which I commonly refer to as "chump" shots. My long dead uncle used a 250-3000 to take a fair number of elk. In fact under the right conditions most any centerfire will kill an elk. However killing one and taking them cleanly are not always the same thing. I have know several elk lost to 6mm caliber rifles shot under 100 yards, as well as a couple shot farther with 300 mags. If you are able to limit your shot distance, and presentation (which most hunters cannot) just about any cartridge will work. However out past a couple of football fields, with the animal quartering away from you, many of those cartridges listed here will not get the job done, time after time. My first elk was in a clearcut on the Coast Range of Oregon not in the deep dark and not at close range. My longest was a measured 540 yards across a canyon in NE, Oregon, where close shots are the exception. I started with an 06 as did my dad, he moved up to a .300 mag as did I, after crippling a a cow by breaking her knee joints, while shooting across another canyon in NE, Oregon. My average shot is close to 300 yards, and taken while I am laying down, with the rifle resting on a bipod, or pack. I believe in the 2,000 ft lbs of energy requirement, if the shot can be well placed. Any less and the odds of a disaster go up.
Well said, thank you. As Bob Hagel said, "You don't want a rifle that works when everything goes right, you want a rifle that works when everything goes wrong."
