How many elk have you shot with a 25 caliber? How many have you seen shot by a 257 Weatherby? What was their reaction? I’ve seen a big mule deer shot at 300 yards, it took 2 in the chest to stop him.
I realize it’s trendy to hunt elk with a 6lb 6.5 Creedmoor & that most guys under 40 assume heavy kicking rifles are impossible to shoot well. But before the rapid testosterone loss generation people shot fast flat shooting magnums. More because of range finding limitations than horsepower but the horsepower works if you can shoot them accurately.
Please let me know the next time an elk does a backflip when hit by a little caliber at 550 yards. My 300 Weatherby afforded me that lovely sight a few years ago - some really cool kind of confirmation bias there.
May I ask roughly how many elk you've killed? Cows and/or bulls?
Not nearly as many as some folks here having to travel to hunt them but 5 bulls & 15 cows all on public land. 1 with a 30-06, most with a 7mm Rm the last several with the 300 Weatherby. The 600 yard run I reference was hit exactly where I aimed behind the front shoulder with an older Nosler Ballistic tip. Palm sized entry wound shrapnel through the lungs. But I’ve seen lung hit elk go over 100 yards more than a few times. Including elk shot with a 300 of some kind.
