....... Yes, 7mm using 175gr would be OK also. Using a 257/270 on Elk is just dumb.
The American Heritage Dictionary; New College Edition: "DUMB- "informal definition": Ignorant or stupid.....slow to apprehend; dull,obtuse;showing a lack of sense or intelligence.....
This is a riot....funny stuff.......uh lemme see...the cartrdgee has been around since 1925. It is internationally renowned as a long range cartridge,used routinely here and in Africa on stuff from 100 to 1000 pounds or so....I have friends and personal acquaintances who have used it (mostly with 130-150,and 160 gr Partitions,130 BBC's, X, Swift Aframes,etc) for the usual run of deer,elk,moose,mountain grizzly,Brown Bear,sheep, goats...........in Africa on eland,kudu,gemsbok,zebra......Bob Lee (an international BG hunter and entrepeneur who owned a Tanzania safari outfit),used it on 9 lions......O'Connor,Whelen,Pahlavi,Les Bowman,Craig Boddington,John Barsness,John Haviland,Jack O'Connor, Brad O'Connor.........all have used the 270 Winchester for a vast array of game animals elk sized and larger.
At the cost of elk and elk hunts, you have to forgive me if I have not shot 50 of the things with the 270 or anything else....(when I was really active as an elk hunter I used 300's and 7 mags) but I have seen it used many times.....(my rancher buddy in Wyoming has likely killed 40-50 with it).........thousands of elk are killed with it every year,likely the total exceeds over a million elk by now.......
And suddenly.....in the booming wake of the of the alphabet mags, in the enlightenment of the 21st Century, the 270 has become a chump change elk cartridge;the 7 mag barely edging into the adequacy class(whew!)........and this newfound knowledge springs from the internet where these sages have shot a half dozen teensy Georgia whitetails with a 270 (whining cause they didn't get "exits" no less)....the font of elk-hunting wisdom..........everything that happened before has been rendered irrelevant......and "dumb". Given the sources and the arguments, I'd question who deserves the description of "dumb"......
The 270 (and the 300 WSM, 300 RUM, 7 rem mag,300 WM, etc) are all lightweight elk cartridges if the guy driving it is a lightweight rifleman, lacking skill and judgement in shooting.......
Some of the stuff on here is enough to make you bust a gut laughing
