......... I saw a video of a large Elk bull absorb a broadside 180 gr from a 300 Wby at roughly 200 yards and appeared no more bothered than if a fly was in his face. The second shot sent him to the death angel.
Was totally amazing to me.
Seeing this sort of thing leads, I think, to the "I need a bigger rifle for elk" syndrome,which is a pretty normal reaction.....I have had it happen to me,and have seen it with various 300 and 338 magnums.Then you run into a few that collapse like rag dolls to a 270,30/06,or 7 mag.They can act very tough,but are dead on their feet with good hits and good bullets.You just have to let the system bleed out.
After awhile,though,I came to realize you have to go pretty far up in caliber to guarantee reaction from them all the time.And the solution to killing them effecively seems to be wreck the chest cavity and take some important bone along the way,and they flop over from anything reasonable....miss those things, hit around the edges and they get real tough in a hurry.
Have not used the Hornady's myself but have helped dress and skin a few killed with a 308Norma and 180 Interlocks, tracing wound channels,and they seem to have done a good job with shots transversing the chest into the off side shoulder bones and muscles....never did find one....
