With all due respect Mr. Burns, picking the wrong pair of boots on an elk hunt can do more than "give you a couple of blisters".
For MOST people, the hardest part of an elk hunt is simply finding the little devils. They can be sucessfully taken with a variety of calibers as all the comments from members of the campfire will testify.
Of the 15-20 bulls I've killed, I know that every single one of them could have been taken with an '06 and 180 grain partitions...though in fact none of them were.
The boots I wore for 10-14 hours a day ascending and descending 2k-4k feet a day were FAR more important to me.
I think hunting style has a lot to do with where a hunter places value. I suspect that MOST expereienced elk hunters will tell you that the implement of death matters far less being able to find the critters...which is where good boots, packs, etc. come into play.
If you're not burning through batteries in your headlamp,...you're doing it wrong.
