Just post what your load was behind that Barnes before touting it as a God send and exactly how many elk you have personally killed with it.
I don't know what elk hunting experts or such you talked to, but I have 40 + years under my belt hunting elk, with 40+ kills,about 25% of them with a front stuffer, and you don't need a Barnes super duper bullet. I was killing elk with plain old 370 gr maxiballs before most even decided to hunt elk with a ML. The same as quite a few on this forum have done.
Put any plain pure lead bullet where it is suppose to go and the elk fall over.
BUT, if legal, the barnes give an extra margin of error.
Since we were hunting in CO and I didn't care for powerbelts and sabots were not allowed, I went to No Excuses big slugs in the 54. But in fairness have never shot an elk with them.
But don't discount folks that have seen the light with Barnes before, and have seen that they will keep going when others fail, and if thats important to you and legal, well better is not a bad thing often, just in case.
But I"m with you, put lead where it belongs and you'll do fine.
I stick with boy scout motto be prepared though if legal.
