Are 165-grain Hornady Interlocked bullets adequate for elk? Yup, I've killed a few score with them; never had an elk need two of them and more elk dropped at the shot than not.
Steve,
Please tell us where on the animal you place your shots for such good performance. Thanks.
I'm basically off the Campfire, but will surely answer your question.
As in all hunting, the hunter is doing the very best he can, given the situation ... and all situations are different. Ya just do the best you can.
As I've posted many times, when I was posting on the Campfire, the fist shot on elk is critical. Elk are relatively easy to kill with the first shot, but if you screw that one up you are in deep trouble.
Let me approach the answer from two aspects; Steve the hunter and Steve the guide.
Given Steve the Hunter: I typically hunted open country, stuff like Hell's Canyon of the Snake or the Imnaha. Generally, I'd spot a herd of elk around the end of a big ridge. I called them a "crown of elk" because that's what the strung-out herd looked like. Then, depending if you have a bull or a cow tag, you work as close as you can to the critter you want. Sometimes it's impossible, so like antelope hunting (they are quite the same dynamics), you back out and find some more elk or come back later.
I had a few hunters I guided for who taught me lots ... particularly about shooting long ranges. In short, don't do it. As a result, given Steve the Hunter mode, my average elk, even given the open country I hunted, was maybe 150 yards away and almost never 200.
Where do you shoot them? How the hell do I answer that?
Really close up and on a still elk, honestly I'd either brain the bugger or break the neck up high (medulla oblongata, if you know anatomy) and just kill the sonofabitch dead.
Given a 100 yard shot, broadside, I might still plant the bullet at the base of the ear; or from the back, in the middle of the neck, or from the front, just under the chinney-chin-chin. BUT, it depends, if he's squirlley, I'd hold tight behind the shoulder, mid-height and not too high, and hit both lungs and the aorta. Given an angle, I'd rather err and clip a far shoulder than shoot too far back, hit one lung and screw up the shot.
200 yards, I'd tend to do the same.
My last two bulls were really far for me both 400-ish and I took one in the center of the shoulder and the other between the shoulders (shooting kinda down), breaking the spine. Don't ask what cartridge, nor what bullet because you would not agree. BUT my last two bulls, both 6X6s died to a single shot each.
Steve the Guide: I only shoot after it is abundantly clear that my hunter has already screwed up the shot and/or I am asked to collaborate with the shot. Every guide hates that ... it is the client's hunt and the client's good time, it IS NOT Steve the Guide's to take that away from him. BUT given a total balls-up situation, Steve the Guide center-punches BOTH shoulders with no frigging' regard for meat. Or, given no shoulders, a high bunghole shot to break the spine or whatever the Hell it takes. At the time the crapola-hits the fan, only breaking major bones will stop the elk.
Anyway, I probably didn't answer your question to your satisfaction, but it would take being in the bush for a while and seeing a thousand situations to explain it to you.
I remember one guy from Connecticut who asked me once, "How much is my cow going to weigh?" My answer, perhaps not to PC, was "How the [bleep] do I know?"
It was the truth, just not the answer he was seeking ... mostly because nobody known until they been there.
Steve