Elk caliber

I used a 30-30 for years with great success. I was handloading Speer Grand Slam bullets. (150 & 165's used this load over 20 years)
Generally I would hunt the dark timber with the closer range gun.
I have since moved up to a 45-70 and a 300 Win Mag but those elk from the 30-30 are just as dead.

I agree that shot placement is more important than the bullet choice. I have seen many elk killed with the 243 and 6mm Rem.
I have also seen elk cow absorb 9 shots from a 300 Win Mag shooting 200 grain bullets (none were good shots) (My experience was helping a guide)

My gun with the most DRT is the 45-70 shooting 405 grain bullet at almost 2000ft/sec.

I've seen many, many elk taken with a 140 grain 7mm. I don't belive you should feel undergunned with one.

It is also my experience that most elk taken, take more than 1 shot on average for a quicker kill. One shot kills on elk are not anywhere near as common in the real world by real world hunters as we would all like them to be.
 
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