RE: bullet placement
Straight through the shoulders (center) is straight thru the lungs - no locomotion - they don't get away very often! (Assuming of course, you aren't using a 30-30 or some other fly weight). It takes a good powerful cartridge and a quality (partition and up), heavy for caliber bullet to make it work well though. If you don't have enough gun or enough bullet or a quality bullet, then it's best to take the "detour" and "thread it" in behind the shoulder (your angle needs to be good and your deviation needs to be small) and hope for the best.
Second day of the early season, two years ago, in the early morning I came across a beautiful 6x6 laying near the trail rigor mortis starting to set in and just starting to bloat up real nice. Most likely shot the late afternoon/evening before. Classic "white tail shot" right behind the shoulder half way up. That bull elk ran far enough that that hunter didn't get to claim his trophy, his odds of running him down would have been lots better if he had taken one or both shoulders. (A desperate hunter did cut the antlers off two days later (had to be ripe).
Where to hit'em will rage on just like cartridge selection. I'll always vote for "bust'em through the shoulder" with something big. If you do, then you'll own them right there and that 100 to 150 pounds of "wrapped" meat won't be rotting by the trail.
Never undergunned,
EKM
Good judgment comes from bad experience! Half of elk hunting is knowing what NOT to do!
Edited by - ELKampMaster on 01/28/2003 18:28:51