I have not been here for a long while but this thread made me really want to add my 2 cents.

A few years back I built a rifle for Ray Milligan. For those who don’t recognize the name Ray is the most successful elk outfitter in the world. When I hunted with him in 2003 the bull I took was “Officially” # 900 in six years. Put another way his outfit takes 150 bulls a year.

No one else in the world has more elk hunting experience. Period.

Ray’s rifle was chambered for the 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Mag. The load is a 150gr bullet at 2975 fps. I loaded and chronoed the ammunition.

A hot .270 will duplicate this easily or a factory load will produce the same terminal effect 50 yds closer to the target.

Ray lets a lot of clients use his rifle when the chances of a long shot are good. In other words this is his choice for a “Camp Rifle”

He has personally taken bull elk with it at 1060 yds but bullet performance was not what he likes and now limits shots to 750 yds under good conditions.

This rifle has also taken sheep (both Dall and Bighorn), caribou, deer, antelope, and bear (both Grizzly and Black) with perfect reliability.

If you have problems cleanly taking the biggest bull elk with a .270 the fault is not in the caliber.

The reason elk are wounded is poor shooting.

A .270 with any reasonable bullet will handle the shoulder shot on any bull. This is simply a fact.

The only shot where a .270 is questionable is a quartering away where the bullet must penetrate a stomach full of grass before it gets to the chest cavity. This is a very questionable shot with any cartridge and most skilled hunters don’t take it.

The .270 will fully handle a wounded elk going away, it will unquestionably break the pelvis and immobilize the elk and be easier to get the hit with than any “Elk Hammer”.

In my opinion the .270 is a much much better general elk hunting cartridge than any of the above mentioned “Elk Hammers”.

Let me state that another way.

I personally hunt for a living and have shot cartridges from the .17s to the .585 Nyeti to the 4 bore rifle and regularly use handguns with relatively heavy recoil (.454 Casull). I have shot, spotted for, or videoed being shot over 50 elk (9 in 2004) with cartridges from the .22-.243 to the .338-.378 Weatherby and would go on the hunt of a lifetime for 400” bulls with a .270 without concern. It would not be my first choice but if it was what I had I would not lose any sleep. I would limit my shots to 600 yds.