Haven't read thru all the tips, sorry....

My tip:

Use premium bullets and USE ENOUGH GUN....

When the elk hunters on this forum were polled as to their FAVORITE elk cartridges that they had ACTUALLY TAKEN ELK WITH, their responsesdid NOT run to the smallish side!

To view the poll:
http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/tm.asp?m=1142362

EKM