Ya, when it comes to elk, I am a meat hunter first and a trophy hunter second....and I've made that same shot numerous times with other rifles and bulletswith out any problem. The question was if those bullets blow up... YES, they do! If I would have elected to shoot those bulls in the shoulder, I beleive they would have blown up on the shoulder and not penetrated just like they did on the neck. Of around fourty elk, that is the only one I have ever lost and it still pisses me off. That shot should have taken his head off. That bullet and that experience is what prompted me to come to this site in the first place. I chose to try to learn from others experience with bullets instead of trial and error at some animals expense.