Buck, given your "in the field - elk in the crosshairs", experience I'd feel pretty good about having you in camp and knowing I DIDN'T have to worry about you wounding and losing an elk shooting that .270 of yours. Of course, sounds like you shoot a lot, have hunted a lot and you have some "rings under your bark" as I've heard someone say. Problem is what is it that the "newer" hunter described in the first post has really done with a deer or two under his belt?"
1. Odds are he was hunting close to home.
2. Odds are he wasn't taking a week or two off to do it.
3. Odds are he came across his deer fairly easy, since most deer spend most their life in a very small area and when disturbed run 100 to 150 yards stop turn broadside and look at you (except the old big ones).
4. Odds are he wasn't spending $2,000/$3,000 for a two week elk hunting vacation (not for outfitting - just cash out or lost wages).
5. Odds are that the same .270 shot that might have been a bit off and still dropped his deer WON'T drop an elk if it's off similarly (especially if the guide don't get him closer than 300 yards!)

Now lets take the same "newer hunter" on a wapiti hunt with a outfitter that sounds a bit shakey and all of a sudden it's a "command performance."
1. He's been gone from home 3 days already.
2. He may be intimidated by the other hunters in the outfitters camp and the talk of 300 to 400 yard shots.
3. He may not even seen an elk the first day or the elk he saw may not have given him that nice "curious deer standing broadside" and he lost them when he had them.
4. He may be thinking about getting home and hearing, "That elk hunt cost you how much AND you irritated the wife by going AND you came back with nothing, not even a shot?"
5. Now he gets a second chance and all of a sudden the hunter education, hunter ethics, and "do the right thing" go right out the window and he lays a shot on an elk that you would have passed on - less than ideal - near the vitals, maybe even clipped them - at that point bigger is better = more damage, more shock, more penetration (bone smashing).

I've got a young lad in the family from Washington that I haven't met who is wanting to join us next year with 1 deer under his belt and a .270 in his hand. I'm excited he's interested yet I'm a bit worried. I want to get him out in the elk woods, but will probably try to talk him into using my .30-06 "camp gun" with Federal's High Energy 180gr. partitions just to give both him and the elk a little insurance.

Just an observation: those elk hunters that have a choice of rifles don't leave the bigger bores at home in favor of the smaller ones unless they're having trouble carrying the heavier rifle.

EKM

Good judgement comes from bad experience! Half of elk hunting is knowing what NOT to do!

Edited by - ELKampMaster on 12/05/2002 23:56:02