It has been my experience that an elk guide wants a hunter to put the elk down on the spot. The only reliable way to do that is to break down the front shoulder's. Behind the shoulder will normally allow an elk to run or even walk off some distance. I realize breaking the shoulder will waste some meat. But the shot is a for sure way to put an elk down in it's tracks.

The problem with your 25-06 is that I would not trust it to break both shoulders. It takes a little horsepower to do that. It takes some horsepower to even break one shoulder.

When you are elk hunting you have to take the shot that you are given, or go home empty handed. I did some elk hunting with a 340 Weatherby. Any shot with the 340would have taken the elk cleanly. I was trophy hunting, so some meat loss was acceptable to me.

If you are hunting for any cow elk, or strictly meat hunting(that is what a lot of elk hunter's do), then shot selection can become more important. But I would still rather have a big hole going in, and a bigger hole going out.

We once shot a small bull behind the front shoulder with a 30-06. The bull was dead on his feet. But he still went about 200 yards. He went directly down over a slide. I took two of us the entire day to get the bull out. If he would have died in his tracks we could have had him out in less than an hour. Tom.