270 is a superb deer rifle and hellacious on coyotes and through a bit heavy it is devastating on prairie dogs --- no limitations on any of these!

When you move up to elk, all of a sudden there are these limitations! -- " yeah, it will work fine but....." I guess unless you have a torrid love affair with the 270 or you enjoy operating under a handicap (like bow hunting) then that is fine (especially if you are highly experienced), otherwise why should one volunteer to " limit" oneself one on a MUCH bigger and stronger quarry (elk) when one accepts no such limitations with deer, coyotes, p-dogs, etc is beyond me.

I favor " scaling" the choice of rifle up or down according to the size and toughness of the game being pursued in order to remove such limitations. Given the total cost (direct and indirect) of doing a worthy elk hunt why pre-arrange a pending compromise situation from the get go? And if financial restraints prevent the use of a " scaled" rifle then fine, but then that alone doesn' t make the 270 " thee best" as some then claim, it just makes it passable in the face of necessity.

When an elk won' t give you the classic " deer/shot placement pose" ...." here, let me stop and turn broadside to you, now shoot me right behind the shoulder--let me move my leg forword for you a little bit so there won' t be any bone in the way" LOL, then the virtue of using something that will allow you to " nail them" from almost any angle, e.g. will cruise through both shoulders and stir everything in between (heart, lungs, etc.) will become pretty obvious (hopefully).

All too many say that they' ll just be ethical and wait for the " right" shot (described above) or not shoot. Uh Huh, just wait until day four and a five day season without their having got a shot off yet and then let an elk step out in an unfavorable situation and see how quickly the story (and the ethic) changes. Why set yourself up for that temptation and that limitation?

Never Go Undergunned,
EKM