Guess I need to confess....I've never killed an elk either...
If we are going to restrict conversations to only those that have experience then it's going to be mighty quiet around here...
I would feel very confident going after elk with the Barnes I recommended based on how well my gun shoots it, what I have seen it done in the field and what I've heard of it doing from other hunters...
Seems I remember Jim Shockey using that bullet exclusively when he used a Knight...