You added "hundred" to what I said. Read it again.... The elk hit with the .375 left a blood trail about a foot wide for about 100 yards, he was nothing to follow, and I heard him go down and thrash around so knew the general direction to go looking as well. The elk hit with the .243 went "a few" yards. From where I shot him, I could see him a few steps away. I don't recall there even being a blood trail, but there didn't need to be, so I probably wasn't even looking for it.

And once again, you guys are speaking in absolutes here and making leaps of logic. Because I had to trail an elk hit with a .375, it's not a good elk rifle, but because I didn't have to with the .243 - it is? Good Lord. Okay, the rest of the story. I've killed elk on-the-spot with the .375 as well. I've done the same with a .30-06, .300, and .338, as well as shots where they launched themselves when hit and collapsed a few yards away.

That bull hit with the .300 WSM? He went nearly a mile before he went down for good to a .270. The shot from the .300 was from the forward oblique and rather than going in slightly ahead of the shoulder where it should have, went in higher and slightly behind the shoulder where it damaged the right lung but spent most of its time passing through stomach and intestines. The .270 finisher was pure broadside boiler room. A bad shot is a bad shot, regardless of the cartridge.

Much analysis of that one around the campfire, mostly because the .300 shooter just couldn't believe that his pet rifle didn't smoke that elk on the spot like it "should have" (and would have, had he been paying more attention to where his crosshairs were lined up than he was the bones on the thing's head). There are no guarantees.

The takeaway here if you're a newbie isn't the sufficiency of ANY caliber for ANY game, it's how critical your marksmanship abilities are once you find your animal. It's not a matter of what gear you can buy, but the skills you've developed.