Jimbo60,

Even back when I hunted a lot of deer, I would say "I'm going out 'bambi-popping". Sorry if my terminology offended, perhaps I should have said "deer hunters that have not progressed to a higher level of big game hunting" but it seems a litte wordy, also hope it didn't hit too close to home.

Last I looked, this WAS an elk/bullet performance thread. The distain as you call it, if any, comes from listening to lifetime deer hunters (that haven't graduated beyond the bambi-popping level) take their knowledge of deer/bullet performance (on thin hided, small boned 250 pound critters) and extend it out into the world as being gospel for elk hunting, when in fact they haven't ever put a hit on, or even a shot at an elk.

Deer you can pretty well knock over with a stick which lets deer hunters get pretty "loosy goosy" on both their cartridge choices and their bullet choices. The world is not quite so forgiving in the realm of elk hunting, especially if you move up to the large mature bulls. Sure, they are both ungulates, got 4 legs, split hooves, brown in color, antlers on the males, social, and like to run in groups, etc. but that is about where the similarity ends, IMHO. Compared to deer, even cow elk can soak up way more punishment than deer and still run off and die where you won't find them. In fact, a lot of deer hunters/first time elk hunters think they missed the shot since they didn't see the elk flinch or limp or react to the shot other than to run off.

In the case of the aforementioned "bambi-popper"/elk hunter discussion, it's kinda like a city boy that spent half the summer mowing lawns and then comes out to the countryside and decides to give advise to a rancher on how to put up (harvest) a 500 acres of wild hay -- similar, but not enough so to be a credible source for advice --- especially from the rancher's perspective.

Let's see, elk hunters....... Hartford-poppers? That is about all I could come up with--help welcome on that one. Rudolph-poppers? No, that would be reindeer/caribou. Bullwinkle-poppers? Nope, moose. Simba-poppers? Whoops, wrong continent, but some serious hunting though. Anyhow....

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
EKM