Can't say that I would have used the 30-30 but I don't see anything wrong with useing the 30-06. IMO the 30-06 is the correct tool for the job of elk hunting.

I highly doubt that the bullet failed to perform just as it should have when he wounded the two deer. I suspect that a bullet ended up going where it should not have and I doubt that a .338 gut shot deer would have died any faster. Not saying that your father can't shoot just that i have never seen an animal that was hit in the lungs and/ or heart simply walk away.

The fact of the matter is that a 30-06 is way way more gun than is needed to hunt deer and if the 338 WM is what is needed for elk then we may as well not even use the well proven 30-06 any more. Or the 280, 308, .270, 6.5 Sweed, 300 savage, 7mm mauser, 7mm-08, 8mm mauser, etc...

I sure do feel bad for the guys that elk hunted back in the 1950's and earlier before they started coming out with all of these super magnums. Poor guys shouldn't have even been in the elk woods being that they were so inadequately prepared to knock them off their feet.

Maybe back then they actually did more hunting than shooting.

If a person wounds animals with light kicking guns like the 30-06 and such what makes a 338 or larger any better? You just wound them with a bigger bullet. Wounding is wounding no matter what bullet is used.

I always here that big magnums are what is needed to kill an elk yet every year my hunting group as well as other elk hunters we know consistantly do it with regular old cartridges the largest of which is a 7mm Rem mag.

I also always hear about elk not giving good shot oportunites and you need a big bullet go get through stuff like guts to get to the boiler room. Well if you aint got a good shot you aint got a good shot. I don't see how it makes it any more ethical to shoot an elk with a 338 that is offering a bad shot than it is with a 30-06. The logic just isn't there.