Well ain' t that a coincidence; Kev' s a politician with a part time job as a telephone operater, and he' s studying to be a lawyer. His mother is from Texas and his father is a frenchman, hell I' m sure he lived in California for a while, and yes he has both ears and his nose pierced...said something about wanting to go Elk hunting up your way next season...

I use a 270 win also. 130 gr bullets,great for deer. shot placement is the most important. Head shots should be avoided.I have personally had trouble with head shots. I managed to recover the animals. I have also had to shoot a couple of deer that some other hunter has tried to head shoot , blown the lower jaw off,and other parts of the head that weren' t fatel. What a waste.I now only shoot for the lungs or heart. For elk or moose I' d use 150 gr or 160 gr bullets out of a 270 win. I now use a 300 win mag 180 gr nosler parts.

Calling someone irresponsible on this is a bit much. In the heat of the moment we Humans sometimes don' t think clearly. He made a mistake and I am sure the man learned from it and thankfully he recovered the animal. I give him the benefit of the doubt.

Two problems jump out, 130 gr bullet and head shot. I' ve been taught since I was a little guy that if all you have is a head shot, you don' t have any shot at all. Even though I don' t like a 270 for elk hunting because of limited range at 40yds it should work fine. Always shoot for the boiler room. Even though you' ve had experience shooting one in the heart and lungs and it ran off, thats the exception not the rule. Head shots are always iffy.

However to answer your post, these animals are extremely hard to bring down. In my opinion they are tougher than moose to drop.

The CLOSER the range the more likely a light bullet will break up when hitting tough meat an' bone. 130s ain' t no good at 40 yards for badgers, let alone wapiti. Haid shots are disrespectful an' plain stupid on such animals.

i agree with the Beav plain DUMB shot. give me a 06 or 300 mag with 200 grain good bullets and i will break his shoulders down and i won' t have to chase him around the mountains like a billy goat

Wow! Great story. Your friend sounds like an excellent hunter. It' s nice to see he managed to keep his composure and got the job done. There' s probably a few that wouldn' t have held their ground for the third shot. How would have liked to have been his heart? Can you imagine the adrenaline? Hats off.

He managed to keep his composure and get the job done. But, there would have been no need to keep any composure had the first bullet been through the lungs and heart. Good under pressure? Maybe. Excelent hunter? I don' t think so.

I don' t need to shoot an animal three times to get an adrenaline rush. Standing 40 yards and making a good clean one shot kill is enough for me.

BigBulls, maybe I read the story wrong but it seems to me the first shot was taken as the animal was charging him. I doubt a lung shot would be either possible or practical. The shot I' d try to make on a charging animal at 40 yards is one thats going to drop it in it' s tracks. I think the gentleman did a remarkable job in holding his ground.

Even more of a reason not to take a head shot on a moving animal. Yes he did a good job at holding his ground and finishing the job.