No doubt in my mind Elk are much tougher to drop and hunt in general than moose. My first hand experience has yielded most moose without a step and if they do they don' t go far. Elk on the other hand seem to run at the shot and while I have yet to lose one I consider them the toughest to bring down as far as big game I hunt regularily.

However I by far don' t think moose are stupid or the clumbsy beast, like they look. Being I hunt them annually with the bow they have earned a lot of respect in my mind for agility, stealth and smarts in the bush. Now maybe those who only have hunted rifle for either game wouldn' t agree, but you try and get a bull moose to close that 100 yard gap you need and you' ll know where I am coming from.

Elk are tougher; as others have mentioned, they take off at the sound of the shot and go some distance. They also must be hit well; shoulder or boiler room shot with a properly constructed bullet.

Moose aren' t as tough; my late father brought down two moose with well placed shots using a .243 Winchester; both were one shot kills. I' m more comfortable using a .30-06 or better for moose as there are grizzly in the same territory.

Well I think the species may matter in this regard...not sure the Alaskan/Yukon jumbo variety goes down readily unless hit with the right stuff.

I have seen large northern moose in excess of 1200lbs dropped with a 25-06 and 100gr partitions.They are big but they seem to give up pretty easy when hit properly

I haven' t hunted either one (Green Horn) but have tasted both and Elk is much better. I would take Elk over any of the best beef steak in the in the state.

Never got a moose tag. I live near Estes Park where we have these " park elk" you can hand feed, that are a different creature than " wild" elk. Regardless, I was with a friend up in the Zirkel area last weekend. Heard this really strange noise. All of a sudden, we had a herd of elk running around us!!! The herd had to be 40+ animals. I just about soiled myself right there. I could have touched them and consider myself lucky to not have been trampled. I don' t know what touched them off, and we were at least a mile from the nearest trail. They were there and completely gone in a few seconds. Anyway, after that event, I will NEVER take them lightly again. There is no doubt in my mind elk are a tougher lot than moose.

I think some people are misinformed on a bull moose' s intelegence. He " just stands there" because he can. There isn' t a whole lot a full grown bull moose is affaid of, and that gives some the impression they' re stupid. He' ll stand up to bears and wolves, will an elk? Not if his number 1 option is open.

Lets also take a look at the difference in habitat. Most elk live in mountainous or relatively high ground. Throw in some nice meadows, valleys, and your occasional arid desert land, and you could have some fairly enjoyable hunting. Now put your idea of sitting on a pond with a 300 magnum away and go bowhunt moose where he lives. Bush isn' t always the best word to discribe where a moose lives. Niether is swamp. " Bush and swamp" will take on new meaning for you once you' ve been there. So will the word bugs!

Once your sitting with your a$$ in water, after you' ve hiked a couple miles through the bushes and you have a bull down and your wondering how to get him out? Call me and I' ll tell ya. YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE ELK HUNTING! ROTFLMAO[:-]

Nub-I hunt my moose and elk in the same area.The terrain is the same so hunting moose is no more difficult.Also the success rate for killing moose is much higher although the populations are similar in size so elk are harder to harvest under identical situations.

Doesn' t the heart of an elk sit farther back in relation to their shoulders than say a deer or moose? Could it be that some who think they are taking a heart shot on an elk are really putting the slug through forward of the heart, which still will eventually bring it down, but not as quickly?

Some of you who have many more years of experience hunting elk can tell if this is likely.

MinnFinn

Minnfinn-The anatomy of an elk is very similar to that of the rest of the deer family as to location of the heart.