@Wyo37
All BS aside, the reason people don't regularly use .243 or .264 bullets, in non magnum rounds, on elk size game, is when things go wrong there isn't enough damage to slow the animal down and or leave a heavy blood trail.
I'm not talking about high pass through, no man's land shots either. I'm talking a 325 yards at a slight downward angle, with a small window between two trees at slight quartering away shot. The bull has 4 cows around and is feeding. You're trying to time the head movement and you tell your guide you're taking the shot. As you pull the trigger one of the cows spooks the bull enough that as you send it I turn ever so slightly. That perfect shot now is a little too far forward. The 100gr-140gr (does' t make a difference) clips the shoulder at an angle and your double lung shot is now a single lung high shot with a high small exit hole. That elk takes off. Your guide tells you he saw it hit and to give it a few. You get to the spot and you find blood and fur. As you track it the blood gets less and less and the spots are farther and farther apart. You're out your tag and trophy fee. You did nothing wrong and the animal moved as you shot. That's the real world.
Now would it have been different with a larger magnum, I don't know, but there is a much better chance that you'd break the shoulder, destroy more lung and leave a larger exit wound with a 210 gr 30 cal magnum traveling 2950 fps than a 140 gr .264 bullet traveling 2650 fps. Let alone a .243 anything.
I'm not saying it can't be done. Nor it hasn't been done. Or even you haven't done it. I'm saying that when I've taken time out of my schedule, put my hard earned money down, traveled for days, I'm sure as hell going to bring enough gun for the job.
The 6.5 CM will kill elk. Elk aren't all together hard to kill with clean double lung shots. But when excrement goes sideways it's not the round I want to be using on 650+ pound anything.
Remind me to tell you the story from last July where I shot a Kudu at 210y w/180gr that stacked after shot. Not 20 minutes later i shot a Blesbok (1/2 the size) and it too two shot and a little tracking because of a similar situation to the above. The only thing that helped us was the leg was so damaged that as we pushed it, it slowed down and the single lung damage caught up with it.
All BS aside, the reason people don't regularly use .243 or .264 bullets, in non magnum rounds, on elk size game, is when things go wrong there isn't enough damage to slow the animal down and or leave a heavy blood trail.
I'm not talking about high pass through, no man's land shots either. I'm talking a 325 yards at a slight downward angle, with a small window between two trees at slight quartering away shot. The bull has 4 cows around and is feeding. You're trying to time the head movement and you tell your guide you're taking the shot. As you pull the trigger one of the cows spooks the bull enough that as you send it I turn ever so slightly. That perfect shot now is a little too far forward. The 100gr-140gr (does' t make a difference) clips the shoulder at an angle and your double lung shot is now a single lung high shot with a high small exit hole. That elk takes off. Your guide tells you he saw it hit and to give it a few. You get to the spot and you find blood and fur. As you track it the blood gets less and less and the spots are farther and farther apart. You're out your tag and trophy fee. You did nothing wrong and the animal moved as you shot. That's the real world.
Now would it have been different with a larger magnum, I don't know, but there is a much better chance that you'd break the shoulder, destroy more lung and leave a larger exit wound with a 210 gr 30 cal magnum traveling 2950 fps than a 140 gr .264 bullet traveling 2650 fps. Let alone a .243 anything.
I'm not saying it can't be done. Nor it hasn't been done. Or even you haven't done it. I'm saying that when I've taken time out of my schedule, put my hard earned money down, traveled for days, I'm sure as hell going to bring enough gun for the job.
The 6.5 CM will kill elk. Elk aren't all together hard to kill with clean double lung shots. But when excrement goes sideways it's not the round I want to be using on 650+ pound anything.
Remind me to tell you the story from last July where I shot a Kudu at 210y w/180gr that stacked after shot. Not 20 minutes later i shot a Blesbok (1/2 the size) and it too two shot and a little tracking because of a similar situation to the above. The only thing that helped us was the leg was so damaged that as we pushed it, it slowed down and the single lung damage caught up with it.
