Lost too many elk with the 7mm Rem Mag. Moved to the 300 Win Mag and they all hit the ground quickly now. Hunting without snow in the heavily wooded timber now prevalent in our unattended national forests, elk don't have to go too far and you'll never find them. Granted, my shot placement may not have been perfect, elk hunting isn't like sitting at the rifle range. Sometimes you only have seconds to take a shot in the timber. Never lost an elk with the 300 Win Mag. Lost 3 with the 7mm Rem Mag. 7mm Rem Mag is fine if you've got all day to line up a high shoulder shot or a heart-lung shot. Shot one bull in the timber @ 75 yards that was facing me. Never got that one. He bled line crazy, but he ground was dry and lost the blood trail. I figure the 7mm bullet didn't penetrate all that bone. Probably blew up on impact, never penetrating the brisket.
This is more complicated than it sounds, both the post and the responses.
First of all, it is difficult to know if something is exactly straight on in a hunting situation.
But more importantly, I have seen bullets hit near dead center to a "facing" chest and follow the rib cage around, leaving a wounded animal that can go a long distance. I did this once decades ago with a 270 on a hartebeest and was fortunate to have a second shot at a running hartebeest broadside and closer than the first shot as it followed some oribi and cob up the low spot in the land. Second shot was a spectacular tumbling DRT, sliding to a stop.
What did I learn? Frontal shots are tricky.
Of course, I want to believe that heavier, wider bullets have a better chance of smashing through the sternum area with less chance of deflection. That is how I justify carrying heavier rifles. But things are not always clear.
Here is a picture of a hartebeest that my son shot "face on" at 183 yards. He circled around for an unnecessary finishing shot. The "fly" on the top right shoulder is the 416 bullet sticking out.
He shot the "brave" herd bull in the front chest when it turned to watch their backtrail after a 2 km tracking. The bullet hit the chest frontal area and somehow angled up, almost exiting the top of its right shoulder. The second picture shows from where the shot was taken. He came around an anthill and dropped to his rear for a sitting shot when faced by the buck.
Left center of picture in the distance.
So everyone is right on this. The lost elk may have been a "shot placement" issue and it may have been that a heavier caliber (or better bullet) in the exact same spot could have dropped the elk. We cannot know and therein lies the need for every hunter to choose their tools and take their risks.
