jraney,
I take no offense @ all.....but your wrong. I agree with you on deer shoot them behind the shoulder, bang flop, throw in back of pickup, done deal next hunt please!!
Not so with a elk, you may get lucky with a behind the shoulder shot a time or two then one day you will make that picture perfect 1/4 angle front leg forward shot,..right through the heart, clips the lungs, perfect right
WRONG you just shot him @ 5500 feet could go back and get your p/u or 4 wheeler and drive right to him, but instead he bugs his eyes,stretches his neck high ears forward and bolts straight for the breaks after a couple of hundred yards all the blood is gone but no matter adrenalin works wonders 450 more yards his legs finally turn to rubber and down he goes in heavy brush wedged under a huge dead fall in a creek bottom with no roads anywhere near and your @ 1200 feet, WOW this has turned into a neat hunt....Not. So now if you can even find him its a two day ordeal getting him out if the wolves,coyotes and cougars leave any for you to bring out ??? Option #2 you shoot him square in the front shoulder with a large caliber rifle, break both shoulders, DOWN he goes, he might or might not be dead, but you know exactly where he is and where he is going to be until you get there!!! Now for you guys that hunt desert elk or flat land elk you probably can get away with the perfect shot, but for me hunting all my life in the rugged Blue mts of S.E.Washington St and the Hells canyon country of Idaho I use my 58 cal muzzle stuffer with a 710 grain steak buster square in the shoulder every time. By the way the only time I ever lost a elk was a behind the shoulder shot with a 7mm rem mag 75 yards away. That was the one that wedged himself under a dead fall @ the bottom of a canyon, I looked for him for two days, found the magpies on the third day

Perfect behind the shoulder shot with a small caliber rifle....NO THANKS!
Anyway that's my opinion on the subject, My wife hopes to shoot a lk with hers next year and will have to make the ideal behind the shoulder shot because she is using a under powered 7mm-08 but I will be there to back her up with one of my many large caliber magnums

By the way I am not bad mouthing the 7mm-08 we have three of them in our family, my 7-08 is a Tika T3
that is my every day packing rifle it is very accurate and out of the three full size gun safes and every corner in the house full of rifles the little low recoiling 7-08 is my favorite

Happy hunting to you all.
Wayne.