.260 AI for all of these.
140 VLD-H @ 2930, 715 yards, 1 shot, center shoulder. Bullet exited. At impact he lunged forward and turned around, stopped, then tipped over backwards. From impact until he was down, about 10 seconds. Very last clip in the video.
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140 VLD-H @ 2930, 610 yards, 1 shot, bullet exited. Her first big game animal ever btw. At impact she hunched up, took about 10 steps forward and went down. About 20 seconds from impact until she was down. Heart shot. Unfortunately, I was focused on getting my niece her elk, no good video.
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147 ELD-M @ 3040, 816 yards, 2 impacts. My first one hit back in the liver, then pulled second shot low and missed, then followed up with an impact through shoulder. Second shot exited, first shot did not. After the second hit, he was down pretty quick. Video as well.
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147 eld-m @ 3040, 703 yards, one shot. Bullet deflected on impact, and was recovered under the hide in the rear flank/front of hind quarter. You can see the impact right in the shoulder, above and in front of elbow. Video shows she was quartering, but not enough for that impact to end up in the hind quarter. She was the first one shot in the video. She ran a long ways and needed tracked, but was recovered the next morning, and all meat was salvaged.
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156 EOL @ 2940, 910 yards, 1 shot. She stumbled 10 yards after impact and then went down hard. No exit, but also no tracking. Another rushed one, no good video.
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156 EOL @ 2940, 890 yards, 1 shot, high shoulder, 3-4" under spine. At impact she dropped in her tracks, and slid about 100 yards down the hillside until she stuffed up under the log as she is in this photo. Again, no video. Bullet exited.
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They kill just fine, as long as you use the right bullet for the job, and place your shots appropriately. I personally liked the Bergers when I was using my .260ai for elk, however I also haven't shot an elk under 590 yards in 8 years, and my average elk harvest is nearly 800 yards. The fragmenting bullets, while they didn't always exit, always did immense damage. If I was consistently shooting them closer though, I would look at a different bullet.
With that being said, my current elk rifle is a 20" 30 nosler (208 berger @2935), and my wife's rifle I built her for an all around Wyomimg pronghorn, deer and elk rifle, is a 20" 7 max (170 PVA Cayuga @ 2840), and that was as small as I wanted to go, mainly due to the extended ranges we tend to harvest our elk at. My cousin and his wife though, have used their .270 Sherman's shooting 140 badlands bulldozers at 3240 and 3030 respectively, to take a total of 8 elk, from 90 yards to 700, all only requiring 1 shot I believe.
