--- title: "Sorry, But Elk Aren’t Really That Tough" description: "Hunters like to say elk are tough animals. Here's actually what's going on with hunting elk and shot placement." date: "2026-10-09" modified: "2026-10-09" authors: - name: "Tyler Freel" job_title: "Staff Writer" link: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/authors/tyler-freel.md" url: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/how-tough-are-elk/" categories: - "Big Game Hunting" - "Elk Hunting" - "Hunting" tags: - "Evergreen" - "News" --- # Sorry, But Elk Aren’t Really That Tough ![A photo of a hunter with a nice bull in Colorado.]() *The author's buddy Frank with a nice bull. \Photo by Tyler Freel\* Many hunters consider elk to be one of the toughest game animals in North America. Volumes have been written about their durability and rugged construction and generations of hunters have told stories around the campfire about the big one that was too tough for an ordinary rifle to bring down. Elk have inspired cartridge and bullet debates for decades — leaving some hunters thinking they need heavy artillery to penetrate the testosterone-thickened hide of the beasts. But how tough are elk, really? ## Animal “Toughness” Isn’t an Exact Science ![A bu]() *A lone bull in southern Colorado. *Photo by Tyler Freel** I grew up in Colorado and hunted elk with my dad, but never killed one before moving to Alaska at age 16. It wasn’t until 2021 that I tagged my first, a New Mexico bull. I shot him at about 200 yards across a draw, hitting square in the lungs with a .300 Win. Mag. The bull bolted, and I managed to hit him again in the lungs with a second shot, sending him skidding to a stop only yards from the public-land boundary. Elk did, indeed, seem pretty tough to me. Lots of animals are touted as tough by hunters — which is often intended to be a somewhat abstract estimation of their ability to slough off shots from would-be hunters using sub-par equipment or small bullets. In this context, we would assume that “tougher” animals would require extra shots or larger cartridges to kill them quickly and cleanly. **Related:** [The 10 Best Dangerous Game Cartridges]() We regularly read, hear, and see claims about the toughness of elk, which make them sound like cousins of the [cape buffalo](). The problem is that animal toughness, at least in this context, is not much of a science. Some of it is informed by experience, but it’s often inspired by things like generational lore, uninformed opinion, and the desire to explain an unfavorable outcome. ![Tyler Freel with a big Colorado bull.]() *The author with one of his Colorado bulls. *Photo by Tyler Freel** I’ve heard many claims about how tough moose and grizzly bears are but, after killing many of them myself, the reality usually doesn’t line up with the assertions. Any animal can display incredible toughness in some circumstances, but if you place a sharp broadhead or decent bullet through the heart or lungs, it’s over quickly. I’ve shot both with large and smaller cartridges, as well as archery tackle, and I simply haven’t seen any issues if I placed my shot well. So I’ve always quietly assumed the same about elk. I don’t doubt that the elk your cousin Eddie shot in ‘84 made it 10 miles, but it probably wasn’t hit through the heart as he proclaimed. ## Elk Are Mortal, Too Elk, like moose, are essentially just larger deer. They share many of the same anatomical features and characteristics, so why are they labeled as tougher? I believe there’s always an explanation — but we might not get the answer if we screw up and an animal gets away. In that case, it’s often the temptation to attribute it to the animal’s ruggedness and avoid the guilt and shame of our own mistakes. Some people think it crazy to don the blaze orange and beat the bushes with anything less than a .340 Weatherby for ol’ Wapiti but, after being invited to hunt some elk that have been wrecking the crops of my relatives and the townsfolk I grew up around, I decided to bring my 6mm Creedmoor, loaded with 93-grain McGuire Ballistics Copper Rose bullets. In a week of hunting, I killed two bulls (which is the bag limit for this particular hunt and place) and my buddy Frank killed one. None of the three bulls — shot from 150 yards to 350 yards — ran more than about 10 yards before expiring. ![A bull elk Tyler Freel.]() *The author's first bull in Colorado. *Photo by Tyler Freel** I shot my first bull from about 150 yards. He was quartering-to when I bagged my rifle atop an old cedar fencepost and shot him through the near scapula. The bullet put a baseball-sized hole through the near-side ribs and lung, and exited behind the opposite shoulder. He spun, ran 6 or 7 yards, and keeled over. Frank shot the second bull twice. The first shot, from about 225 yards, hit low. We’d just ticked into legal light with a herd containing 16 bulls and a gaggle of cows chirped and bugled their way towards us through a field, heading for the safety of the brush behind us. At the shot, the bull lurched, picking up his offside leg and quickly got into the herd. We waited several minutes, and even saw the bull bugle again, before determining it was the one he hit. We were perplexed as to why he wasn’t dead. A second shot from 350 yards hit the hard-quartering bull in the ribs, and the bullet stopped in the opposite shoulder after shattering the shoulder knuckle. We found that his first shot hit low, breaking the bull’s offside front leg, but below the brisket. I shot my second bull from 245 yards, broadside, through both front shoulders. I watched the bullet impact, then the bull whirled, took a few steps, stopped, and went down. The little 6mm bullet went through the shoulder, traversed the lungs, and exited the opposite shoulder. ## The Real Reason People Think Elk Are Tough To Kill I won’t say that I don’t think elk are tough, but they aren’t as tough to kill as many people think. While hanging out with my relatives I asked what they thought, and the answers were pretty consistent. The consensus? “It doesn’t really matter what you shoot them with if you hit them in the right spot.” They went on to say that a buddy of theirs has killed more elk with his .243 than all of them put together. While killing three bulls doesn’t qualify me as an expert elk hunter, I’m left with the distinct impression that their reputation isn’t all that different from the large game I'm very familiar with (grizzlies, black bears, sheep, and caribou, among others). It’s likely that elk’s rugged reputation has grown from poor shooting. ![A photo of bullet path through elk.]() *Even a little 6mm does plenty of damage to cleanly take elk. This is the entrance into the chest cavity after the bullet passed through the scapula. The slug exited the ribs behind the opposite shoulder *Photo by Tyler Freel** My buddy’s bull is a great example of this. Missing the mark is never the goal, but sometimes it happens. Had we been hunting in the timber, we might not have seen where it went, and wrote it off as the result of using too wimpy of a cartridge. About 12 years ago, I lost a black bear that I shot from about 300 yards with a hot .270 Wildcat. I heard the bullet hit him, and he whirled into the brush. I never found a drop of blood. It was undoubtedly a poorly-placed shot. **Related:** [Why Small Cartridges Are So Effective for Big Game]() [We write and speak a lot]() about the advantages of using [lighter-recoiling cartridges](), and that’s because a common path of logic is to pick a large magnum for game like elk in order to allow more margin for error. In reality, most people that buy into it end up with a gun they don’t shoot very well, and won’t practice with. On top of that, elk hunting is exciting and can be strenuous. Hunters get excited and that can lead to both mistakes and mis-remembering exactly what happened. I remember watching the bullet impact on my second bull’s shoulder, but I couldn’t tell you which direction he was facing. I don’t remember. ![A mushroomed bullet on a cutting board]() *This 6mm 93 grain McGuire Ballistic Copper Rose hit our second, quartering-away bull in the ribs and was found in the shattered offside shoulder knuckle. *Photo by Tyler Freel** ## Final Thoughts Whether you choose a big magnum or a pipsqueak gopher cartridge, the most important thing when shooting any animal is to pick a shot in which you have a high likelihood of hitting the vitals, and executing that shot. You can wing a cottontail in the leg and he’s going to seem pretty damned tough. Pick something that you can shoot well, that you like to shoot, and that you shoot a lot. ## Author Tyler Freel is a Staff Writer for *Outdoor Life.* He lives in Fairbanks, Alaska and has been covering a variety of topics for OL since 2010. From backpack sheep hunting adventure stories to DIY tips to gear and gun reviews, he covers it all with a perspective that’s based in experience. Freel is never one to shy away from controversial topics. He’s responsive to readers on OL’s social channels and happy to answer questions, debate opinions, and squash trolls. ### Author social links [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()