UniversalFrost,
My question, here and at The High Road, was actually a request for members' experiences hunting elk with the .243 Winchester, so there is nothing to follow up. (A depressingly small number of replies have actually addressed that request, the rest have only driven down the signal-to-noise ratio, now also a depressingly small number.)
Perhaps I should have been even more specific than merely capitalizing FIRSTHAND:
Have you shot elk with the .243 Win.? If not, please do not reply. If so, what loads at what ranges and what were the results in terms of follow up shots required, distance to collapse, etc.
Have you been present when other hunters shot elk with the .243 Win.? If not, please do not reply. If so, what loads at what ranges and what were the results?
Are you a guide whose customers have shot elk with the .243 Win.? If not, please do not reply. If so, what loads at what ranges and to what results?
Nothing posted here will change the choice of the .243 Win. Cogent, responsive, replies might have influenced the practice regime leading to the hunt. As the two threads are now, I will not even refer my friend to either.