I am trying to find some sort of consensus on what is an adequate minimal cast boolit performance profile for Elk under 200 yards.
I am open to caliber, but I would assume that .308 would be a practical minimum.
This said, it's probably best to put together combinations in different calibers.
30-'06 or 30-40 Krag launching a 220 grain cast boolit with a flat nose arriving at around 1600-2000 FPS would seem like a good start to me.
Other calibers to consider would be .358, .375, .430, .458...
I have zero experience with Elk. And it seems that people have wildly differing opinions in the copper jacket world. Even contradictory opinions. Cast boolits are a different matter, and even more confusing. It seem some folks think Elk are just bigger deer, and need a little more oomph, while others seem to think they are just smaller Buffalo, and need to be thumped hard. Anatomically and behaviorally they are more Deer-like than Buffalo like, so I tend to side with the former attitude, but again I have zero experience.