Here is the offside of a big cow elk I shot at 219 yards with a .308 165GR nosler accubond. The lungs were a soupy mess, and the arteries going into the heart were gone, pulled the heart out by hand with no cutting. Exit hole was a little smaller than a quarter. Yes, a .308 is good….!
2nd and 3rd season can be very cold - we had over 2 feet of snow fall the night before 2nd season last year and that made getting around very tough if not impossible without chains. Plenty of elk, but that's a good deer tag and I believe you'd be better off focusing on deer than chasing the OTC...