Those things will wake you up on an early morning hike better than a strong cup of coffee! They usually wait until you're about a foot away to scare the crap out of you too.
The 180 nosler balistic tip is a very underrated bullet in my opinion. I've killed elk with them and they have performed flawlessly, good expansion and textbook weight retention. I prefer the accubond, but in a pinch, I wouldn't hesitate to use the 180 ballistic tip again. I think the 165 in...
The eldx will definitely open, more like disintegrate. I tried the eldx when they first came out and had nothing but bad experiences with their terminal performance. They’re cheap for a reason.
I also wouldn’t recommend pushing the 270 past 500 yards on elk, I have done it with accubonds, but...
You say you don't reload? That will significantly limit what you should get. Ask yourself what ammo can you readily get now and during the next ammo scare? Definitely not one of the PRC or STW variants. I would only focus on the most popular calibers: 30-06, 308, 300WM, 270...
It makes me cringe...
Thousands upon thousands of Elk have been killed over the past century with the 30-30, 243, 270, 308, and 30-06 using cheap core-lokt/speer/sierra bullets. These are not overly powerful rifles, and bullet constriction wasn't anything special until recently. The elk must be wearing a LOT of armor...