Ah boys, I too have heard that "1K for deer/1.5K for elk" figure for as long as I can remember. It may be, as PA-Joe says, a good general rule... if not arbitrary. Or at least as good as any... Right up there with "because we've
always done it that way!"
I say arbitrary because, in the 50 or 60 years I've heard the statement repeated, I've never seen a source for it cited so I could satisfy myself as to it's validity.
For a few decades I accepted it as a general rule, mostly because it was so often stated by people more knowledgeable then I. I no longer do that. Didn't someone say "If you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it."
And Sundra didn't qualify the statement at all. He didn't say that level of energy is necessary to
reliably kill deer, he made the flat statement that a 1000 Ft. lbs of energy is
NECESSARY! Meaning you
must have it; the deer
cannot be killed if the projectile doesn't have it! And you know that is just not so. Unfortunately, less informed people who may be reading the article normally don't question what is stated.
The power of the printed word and all that...
Well, what do you expect from someone who thinks a .243 is a jim dandy deer caliber...