Elk, like any other living, breathing, organism, are all individuals. Some are tougher than others. "Perfect shot placement" is an opinion (IMO). I have shot 6 bulls and a cow with my ML's. 100 grains Pyro Selct RS, 460 gn No Excuses on the 6 bulls. Savage ML-2 on the cow, 250 grain TC EZ glide, 43 gns 5744. 175 yard shot. She ran 40 yards, spraying blood out both sides. I hit her high, through both lungs, about 5" under the top of the back bone. She drowned in her own blood quickly.
One bull I shot at 120 yards right at last light. An older 6x6. He walked about twenty yards and laid down. I gathered up all my stuff and hiked down to where he was standing when I shot, using my flashlight I looked around to see what kind of blood I had. I didn't see any. Shined my light up to where he laid down and he was lying there looking at me. I couldn't shoot again because it was too dark at this point.
I ran down off the mountain to get my brother in law to come help me take care of him, the shot felt good and I had no doubts he would be expired and lying right where he was, by the time I got back up there. 1-1/2 hours later we get back up to where he was. I shined the flashlight up,to where he was last, and he was still there, head up, looking right at us. We backed out and went up the next morning. Still in the same place, but dead. Cleaned him out and the tops of both lungs were obliterated. Slug just under the hide on the off side.
One 6x6 in that same area, I shot at about the same distance, same load (the same load I've shot out of that White since I bought it) dropped like he'd been hit over the head with a car and was stone dead when I got up to him, about three minutes later. I hit him behind the shoulder, mid height, once again recovering the slug under the off side of the hide. There was a sow with a cub in that area, and I was ringing the dinner bell with all that fresh blood. So, I skinned him and quartered him, and got him down to the truck. I never did clean him out and inspect the internal damage.
The 6x6 in my profile pic, I hit high and pretty far back, still in the lungs, but not by much. He was at 100 yards and ran about 200 leaving almost no blood, nosebleed amounts at best. My good friend (who guides for Mossback) filmed it all and put it on YouTube. When we watched the shot back, I didn't think there was any way we were going to find that bull. Google "Stacey Porter 2010 muzzleloader" and it should pull it up, if your interested to see it. He also had a muzzy broad head through his left shoulder bone and just the point made it through into his lung cavity. The archery hunt had ended a couple of weeks earlier. When we cut that front shoulder off there was a hole all the way through it and the broad head was just into the muscle of the rib cage. Another couple of pounds of draw weight and he'd have been a goner.
One, a 4x5 raghorn, I shot at about 50 yards, he started to walk away slowly, I was able to reload and get a second shot that put him down. Both were in the rib cage and once again I recovered one of the two slugs under the hide on the off side.
One 5x6 I shot at about 15 yards, and he went about 75 yards before going down. He was facing head on and I hit him dead center, just under the neck. Didn't dig through the entrails looking for that slug, but it missed the heart and only got one lung, and it didn't pass through.
One was also at 100 yards, clean pass, right behind the shoulder. Ran about thirty yards, stopped, spun in a circle and went down. He was still alive when I got to him, but not going anywhere. I shot him again just to hasten the end.
Every shot that I have made with my ML has been "Perfect shot placement" because I recovered them.
The one shot I have taken that I really thought was a perfect shot, under the conditions that I had, was with a bow. 10 yards front facing, hit him just left of center, and when he whirled and ran off, I could just see my fletchings sticking out of the front. He bled more than any animal I have ever seen, at about 400 yards, I lost the blood and never recovered him. Still sick over that one. I keep having doubts as to whether or not I should have let that arrow fly. In hindsight no, I shouldn't have, because it resulted in an un-recovered kill. At the time, I was congratulating myself on a perfect shot, and just knew he was only going to go 40 or 50 yards and be done. Wrong.
So you see, IMO "Perfect Shot Placement" is going to vary on every animal and in every situation. The "perfect shot" results in a recovered animal, and we can only hope that it also results in a short blood trail. I guess the most perfect shot I've ever seen was the kid who shoots a nice bull with his bow. It takes maybe one or two steps, spewing blood like a geyser, and drops after about five seconds.