22 or 6.5 Creedmore for Moose and Elk?

I recommend the .338 Win mag creedmoor.

dchum said:

are you shooting as accurate as you could be? Not if you have any sort of flinch or recoil anticipation

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Thats not the full scope of the issue. More recoil magnifies shooting problems in every way. It magnifies errors due to bad positioning, for example.

If you never shoot anything beyond 200 yards and never do it from awkward positions then yea it doesnt really matter much. Making hits at extended ranges is much easier with less recoil.

Nothing to do with being man enough to hang on and take the lick. Its physics. And as everyone always says, a small bullet in the right spot is better than a big bullet in the guts.

dchum said:

Subconsciously flinching is a real thing for lots of people. So yes you are not noticing shoulder pain in the heat of the moment!
I certainly can agree with that.

But are you shooting as accurate as you could be? Not if you have any sort of flinch or recoil anticipation

That’s what is interesting to me at least

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I worked out my upper body for 7 years straight sometimes on testosterone sometimes not, and as a result I have a well-developed chest arms shoulders back and also legs. So I am able to take recoil many people are not however that does not mean it does not hurt. Luckily for me however in all the 30 years of my hunting and shooting rifles from 22 to 460 Weatherby I have not developed a flinch and I don't think shooting target sighting my big boar rifles in and I don't flinch when I shoot a white so deer with my 375 Ruger with a really lightweight North fork bullet.

So I don't see how I could be shooting any more accurately. Frankly I don't really see the message you're trying to convey here other than that then a person might subconsciously develop a Flinch at the range and then that flinch might present itself while hunting. White tail dealer forgiving but as I've never been I can only guess that African game are not.
When my father started me on the Beretta model 92 at age 13 I initially had a flinch and it was very difficult for me to consciously overcome the flinch that I developed with that 9mm pistol but I did. And before long I was able to qualify just like a law enforcement officer at the police range. No flinch. But with the rifle I was just plain lucky. I developed no Flinch in any respect.

The first thing you have to realize is that the bullet is going the other way, the second thing you have to realize is that there is no reason to flinch. All it takes is monotonous training and thinking but it can be overcome.

Even subconsciously, I do not have a flinch with a bolt action rifle.

blackpowder12bore said:

So I don't see how I could be shooting any more accurately.

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Have you ever tried it? Everybody I know shoots their .22 lr better than their biggest centerfire rifle.

Physics dictates that people shoot better with lower recoil even if you completely remove the mental component, which is in reality virtually impossible to ignore. If you start really testing the theory the same way you would need to be shooting on an elk hunt, 400 yards from an awkward field position, you would likely find you shoot dramatically better with lower recoil.

Nope

My neighbors in Norway Sweden use 6.5x55 but ranges are close ....get beyond 100m and chances are greater of wounding .......However not taken either species .....still old school largest calibre accurately shoot..Recoil is not a big factor as suppressor is almost de facto here in Europe.

If one is hunting moose and most elk, there are preditors like grizzly bears or brown bears who come on the run toward the sound of gun fire. An outfitter friend was packing a camp out with a client ahead of a snow storm. The client saw a small buck mule deer and shot it against the advice of the outfitter. His weapon was a .270 Winchester. The buck ran back into the trees. By the time the client found the buck a grizzly bear was standing over the deer and gnashing his teeth as he claimed the buck. The client used good judgement by backing away with only a spent .270 brass case as a momento of a close call with a grizzly bear. Similar events occur where I hunt each year, A .338 WM will kill a grizzly, but a .375 H&H Magnum is a safer option. The larger caliber provides more safety.