thats the thing, the "shoulder" of the animal, meaning the blade and thick muscle, is actually located VERY far up front, and high. the bulk of the blade is in the upper third of the body, and the angle of the blade is such that is draws a line on the very front of the elks body, when broadside. Most of the vital tissue is in front of the straight line that goes up the leg. The leg itself actually goes straight forward when it gets to the body, so straight above the elbow there is no bone there, beside ribs. and there is alot of room in front of that even before hitting any bone. This really goes for Deer, Moose antelope as well. Theres on old thread on the bowsite about this too. The best illustration I've seen on this is the one posted here, by BB.
You can see here where the crease would be, I've put an illustration here to make the point here.
The line there is roughly (very roughly) where I would say most people call the crease, straight up from the elbow (the antelope here is a bit crooked so the line is too). the 2 dots are where most people would shoot, just behind the shoulder, or the elbow. The X is the purported spot to pick, if you agree with the illustration.