Well, I used to believe that a big caliber didn't make up for a bad shot...until yesterday. I was at my great uncles with some other hunters during lunch when we saw some deer about 200-250 yards away across the road. My cousin got all excited and instead of getting a good shot off he stood up and freehanded it with his 300 WM. One of the deer dropped on the spot. We figured he must have made a spine or headshot, but when we got there he went straight through the guts, didn't hit anything tha should've brought it down that fast. I think the bigger caliber might have made the difference.