I used to believe in "knockdown power" and could quote you the energies of nearly every cartridge loaded by Remington or Winchester from their catalogs when I was ... younger.

Those tables never quite translated as well to the field, nor did they explain why deer and antelope shot with my "marginal" .243 died more quickly than those shot withmy family's .30-06 or .270 - and generally without regard to which one of us was doing the shooting. If the tables and "knockdown power" were anything but misleading, that wouldn't have been true.

While it's true that we've sincedabbled with Magnum-mania, particularly .300 Win and Wbymags, we've never used either on deer or antelope. Conversely, we've never used the .243on elk.

A few years ago, I lung-shot a bull elk with my .375 H&H and a 300 gr Barnes SP. Entry andexit wounds were both about the same size (finger-sized going in, thumb size going out). Heart and lungs turned to goo. Left a blood trail about a foot wide - as he crashed another 100 yards or so through the trees only to drop dead.I've neverhad a deer or antelope go that far hit by the .243.What would that suggest about "knockdown power"?