I've been kind of staying out of this but now I feel I have to step in. There ARE legitimate uses for magnums and I own some myself BUT most of the time,they aren't needed. The facts of the matter is shot placement and proper bullet design/treminal bullet performance is EVERYTHING. It don't matter what the game animal was shot with-let's use deer for comparsion,all that matters is it being shot in right place with a good bullet. A gutshot deer from a magnum is just as gutshot as a gutshot deer with a "peashooter". In the vast majority of deer I've seen taken,and of the 1s I've helped to recover,the deer badly hit with magnum that ran off,seemed to go every bit as far as those marginally hit with lesser calibers. In fact,I havn't been able to notice ANY difference between say a 7mm08 w/140 gr bullets with proper hit and a .300 win mag w/180 gr bullets. The ONLY difference that I could possibly notice is the .300 kicked a hell of a lot harder. Like I said,magnums DO have their place-but not in 95% of "normal" hunting.