ORIGINAL: chickenrunn
so what your telling me is bigger is better??? you beet around the bush on saying that mild cartridges don't kill animals anymore....but they do I seen more hunters kill with middle calibers or mild cartridges than i do with a 300 or 338... so when is it that you change back to the smaller caliber... when shooting more.. shooting closer distance....or cant take the recoil????? I don't understand why elk hunters go out in to the woods with 300s and bigger trying to take an animal that I have seen My mother shoot with a 25-06 and kill it dead within 50 yrds..SO WHEN IS BIGGER NOT BETTER?? I guess what I should be asking is,.. at what range do you feel shooting big game with smaller calibers??
It looks like you missed my sarcasm about the bigger cartridges not killing anymore. In fact, they do. My favorite rifle is a 7x57. It'll kill anything that needs killing,
without killing my shoulder. My .30-06 and .35 Whelen are excellent rifles, chambered in extremely capable cartridges. But I highly doubt there's anything those 2 rifles could kill, that the 7x57 couldn't.
When is bigger not better? I'd argue that bigger is seldom better, when hunting critters without teeth, or under 800 lbs., or both.
At what range? Since I can't see much past 200 yards, I try not to shoot that far, regardless of what cartridge I'm using.
If a hunter begins with a mild cartridge, & sticks with it for a lifetime without ever trying higher powered offerings, I figure he's either A) too poor to go buy more rifles, or B) far wiser than the rest of us, with remarkable self control.
FC