Originally Posted by
Blackelk
It's 100% shot placement on all big game 100% of the time. Like someone said previous they can't breath their dead.
Those that know my posts know I've been beating this drum for a while but I just wanted to respond to this portion of your post.
My father was a very simple man. Doesn't mean he wasn't smart but was very simple in his approach to most things and he taught me this very same concept. Shot placement is 100% and don't worry about the rest.
When I was about 15 years old I one day asked him if I could take my favorite .223 out elk hunting. He bought me the rifle 6 months earlier and I fell in love with it. He told me that I could shoot the 30-06 fine so I should take that.
When we were driving up to camp I told him I didn't want to question his judgement but I didn't understand why shot placement was EVERYTHING but he wanted me to take the 30-06 instead of my favorite rifle of all time to shoot. After all I could dot an I with that thing.
Being the man he was he was more annoyed than anything with the question and never really answered. Looking back perhaps he understood that there was some contradiction there and he wasn't the type of man that liked to be questioned by a young boy.
To this day he doesn't see his own contradiction and still carries his simple view towards shooting. Since that day when I was 15 I haven't brought up the subject again. Shot placement is all that matters he says over and over but I get a chuckle when he pulls out his favorite blonde walnut stocked 30-06 with a nice scope, floated barrel, and his handloads with heavy premium bullets to go elk hunting. The real funny thing he isn't a fan of scopes and still totes an old open sighted 30-30 for muleys although he does seem to be a bit more accurate with 30-06.
After becoming an adult and learning how my father works I've learned that when he says "shot placement is all that matters" I know he really means that it's really important and that's his way of emphasizing that.
Obviously I am a more complex man than my father in the way I approach things, at least on the outside. While his lesson wasn't lost on me in that shot placement is very important, I also understand that there a lot of physics involved between pulling the trigger and an animal breathing it's last breath. I understand that in nature for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and therefore speed, weight, construction, and other factors never react exactly the same way to the same circumstances.
I shared this story as a way to convey my point of view. If you think it was just rambling....I'd have to chuckle because that's what my father would say.