Originally Posted by
Bbj270
My opinion is you should use the biggest gun you can van dam, the animal deserves the respect to be killed quickly and cleanly. I feel the more energy of the 7/08 is a better choice for a young hunter. You never know if the animal will move right when you shoot anything can happen. I agree and animal can run with the biggest guns with poor.shot placement. But don't you feel a big gun gives you the advance. Yes practices so you can make the good shots. But in hunting anything can happen.
Bbj270.... I hear ya man. I'm telling you if we could go back 20yrs, what you wrote would have been exactly what I would have said. Literally, word for word. And I would have argued to the death that I was right. Now, 20yrs and a ton of deer later, I don't feel that way.
The good thing, we both are right because we can shoot what we want. You take the 7mm-08, I'll take the .243 and we'll both have dead deer...well, at least I know I will. LOL, just kidding
And to answer the recoil question...recoil can sometimes create an anticipation flinch - which can lead to an bad shot. This is especially true with the big calibers. I know a couple folks that own them and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn due to being unconsiously scared of thier gun. Not that 7mm-08 has a ton of recoil, but you get the picture. It only takes getting busted in the eye or nose one time for someone to potentially become a terrible shot.