Here is a scenerio that was put in front of a number of hunters in a popular hunting magazine a few years ago. Let's say you were invited to go on an Elk hunting trip with a friend. You would be hunting in heavy timber with shots no more than 75 yards. You are given a choice of a .22-250 with a 55 gr. spitzer boattail or a .45-70 using a 270 gr. round nosed bullet. Which would you choose and why? 100% of the hunters said that they would use the .45-70 (common sense). Then when most of them were asked why they chose that caliber/bullet combination, over 1/2 of them stated "more knockdown" or "more energy" from the larger bullet.

OK lets look at the ballistic on these 2 calibers: at 100 yards both projectiles deliver almost identical energy numbers. The thing you have to look at here is the fact that the 55 gr. bullet is traveling twice the speed of the larger bullet therefore delivering more energy per square inch due to the smaller impact area of the .22 caliber.

In this case neither speed nor energy kills but bullet construction is the key. The larger bullet with it's blunt design and heavier core/jacket combination is what creates a significant wound channel to effeciently lower the animals blood pressure causing trauma and immediate death.

Shot placement and matching the bullet to the game being hunted is also a major factor here.

I totally agree with 8mm/06 on this one.