It has come to my attention that it takes a much larger and more powerful cartridge to kill elk these days than it used to. Last time I checked, all the elk that I have shot with a .30-06, are still dead, but I fear that soon this will not be the case.

If what the gun writers say is true, then, in just a few short years the .30-06 will not be just "marginal," but totally inadequate for killing elk. It's just a short step from there to proclaiming that killing an elk with a .30-06 is "virtually impossible."

As you are probably aware, the elk was almost shot into extinction over most of the west before smokeless powder was invented. As you are also well aware, the elk population in the west is increasing and expanding into places where elk have not lived for a hundred years.

There can be only one explanation. Those elk that were killed in the 19th Century are coming back to life because they never could have been killed in the first place.

So far, this has not affected me personally, other than giving me more elk to shoot at but, as I said earlier, I fear that soon my antler collection will begin to slowly and mysteriously vanish, as if it never existed. What does this mean to the future of hunting? How will it affect the space-time continuum?

I might also point out that mule deer numbers are probably in decline because they are being killed really, really, really dead at 3000 fps from 400 yards away, rather than just sort of dead with a .30-30.

And how long before bow hunters get caught up in the Short Magnum fad? Talk about feed problems!