Listen I'm really not trying to rattle your cages and I really do agree that being able to shoot your rifle well is very important.

Now again I'm not trying to call anyone out or rattle anyones cage but when ever this discussion comes up it turns into a "less filling", "tastes great" argument. The ironic thing is the point of those commercials was to get viewers to understand that both were true about that particular brand of adult beverage. I'm only suggesting the same thing as those commercials did in this case.

Shot placement is a very important elelment, extremely important. I'm only advocating that caliber (I prefer to say cartridge but let's not get hung up on semantics), bullet weight, and bullet type are also important and too much emphasis shouldn't be place on shot placement because it leads us down a path where the other above mentioned elements are no longer important.

Scoony is your situation you say shot placement is EVERYTHING but then recommend a cartridge. I hope you see that is contradictory in itself by nature.

Hunting isn't bench shooting fellas and if you hit the shoulder or even a rib at an angle of a big bull elk (off by a few inches in your placement) you'll see a clear distinction start to appear in cartridges, bullet weight, and type. You can't be perfect everytime. But just so I cover all basis nothing will be sufficient in a really poor shot either. AGAIN I BELIEVE SHOT PLACEMENT IS VERY IMPORTANT, JUST NOT EVERYTHING.

Just to reiterate sconny we aren't necessarily disagreeing about placement. We are only disagreeing that caliber (cartridge) and even bullets aren't as important.

When ever I bring this up people always respond with an argument about how poor shooting is bad and doesn't make up for a large caliber. On that point we agree 100% and I'm not sure why people infer that I'm saying that is true. I'm only saying I believe there is more the equation.

.300 Win Mag

Rather-be-hunting, I think we are hitting our heads against the same wall, from opposite sides.

We agree that shot placement does not make up for caliber, nor does caliber make up for poor shooting. I think that we have been hitting the same target from different benches.

As for my recomendation being contradictory, yes that was intentional. I was simply answering what the OP was asking, with the qualifyer that caliber will not solve everything.

Hey sconny, I apologize if I misunderstood your original point. Happy hunting to you buddy!

To be honest, I really only use one rifle. For some reason, I'm most accurate with my savage 300 win mag when compared to my other large caliber weapons. I've yet to have any animal run off when shot by the 300. Everything I've taken has gone straight down when hit with the 300. Now, that's not to say that I couldn't make a poor shot and lose one, but it has yet to happen.

I guess I just am extremely confident that a well placed shot from the 300 win mag is a recipe for bringing game home.

In short, I would not feel outgunned hunting big bears with a 300 win mag, or any large game animal in NA for that matter. There are other calibers that could do the same thing, but the 300 win mag has my vote.

I have to go with a .338Win mag. I love mine. I even used it this year for antelope.....worked great. I am just so confindent in myself with it...it is always my gun of choice when headed out!

300 WSM is my choice if I could only have one gun for everything.

06 if I could only have one gun. Plenty of factory ammo available everywhere and loads from varmit to elk sized game. It isn't enough if you are hunting dangerous game though.

300 win mag. Plenty of kinetic energy to handle any situation.