Wolf Hunting Caliber
#11
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location:
Posts: 1,694

A lot of good points mrbb. There is a huge difference between finishing off an animal in a trap with a head shot and killing one at hunting ranges with a lung or shoulder shot. I envy your contacts with trappers, hunters and guides in Alaska. That kind of info is precisely what I was hoping to obtain. People who have shot and killed wolves at different distances or were guiding them and found what worked for them and what didn't work or not work as well. I've taken animals up to 400 yards, am comfortable taking a shot at those ranges and used to practice quite a bit with a 5.56 at 500 meters. I'm not one of those long range hunters although I don't bash them for hunting that way. More power to them. I like to practice with a rifle and particular ammo at the ranges I plan to shoot at so I'm prepared.
As far as reading what other people have to say, well, both of us appear to do that quite a bit on this forum. And every other forum we look at, books, articles and in conversations if we're lucky enough to know people with such experience. It takes a bit of common sense to weed through the armchair writers and get to the people who actually do something and have experience to share. Take Pheasant2.0's post above yours for instance. He's a guide for big game and has had 7 of his hunters take shots at wolves with 3 hits but no wolves recovered. His point about a 243 with a stout bullet being a minimum was helpful. So was his advice about needing quick shots with ranges changing and often from bad shooting positions or offhand. He gave me a lot of the info I was looking for without judging what I might be doing wrong or making assumptions about how I hunt. It was appreciated.
As far as reading what other people have to say, well, both of us appear to do that quite a bit on this forum. And every other forum we look at, books, articles and in conversations if we're lucky enough to know people with such experience. It takes a bit of common sense to weed through the armchair writers and get to the people who actually do something and have experience to share. Take Pheasant2.0's post above yours for instance. He's a guide for big game and has had 7 of his hunters take shots at wolves with 3 hits but no wolves recovered. His point about a 243 with a stout bullet being a minimum was helpful. So was his advice about needing quick shots with ranges changing and often from bad shooting positions or offhand. He gave me a lot of the info I was looking for without judging what I might be doing wrong or making assumptions about how I hunt. It was appreciated.