Last year I lost my first big game animal, a cow elk I shot at 400 yards with my 7mm RM and a 165g North Fork SS.
The problem wasn't the cartridge, the rifle or the bullet. The blood trail started out as the largest I have ever seen with several thick ribbons of black blood a good 2 to 2-1/2 feet long and about 3" wide. Evidence from brush along the trail showed I hit it high, below the spine, with an exit. The color of the blood suggested a liver hit, further back than intended. The blood trail kept getting less and less and in the end I was tying orange flags at every tiny drop we could find, maybe every 30 -40 feet or so. While we initially expected to find the cow down behind the next bush, then the next and so on, it went over two ridges and escaped to private land.
Is there some larger, more powerful cartridge, but still smaller than a 105mm howitzer round, that would have increased the damage done and resulted in a recovery of the elk? Would a .300WBY have done the job? Perhaps, but I have my doubts. Maybe a .338, 9.3 or .375 of some flavor? Maybe a .416, .458 or .577?
Unfortunately no one can ever know. What I do know is the 7mm RM performed flawlessly for 30+ years and has taken more elk than all my other rifles combined. Better placement would have resulted the same straight-down results the 7mm RM produced many times before and many other placements would have resulted in a recovery at some distance. In any case, I don't blame the 7mm RM and have enough confidence in the North Fork bullets that this year I'll be using a 140g NF SS in my .280 Rem.
