Bruce,
Aren't you glad you started this?
Once hunted musk ox with an Inuit from one of the islands in the Arctic Ocean, and he was a firm believer in anything MAGNUM, because he used a .22 Winchester Rimfire Magnum on polar bears, and had never taken more than one shot to kill a bear, and never lost a bear either.
Which is why I would much prefer the .222 MAGNUM....
I don't know from personal experience, but I've often heard that the Inuit tend to use small calibers almost exclusively, with anything over .223 being a big gun. I suppose tracking wouldn't be a huge issue for them though, if it were necessary.
I see how well the .22 CF's work on deer size game, makes me wonder if the .243 with 105's isn't all I really need for just about everything. So far I can't quite convince myself to take it for elk, even though I'm pretty sure it would do the job fine. We can't use .22's for big game here, but the .243 is equally easy to shoot and if I still have tags after bow season I'm going to use it.
