"A hunter should not choose the cal, cartridge, and bullet that will kill an an animal when everything is right; rather, he should choose ones that will kill the most efficiently when everything goes wrong"
Bob Hagel
...everything goes wrong...
Well, that certainly covers a lot of scenerios. I would be so busy thinking of Bullcookie Scenerios that I would never have time to hunt! How about that fir tree that inserted itself between me and my target?
My quibble is with "everything". I like the words "likely", "foreseeable", or even "probable".
I think Atkinson pegged it when he wrote, "If you want to hunt with a inferior caliber then be prepared to pass up many easy shots and good bulls to prove your point, or figure on wounding a lot of animals." The devil is in the details. WHICH easy shots/angles can you make and which should you pass on? As the caliber get more marginal the shot selection gets more critical and more dependent on Lady Luck.
I must 'fess up. I have never hunted elk...
Having confessed my virgin status, I gotta tell you it would take an series of unfortunate events before I would consider using a 22-250 for elk. While many guys use them to vaporize PDs at 300 yards A.) I am not one of those guys and B.) I would not want to hump that rifle up the mountain and through the blowdowns.
Another thing that baffles me as an elk virgin...this discussion about almost Texas Heartshots, i.e., "any angle". Half the WT deer in Michigan are harvested during bow season. Bows cannot drive an arrow through a shoulder and make a mess of any path that goes aft of the diaphram. So bow hunters tend to be very, very selective of their shots and let many "shots" walk. Why are elk in the west different? Is it because it is a shorter season? Is it because the hunters either need to put protein in the freezer or they are some Eastern "dude" who has $10K invested and want some tangible return?
Speaking from my own limitations, I have grave reservations about my ability to visualize a path that will take a bullet through an animals rump and, some 48 inches downrange, hit a significant stretch of lung (say 10" of path) or the heart. If elk are anything like Michigan WT deer, they seldom give you a shot like the picture in the magazine. You might see part of the animal, but not enough to judge yaw, pitch and roll. And bullets do not always travel in a nice, straight line.
I am not flaming. I just don't understand.
Bottom line: I would be very comfortable with 30-30 or 6.5X55 or 270 (or more) as long as I was not using "varmit" bullets and was cool with passing on shots that did not have a clear view of the "boiler room" and/or were out of range.
It is easy for me to write with certainty since I have not had to contend with reality.
-Joe
