Bog,

The deer was a big Montana mulie and was 61 yards. I stalked him from over 500 yards away. He was under the muzzle for probably an hour and I could have shot him at most any time, but I prefer to be a hunter rather than a just a shooter.

There is no honor in being simply being a shooter and every honor in stalking close to the animal.

Yes, I've hit the carotids at much longer range.

Neck shots are quite deadly, contrary to what the fools in the press say. The shot in question, being close, was perfect for a lovely placement of the bullet.

Basically, the buck lowered his head and grabbed a bite of winter wheat. I put the Heavy Duplex right at the point of his jaw and shot him. A lttle higher would have picked up the spine and the deer might not have bled out perfectly. Yeah, he would have been dead and it would have been a great shot, but I can do better than that.

Gad, I've killed hundreds of deer and it's just something that comes from lots of field experience.

The .280 Ackley is almost identical in case capacity to the 7 RSAUM and the 7 WSM is a few grains larger. The Weatherby is a big honker and it recoils too much for my elderly body to shoot it well in the field.

The .280 Ackley, of course, needs a long action, while the 7 RSAUM and the 7 WSM work on short actions. I'll probably not change, now that the major makers figgered out where the sweet spot is. The .280 Ackley is good enough for the likes of me.

I would suppose the efficiency is about the same.

I've done some serious killing with the 7-08 Ackley. It is a short action round, is wonderfully efficient and it works well in the field. It kicks a 120-grain Ballistic Tip (a very strong bullet, by the way) out at 3250 fps. It simply murders deer and elk.

Hope this helps.

Steve


"God Loves Each Of Us As If There Were Only One Of Us"
Saint Augustine of Hippo - AD 397