I quit hunting in Canada when they started the firearms registration at the border. We tried it one year and decided that we'd spend out money in the good old US of A.
Having said that, in the ten or eleven years we hunted Alberta for deer and moose, I couldn't believe the local hunter's armament. Typically, they thought a .243 Winchester was plenty enough for moose.
I remember one guy, One-Eyed Andy (when he got drunk, one eye closed) from Water Valley, who had a beat to Hell Browning BLR in .243. Andy swore one shot was all any moose ever took and, from the pile of moose horns in his barn, I believe him.
After that, I started looking at my Canadian friend's rifles and I was amazed how many .243s there were. These were serious, successful hunters. Blew me away.
Getting within a decent shooting range, waiting for the shot and excellent shot placement with a reasonable bullet will put big game on the ground every time; even with the lowly .243 Winchester.
Kinda reminds me of when I was guiding in Snake River. Our cook was a wisened-up old lady. Had a Hell of a temper and a Savage 99 in .250-3000. Every day, after the rest of us were saddled up and out of camp, she'd finish the breakfast dishes and sit over the horse watering hole (a big pool in Temperance Creek).
Some time during the season, her .250 would speak and a Winchester 100-grain Silvertip would thrash an elk to the ground. I truly don't remember a time when she double-shot an elk. Again, she'd be a reasonable distance from the critter, wait for the shot and dump the elk dead.
One time, an elk died in about two feet of water and she was about as pissed as a half-drowned cat. It was on that day that I learned new combinations and permutations of words I already knew. Funny, very funny <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
Anyway, I guided for eleven years and the cookie got an elk every year.
Steve
