I see the cause as lack of experience. They use advice from other people to replace it and some of the advice is specious.
Most folks don't kill enough animals to really know what a given round will do. Compounding that is some of us have so many rifles we rarely shoot more than two animals with the same rifle in a given year.
I admit to shooting an animal with a ne to me round and trying to see if it fits with what I have read.
For example, I now agree that a 225 Bearclaw out of a .338 Win or a .35 Whelen appear to kill deer a little slower than my '06 used with Partitions. Based on a sample of five does killed with the larger rifles and many with the '06. Similarly I find the 225 Hornady appears to be a bit too much for my taste when used on does. Is any of that true? Who knows?
My heaviest deer was shot with a .300 Savage 150 gr. It weighed well over 300 lbs. It just laid over against the bank it was standing by. I got a past prime bench legged blacktail/muley near Estacada that was probably over 300# but never weighed it. It went about 40 yards but it was moving when I shot it. Deer, even big deer are pretty easy to kill.
