Jeff - smile says it all - great pic thanks for sharing, she did great and wonderful daughter you have sir. Nice to see the ladies get field time too
I question the pairing of 'Small bore' and CRITICAL shot placement. Shot placement IMHO should be the same regardless of round, as whatever bullet you shoot on deer should do the same in a 223 or 338, get to the vitals and result in a kill.
My deer had it been shot w/a proper deer bullet in a 223 would have died all the same. Granted, wound channels can be narrower, but if you are hitting vitals, the result is death.
I also FIRMLY believe, that todays better bullets, results in performance of say 22 and 24 bores, killing as if they are larger rounds the next size or two up. Optimum expansion w/good retention and penetration are key, to proper bullets.
Consider this:
Shot a hog, 243/85 XBT, 240 yds, recovered, weighs 85 gr.
Shot a Mulie 270/150 Partition 275 yds, weighs 88 gr.
Granted the 270 cut a wider swath, and it shed alot of bullet going from stem to stern.
Yet in each case, death was quick. Hog - DRT, Mulie - perhaps 40 yds.
SO point is, when you recover a say mono that weighs MOST of what it did before the shot, and compare that to a larger bullet that ends up nearly half, I truly feel the advantage of more initial mass and caliber is offset to a noticeable degree by smaller bullets in mono form.
