I was with you until you said "capable but not as good". The 45 colt,454,475,& the 500s are more than capable and in some instances better. His experience as you stated is limited to the medium to smaller bores. I still say the test and results are limited to what was used and not what's available.
Re read my post. I was reffering to the bullet types and not the calibers. Certainly the big 45's and 50's are more capable than any 44 caliber gun and no one was arguing that point. The issue under discussion was WFN and other hard cast bullets VS a Hollow point on BLACK BEARS in Magnum type high velocity guns. Slow the bullets down to original 45LC or 44 Special velocites and the game changes, with a hardcast flat nose most likely winning out due to now needing all of the penetration one can get and no extra energy to spare on a mushrooming bullet. Throw a big brownie into the mix and the game and preffered bullet changes as well, with penetration now being the premium and yardstick.
Back to the original topic, many hunters and handgun users as well as Dangerous game rifle hunters feel they need more power than they really do. Once we get past the heavy 45LC/454 Casull level loads in handguns and a 458 Lott or properly handloaded 458 Win it is all just extra unnecesary noise and bluster IMO. And cartridges of quite a bit less power do the jobs at hand quite nicely AKA a good 44 Magnum in the handgun realm for most big game, say from black Bear on down and the 9.3's, 375 and 416's being more than enough even on dangerous BIG game animals including elephant.
On the other hand, it is all about FUN. And fun is defined by each and for some of us the noise and recoil and bluster add to the hunting experience and the fun factor. I, for example, load up my 416 Rigby to near 416 WBY ballistics and love it, but have no practical reason to do so as plain old 416 Rigby's have been squishing the heck out of elephants for about 100 years now. In the handguns world, my recoil tolerance ends much lower on the food chain. Probably due mosltly to far less expereince and time with handguns as I am primarily a (happy) rifle nut.
