Never understood "margin of error".
Me neither.
What I have seen are some pretty dramatic elk kills from things like the 338, 340,300 Weatherby and Winchester,etc etc vs standard cartridges on the order of a 270 or 30/06(never seen a 7/08 used;no one I have hunted with has used one and neither have I on elk).....such that you could maybe conclude the elk were taking a bigger beating from the bigger cartridges,and especially at distance.
But over the years it dawned on me that this was so ONLY with solid chest or shoulder hits;and the bigger rounds were no more likely to anchor them with bad hits than smaller stuff....you had a rodeo with either one.
I'm one of those odd folks who believes that as game animals get bigger, you have to pay even more attention to hitting them very precisely if you want to avoid problems.The use of a bigger rifle does not mean you can get sloppy and still be successful.
