Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why do some gun writers site low recoil as equaling killing ability?

Something I have always wondered about is why so many writers will say that the reason so many deer-elk-antelope,hogs etc are killed with low recoiling rounds such as the 243, 250, 260, 30-30 is that the caliber has very little recoil. Like thats why it works. Quite often it is stated they are good for beginners for that same reason.

I just read an article on the 250 Savage where this was stated and it makes me wonder.

Do they actually mean it?? I mean if a 250 kills well because it kicks little so you hit em right, then a 22-250 must be even better because then you would never miss right??

Too much is made of this in my opinion. It is often said about cartridges that recoil pretty good and are in fact very well designed for the game being hunted. Why say that?

As somebody who has grown up a subsistence hunter-(Indian Reservation, without caliber restrictions) and living in a state with .22 centerfires being the minimum for big game, having taken deer with a fair amount of calibers that recoil very little- I'll say that little recoil has nothing to do with it. You still have to put the projectile into the kill zone and then dont chase it. Do that and ur eating meat for dinner.

The fact that the 250 or 243,6mm, 257 rob, 260,30-30's dont kick a whole lot has nothing to do with their killing ability. They all have bullets designed to perform on game of a certain build and size and they do. They can be asked to do more by competent hunters and do that fine too.

Once you get down below that level you run into even smaller calibers that can and have taken a great many game animals around the world such as the 22-250, 7.62X39, 220 swift and 223 ect. They recoil even less. Their killing power is not related to their lack of recoil but instead to the shooter knowing they are slightly undergunned and making good shots and decisions after the shot.

Below that we get to rounds that don't recoil at all and still they have and will take loads of big game if ya go about it smart. They certainly don't kill it all because of their nonexistent recoil. And they dont kill because of some special bullet, a 22 Hornet with a tsx is still a lil bitty bullet.

So my wish is for those writers to give those cartridges their due, they kill well because they were designed to. My 22-250 with 60gr Partitions at 3400fps is still not the big game round its papa is.