Yeah it is, because you're a cliche.
For years on the Campfire you've been one of those guys who insists on using super-bullets (especially expensive bullets) like the North Fork even on deer, because you don't want "a bullet that will work when everything goes right, but when things go wrong." What good did your North Fork do when things went wrong?
"Super bullets" like AccuBond, TTSX, Grand Slam, Scirocco II, A-Frame and North Fork? It is true I trust them more than standard cup and core bullets, but so do lots of other folk. When I load them up I often pay less per box of 20 than others pay for factory cup and core ammo. At best the cost of the premium bullets is a very small percentage of what I spend to hunt and the money I could save using cup and core bullets is even less. Several times I have calculated those differences and discovered the money saved using cup-and-core bullets in a year where I bagged two elk, a deer and an antelope wouldn't buy me a glass of cheap wine with dinner. Expensive? Not really. Expensive is blowing the dual-mass flywheel in my F250, 20 miles west of Laramie on the way to elk camp.
Yes, I often use North Forks for deer but the primary reason is that I hunt deer and elk in the same season using the same rifle. While I haven't used them for antelope, I see no reason not to do so and in fact may well do so this fall when I plan to take my .280 Rem antelope hunting. Most likely it will be stoked with 140g North Fork as I have a good supply of the hollow point design Mike Brady was testing before he sold the company and the current plan is to use the same rifle and load for elk and deer a month later. As in my 7mm RM, they are exquisitely accurate in the .280 Rem and using the 7MM RM I've driven them the length of a mulie buck. I trust them to do the job.
The North Fork didn't fail on the cow - it penetrated and exited, leaving what started out as a massive blood trail - the largest I have ever seen. I failed to take into account wind drift and have admitted as much. The blood trail slowly petered out as we followed it over two ridges, finally losing it at dusk. We tried again the next morning but found no more blood beyond where we lost it the night before.
Several times you have claimed I chose bullets BECAUSE they were expensive. Even after I stated that my reasons had to do with a) confidence in the design, which I verify in the field or reject the bullet, as I did with Barnes XLC and TSX, b) accuracy in my rifles and c) that cost was a minor concern at best, you continued to misrepresent my reasons for choosing the bullets I do. On one occasion you claimed I changed my posts after you had responded to them, even though an analysis of the time stamps clearly showed my changes were made long before you had made any posts in response. In other words, you lied.
Unlike you, no one compensates me in any way for my hunting activities. I choose the rifles and scopes and bullets I use because they work, and every penny comes out of my own hard-earned money. Why you have a problem with that and continue to misrepresent what I have written I can't imagine, but it is petty and pathetic.
Now you've morphed into another cliche: The guy who makes a lousy shot and all of sudden a cartridge that's been proven for decades on big game isn't enough. You've decided, through some mathematical rationalizations, that a much bigger cartridge would have killed the poor cow elk. You gonna use North Forks in the .338 too, and hope the combination of a really expensive bullet in an Elmer Keith cartridge will kill cow elk when you hit them in the wrong place?
No, I didn't specify the .30-06 in my post because after dozens of posts on this thread, all on the specific subject "When will .30-06 not work?" I assumed EVEN YOU might realize my post was about the .30-06 as the "base level cartridge."
There is nothing wrong with the 7mm RM and I have never stated there was. Mine served me well for 20+ years as my only centerfire big game rifle with no problems taking down elk. Over the years it has accounted for more elk than all my other rifles put together. Again, for those that are tone deaf, I blew the shot and have admitted as much. Further, I will continue to use my 7mm RM with the confidence it has earned since 1982.
Nor have I decided that " a much bigger cartridge would have killed the poor cow elk". This is a fantasy in your mind. What I clearly stated but you chose to disregard, is that the additional frontal area and energy provided by an expanded .338 bullet "might" have made a difference but that no one can know for sure. Apparently you have reading comprehension problems.
BTW, I don't use North Fork in the .338WM, I use 225g AccuBonds with 225g SST as my practice loads. I've only taken two elk with it but it does make noticeably bigger holes than the 7mm RM and so far all bullets have exited. The last elk I killed with it was in 2013 at 487 yards and bullet placement was very similar to where I think I hit the cow with the 7mm RM last year - a few inches under the spine and a little further back than I wanted. The difference is the cow shot with the .338WM, or what is left of her, is in my freezer.
A final note about bullet selection. While I readily use cup-and-core bullets in my hand and lever guns, I've only taken one head of big game with them using a bolt gun. That was my first elk, back in 1983 or 1984 (I didn't keep track back then) when I used the 7mm RM and a 162g BTSP Hornady InterLock. I didn't know much about bullets back then except that Partitions were "expensive". As a result I chose the BTSP primarily for its B.C. and calculated trajectory. The BTSP grounded the elk but retained less than 50% of its original weight, even though all it hit was a single rib. I was not impressed and the next year I started using Grand Slam bullets. It was nearly 20 years before I recovered one and although that one had destroyed both shoulder joints of a 5x5 bull elk it retained over 70% of its original weight. When Speer changed the way Grand Slams were made I went looking for something different, which resulted in my trying and rejecting Barnes XLC and TSX bullets. These days I primarily use AccuBond, TTSX, A-Frame and North Fork, depending on the rifle, and make no apologies to anyone for doing so.
