I am willing to bet I spend MORE money than you do every year on guns and bullets I choose to use, and hunting I choose to do. Yeah, when somebody invites me on a hunt I use what they provide, but I spend far more hunting on my own, with my own guns and ammo, around half of it on public land.
You probably do spend more. And that is relevant how? The point is I can write what I want and not worry about offending any manufacturer because none of them have ever given me a single penny to promote their products, either directly or indirectly.
So now you're justifying using North Forks for deer hunting when you might see an elk, but when we got into another discussion a couple years ago about all this, the thread was started by somebody specifically asking about bullets for whitetails. You posted that super-bullets should be used, because they were obviously better than "ordinary" bullets like the Hornady Interlocks and Ballistic Tips several other people suggested, or other bullets that don't meet your standards.
I don't think I've ever stated "super-bullets" or even premium bullets "should" be used. I challenge you to post a link proving your claim.
To the contrary, I've often stated most bullets will work most of the time, that my loads get used for both elk and deer, that I choose premiums and my reasons for doing so, and that I don't care what other people use. On occasion I have recommended people just buy standard cup-and-core bullets as long as they shoot well in their rifle. When my son-in-law started hunting I got him some (gasp) white box Winchester Power-Points. They shot well in his rifle and he used them to take his first elk on a cross-canyon shot.
Do I think North Fork, AccuBond, A-Frame and TTSX are better bullets than InterLock and Ballistic Tip bullets for my purposes? Yes, and I will continue to use them, with no apologies to anyone.
Hell, I use premiums (100g TTSX and 110g AccuBond) in my Roberts for antelope and see no reason to change. They are very accurate, work reliably and don't come apart and destroy meat like some other bullets do. These are the only big game loads I have for my bolt guns that don't get used for elk and deer as well. When the Roberts gets carried during elk and deer season it gets stuffed with 120g A-Frames, again with no apologies to anyone.
Since you don't know exactly where you hit the cow that was lost, I don't see how you can claim another cow killed with a .338 proves anything.
Keep posting. You never state exactly what you eventually claim to really mean the first time anyway.
You are right that I don't know exactly where I hit the elk with the North Fork. Years of experience shooting that rifle and load, blood high on brush along the trail, an obvious exit, the dark color of the blood, the position of the elk when the shot was fired and the direction of the wind all suggest to me a hit below the spine, behind the lungs in the liver. It is a reasonable supposition but it may be incorrect.
Once again you are writing about a fiction in your head. I did not in any way claim killing another cow with the .338 "proves" anything. What I stated was that the .338 makes "noticeably bigger holes than the 7mm RM", that I believe bullet placement was "very similar", and that the cow is now in the freezer. This proves nothing but it does lead me to wonder what would have happened had I hit the cow last year with the .338 instead of the 7mm RM. I don't believe extra thump provided by the .338 would have resulted in a worse outcome and the .338 ***might*** have done more damage resulting in a better outcome. I don't know one way or another and have explicitly stated as much. Neither you nor anyone else knows for sure either but in my opinion those who contend that extra thump never makes a difference are fools who ignore the fact that marginal differences often result in drastically different outcomes. A little extra traction going around a corner can make the difference between life and death.
I don't really believe someone who makes their living writing has such poor reading comprehension skills - instead I think you deliberately misrepresent what I write. As I said before, that's petty and pathetic.
