T Inman;
Good morning my cyber friend, I hope the day in your part of the world is breaking bright and fair and that you're well.
Thanks for your input on the thread, I appreciate you taking the time.
My experience is predominantly with deer/bear/sheep sized animals and I do my level best to emphasize that always as I don't know how much that differs from larger animals.
For us and I'm guessing perhaps yourself as well, when we began processing our own game meat, then helping family and friends to theirs here, it was eye opening to see the results of different bullet weights and types in terms of tissue damage.
As you and others here know about me, I'm a fairly firm believer that twist or better said bullet rpm will also play a role, so a fast twist .300 Win that gives higher initial projectile rpm than a slow twist .300 Weatherby with lower projectile rpm will yield different results in tissue damage, certainly more with some bullet construction types than others, but likely noticeable.
When my .308 Norma was a .338 Win and something like 3 mulie bucks and 3 black bears got perforated with it, I really didn't see any difference in tissue damage or animal reaction being hit between it and an '06.
Further down that thought path T, when we were evacuating for one of the neighborhood wildfires, I recall saying to my good wife that if the place burned, I'd not build another "magnum" rifle as the recoil vs results weren't worth it for me.
That said T, I still hunt with the .308 Norma all these years later because the place didn't burn down and it's become a wee bit of a "lucky" rifle somehow.
Oh and yes, I realize that there's no such thing as "luck" and that superstition is silly - nonetheless, here I am...
All the best to you my friend.
Dwayne