My humble opinion. (and all the dearth of worth that likely carries) As has been bandied about killing doesn't need to have anything to do with "stopping". Ponder for a moment some short range weapon (phaser on stun type thing) that 100% reliably stunned/staggered any charging beastie for a good 5-10 seconds but had no actual lethality whatsoever. A hunter would have little use for such a thing but a PH might be extremely intrigued. The reason obviously is the difference in priorities. A hunting arm's primary purpose is to put game on the ground. A stopping arm's primary purpose is to try to keep game from putting you on (or even under) the ground.
Gleaning information from people far more experienced than myself when dealing with those who make a living amongst things large and bitey and/or stompy there is a strong correlation with larger calibers. I think of this as nothing more than a hedge. All else being equal* if carrying a bit more rifle improves your odds in a worst case scenario by only 5% why not take that given the stakes? You could spend a lifetime dodging tooth/claw/tusk/horn and never have use for a "stopper" at all or even if you did what you had with you at the time be sufficient in that instance. OTOH what if that small advantage was the difference between talking cartridges here vs with St Peter? Ruark said "Use enough gun." and I've seen no reason to interpret that to mean "Minimum is good enough.". I've always taken it to mean "Enough starts at plenty." and when lives, perhaps yours, are in play I'm a Ruarkian. Of course I firmly believe everyone should do as they see fit.
*It's a minor pet peeve of mine but I've never understood the "accuracy trumps everything" mantra in caliber discussions. Guaranteed accuracy is arguably less reliable than cartridge performance so when discussing one why does the criteria of the other have to come into play? If we were all Francisco Scaramanga that would be one thing but we're not. When discussing calibers it seems we should consider the accuracy issue as a given in the comparison and proceed from there.
A lot of truth here. The problem in my experience is this: very few...and by that I mean I have maybe seen a handful of hunters in my 30+ year guiding career that can handle big calibers. Any time you start getting into the 338 WM kind of recoil accuracy starts to suffer. There are some that can shoot the big calibers accurately don't get me wrong, but the vast majority of hunters would be way better off sticking with something they can shoot. That is my biggest pet peeve with these types of threads; guys read them and think they gotta have a 416 to hunt grizzly, or browns. It just aint true. What happens is they bring a rifle they can't handle on a hunt and either wound an animal ( that a guide like me has to risk life and limb to find ) or completely miss. They would be much better off if they knew that a 30/06 class rifle with good bullets will do the job just fine. Im currently using a 338 Federal and with good bullets I get all the penetration I need for any angle on interior bears. I've killed wounded bears at point blank range, and shot clean through a big bull bison at 300 yards. More isn't needed, but if you can accurately shoot them by all means bring a heavy rifle.
