A few things to point out:
It's false that an unexpanded rifle bullet will always make a bore sized exit. Bullets nearly always turn backwards or sideways after they impact even in about half the cases when they do expand first.
So a 338 leaving an exit of about dime size doesn't show it's expanding. It may have a bit but without recovering the bullets you really can't know for sure.
As the former CEO of Cast Performance Bullet Co, I can speak with some authority on this subject. I have fired many thousands of bullets in testing, the ones we made AND every other bullet we could get, to make comparisons. I have burned powder by the pallet load and bullets by the ton in these kind of tests.
When a bullet gets large enough it has a good tendency to kill well, even when it doesn't expand at all. Nearly all muzzle-loader/Black power shooters know this from experience. 58 caland larger bullets kill extremely well when they are only going the speed of a 22 LR, or as slow as a 45 ACP. A trash-can shaped 58 Cal Modern Minie bullet kills very well, when it impacts deer or elk at only 750 FPS, because it's 58 cal to start with, and it's also 500-600 grains.
Anyway, all this is just a side note. The kind of thing shooters often find interesting.
And my counter point about NEVER needing to shoot past 500 meters is something I can say for sure and for certain in MY life. Not ever. Not once. I have over 50 years of experience too.
Have I shot farther? Yup. And plenty of times. But I guess I grew up some.
I am speaking of un-wounded game here, not trying to anchor one that is getting away.
The key here is the word "need". I have seen MANY times hunters could not easily get closer to their game then 500 meters, but I have never seen a single time in 50+ years it was not possible. Not once. Not ever.
That includes hunting in 5 countries and 9 states.
So those that say they "can't" and that they "had to" may be in some very very very small minority, but as for me (and I did say it was my experience, not all experience) I have killed more game then I can count........ and was beyond counting that number about 30 years ago.
A true need to shoot past 500 meters has NEVER happened to me.
You can step down from your soapbox now.....
