Couldn't stand it anymore, partly because somebody had to include the .250 Savage and .257 Roberts in the discussion. Went through my hunting notes and found that between me and my wife Eileen, and a couple other companions, we've taken 67 big game animals with those cartridges. Eileen took the majority, beating me out by a little.
The animals have included antelope, whitetails, mule deer, fallow deer, feral pigs and goats, one cow elk and one huge red stag, while hunting in several United States, Ireland and New Zealand. One was my first mule deer buck, taken long ago with a .243 and a 100-grain Winchester Power Point factory load. The 3x3 buck stood quartering away at about 50 yards, and at the shot dropped right there. Eileen also took her biggest-bodied whitetail buck (out of quite a few) with her .243 and a 100-grain Nosler Partition. It was late in the day on a Montana riverbottom, so she decided to use the shoulder/spine shot--and that buck dropped right there, the bullet exiting.
Aside from Power Points, the bullets used were one Barnes Original, plus a number of Barnes TSXs and TTSXs; Berger Hunting VLDs; Federal Blue Box; Nosler AccuBonds (110 .25), Ballistic Tips, Partitions and Solid Bases; Remington Core-Lokts, and Speer Hot-Cors.
Had a little trouble with two animals, both because the bullet didn't open much, if at all, both mule deer bucks shot with the .257 Roberts. One bullet was an early 100-grain TSX from a batch that was apparently too hard, because I also had one fail to open on a pronghorn buck shot at around 250 yards with a .257 Weatherby. Eileen shot an eating-size mule deer buck at about 50 yards in tall sagebrush, through both lungs right under the shoulder-blades. It staggered a little ways and fell--then got up and staggered away again. Eventually we found it dead around 75 yards away. (The next year the Tipped TSX appeared. We switched to it, and have never had one fail to open.)
The other was a big buck I shot broadside, right behind the shoulders with a .257 Roberts and a 120-grain Nosler Solid Base. He turned and disappeared down a steep but not very high rimrock right behind him. Found one match-head size drop of bright blood where he'd stood, but none in the tall grass below the rimrock. Eventually found him dead in the grass, 200 yards from the rim--with a tiny hole through both lungs.
Other than that, all the other animals acted about like similar big game shot with various other rounds. Sometimes they dropped right there even if just lung-shot, and sometimes because the bullet hit bone of some sort. Eileen killed the cow elk at 123 yards as it quartered away, using the .257 and 100 TTSX. I expected it to go 30-50 yards before falling, but instead it dropped right there, flopped its head a couple times and lay still. The bullet had quartered through both lungs, ending up in the far shoulder--but along the way ticked the bottom of the spine.
The big red stag was killed by one 115-grain Berger Hunting VLD in the chest, going down within 15 yards.
One thing Eileen and I both learned long ago was not to blame cartridges for bullet failures, but many hunters do--and apparently repeat the same mistake, both in bullet selection and blaming the round.
