Teal----so much depends upon terrain,, cover, time of day, etc. What's acceptable with snow on the ground, can cost you an animal, when it's dry. I have hunted in places where if an animal runs a 100 yards, it may be lost. Other times that's no big deal. I want them on the ground where I can see them as soon as possible. I can well afford to lose 10 lbs of meat, when the loss of a whole elk is at steak. I have lost very few, and those were lost in steep, ugly, dry ground.
I think that's where I'm at in this discussion.
Shoot an elk with a 7-08 and 140 NAB (seems to be a reasonable elk choice) and it goes 45 yards and keels over. Shoot an elk with a 338 and it goes 15 yards and keels over.
One "killed better" I guess if that yard stick is how far they went after taking the shot but I don't know of my reasonable 45 yards would be considered reasonable for someone else - even in the same exact terrain where the elk ended up dead.
Broad generalizations probably do none of us any good and like anything - stating "X is best" without context which can and does change rapidly - likely is a fool's errand.
