Jeff: If I am going to compare cartridges and bore diameter,I guess it's only fair to keep velocity levels the same,or close. I don't think anyone would rationally argue that a 340 is not more "powerful" than a 30/06,due to a number of factors including heavier bullets, more frontal area, higher velocity,etc. All these little factors add up.A fairer comparison might be a 300 Weatherby with 200's against whatever you want to feed a 325 or 340.
But we have developed this "picket fence" mentality here, where we seek to fill every little gap in the caliber lineup,trying to distinguish among minute differences in caliber/cartridge performance,until the "line" or distinctions of performance between them gets very blurred;so that if we take a 200 gr 308 bullet, and a 200 gr 323 bullet,and start them at the same speed,smash them into elk bodies and make them expand, that .015" diameter difference becomes sort of...well...irrelevant...and trying to distinguish between their lethal effectiveness becomes a hollow conversation...the animals we shoot with such comparable stuff don't distinguish;they just die from either.
Bullet performance clouds the issue even more,making the already fuzzy lines of performance between these comparable cartridges even more obscure...and if we think, by going to a 325 from a 30,that you are going to get bigger holes in game,a difference in performance that you can discern, you won't. It's a pipe dream.The difference, to the extent it exists, will come more from bullet structure and expansion characteristics than minute differences in bore size.
