I love the Jack vs. Elmer posts. The funny thing to me is the more I read and reread their material, the two were not all that different on caliber applications, especially in early work. What O'Connor & Keith really differed on was caliber recommendations. Let's take one of Keith's most hated, the .270 Winchester on Elk. In one of Elmer's early books he said the .270 killed game (even Elk!) like lightning with broadside shots, but was no good for raking shots or shoulder because you can't count on high velocity bullets to penetrate. Elmer even said that you couldn't count on anything except the big sharps which didn't expand to penetrate to the vitals on raking shots. Similarly, early on O'Connor said the .270 was fine for broadside shots on Elk that avoid the shoulder, but didn't think anything (at the time) except solids were good for raking shots on Elk. Sounds, the same doesn't it? From recommendation stanpoint, Elmer's take on this was use a big caliber because it gave you the best chance on raking shots whether you reach the vitals or not, O'Connor's take was nothing is good for raking shots on Elk so just wait for a better angle. Neither are wrong, just different philosophy.

Later in their careers as the feud got more heavy, it seemed to me Elmer went a little more extreme. In a lot of Elmer's later writings, it seems he relied on some spotty second hand info to justify big bores/condemn small bores vs personal experience (i.e. stories along the lines of 6 guys went on hunt, shot & lost 2-3 Elk each despite good hits with .270, .264 (though no evidence to show good hits), etc... and didn't get them, I sent them back with .338, .375, etc... and they all got Elk with one shot) that hurt his credibility with some. Please note, I am not in any way doubting Elmer's personal experience, merely it seemed to me he had some admirers who told him what he wanted to hear and he believed it. Elmer also said he didn't allow anybody to hunt with him in over 40 years with anything under .338 caliber and less than 250 grains (i.e. no personal experience with small bores in over 40 years misses a lot of development). O'Connor, however, adopted the Nosler partition for his .270s & 7x57s and pretty much removed the caveat to avoid the shoulders, though still had no use for raking shots. So for O'Connor, smaller bores got better, to Elmer he based his experience on what he saw at the beginning of his career and a lot of second hand info in later life and still had no use for them except for the occassional coyote.

Lou