Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game practical caliber and cartridge differences

I have been following another thread on this site with stunned amazement and lots of laughs. I find it unbelievable that the judgement used to justify some things has so little logical or factual backup!

Lets see where to start..............

I guess since a .223 and a .22/250 shoot the same bullet and it could be said that either one placed in the exact same location on an animal would result in the same outcome they can be considered about the same. Sure the 22/250 is a bit faster and flatter but from a performance stand point what they heck they both get the job done.

a 22/250 and a .243 will both kill a deer if the bullets are good and the impact on each deer is identical so I suppose these two from a purely functional perspective can be considered the same. Both flat shooting and both will kill a deer with equal shot placement. After all I saw a very good friend of mine shoot a mule deer buck with a 22/250 in Idaho that was so far away after the shot the deer ran about 30 yards I was just about to say it was a miss when we could clearly hear the bullets impact and see the deer falling. Only the deer was 30 yards from the impact! The sound coming back from the impact was a hella long time compared to any prior experience like that I have had! It was the longest shot on a big game animal I have ever seen in my life and it was with a 22/250! Certaily much flatter shooting and at least as effective as a .243 would have been capable of!

Well a .243 has killed lots of deer and elk even black bear and sheep, not much difference then a 25/06 right? With equal shot placement they both work about the same........Woulden't ya say?

The previous thread says that the 25/06 and the 270 are for all practical matters about the same again with equal shot placement. Well Jack Oconner himself said that the 270 was the functional equal to the 7mm mag and the 30/06 so long as good bullets were used and proper shot placement.

A hot loaded 30/06 with a 24" barrel can equal a factory loaded 300 win mag with a 24" barrel or come pretty darn close with the same bullet. So for all practical purposes they are the same to about 300 yards or maybe even further!

Since a 300 mag can shoot a 200 grain bullet faster then the 338 can. I suppose these two have no real practical difference either. After all if you shoot an elk with either on dead center in the chest will the outcome be any different? Come to think of it that 338 with a 250 grain bullet is right on the heels of the 358 Norma mag. Only a minimal 100fps difference with the same bullet weight and construction!

Well by that measure is the 358 norma any real difference then a 375HH shooting a 270 grain bullet? Certainly not they would both have equally good results with identical shot placement and bullet construction.

Since the 375HH is the legal minimum for all dangerous game in Africa by people who know this business then why use the 416 rem mag? The 416 cannot be much better if the 375HH is legal? I suspect with identical shot placement and with quality bullet any buffalo shot through the heart with either will die just as well. ......No?

The 416 and the 458 both shoot a 400 grain bullet about the same speed so where is the difference there? Gotta figure these two with equal shot placement would also have similiar results.........right?

Hmmmmm this is interesting. I suppose since the .223 is the same starting at the bottom and follwing this theory all the way to the 458 I can just get the .223 cause if the shot placement is identical with the same quality bullet the results should be the same right? Why use the 458 on and Elephant when the 223 has so much less recoil and is a lighter gun?
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So where is the break then? Legally there are laws that actually define these things in some countries and certainly within many states. In my home state of Washington you cannot shoot a deer with a 22/250 but you can in Idaho. In my adopted home of South Africa you cannot hunt the big four with a gun less then 375 caliber. So some agencys have set official limits for these things.

Speaking just for myself and with the many animals I have been involved with as game manager, Alaska guide and Africa professional hunter, There is another level that I see for big game that will be quite controversial for many of you. However I don't think that big game especially the bigger species in North America are well suited to sub 30 caliber cartridges. I know of and have seen far more animals lost and or wounded with sub 30 caliber rifles in my life then all the lost and wounded larger then 30 caliber problems combined.

It's not that sub 30 caliber guns don't kill well, they sure do. The real issue is not the killing power or their trajectory capability it's the locating of the dead animals that becomes the issue. In my career and in my personal life I have probably seen 10 animals lost with sub 30 caliber guns for every single lost animal over 30 caliber. So it's my view that rifles for big game in the USA and even in the world should begin at 30 caliber. This is for hunters who take this persuit of hunting big game seriously. However it may even be more important for those who are not as serious because they tend to have less skills and may need the extra help with blood tracking. Since when did this become like fishing where we are trying to land the biggest fish with the lightest tackle? There ain't no catch and release here folks! These are lives we are talking about and a limited resource. You just can't keep shootin and killing game til you find one down before you notch your tag. I would like to know what cartridges and calibers folks would turn to if there tag was only good for a single shot rather then an animal in posetion

I just think trying to make a smaller cartridge into a bigger cartridge or a smaller bore into a bigger bore with all the mental gymnastics used in some of these posts gives me a good laugh. Following this logic nobody would need anything more then a 22LR if you take the theories used back far enough!