Apparently, the latitude at which a cartridge is used has more to do with it's effectiveness than bore size, case capacity, or any other ballistic detail. That's the only explanation I can think of for why Alaskan's are able to kill large bear, moose and caribou with 223s and 243s, but as you go south in the lower 48, bigger and bigger cartridges are needed for 100 pound whitetail deer. I am constantly amazed at the eternal hand wringing over selecting a cartridge to kill a deer or an elk. There are decades of hundreds of thousands of examples to show what doesn't work and what does work. There are dam few that don't work, given intelligent bullet selection and proper bullet placement, and dam few that will work absent either or.
