Originally Posted by BobinNH
We did, as a group, a fair amount of bear hunting in Maine, bumped into others along the way in NH and Vermont.

The two longest trailing jobs we had were from a 257 Robert with 115 NPT,and a 340 Weatherby with 210 NPT. In neither case was it a problem with the bullets, or the cartridges. In both cases, placement was a bit too far back to be ideal.This was another chapter in the same old lesson that kept repeating itself.


I have seen a pretty fair amount of game killed with magnum cartridges from 30 caliber and "up",and killed them myself. They are capable of producing some very dramatic kills. I have noticed that this occurs only when bullets from them land in the right place.This pretty boring news,but I have found it to be true.

I think it's silly to deliberately use a small cartridge on a large animal to prove a point....I also think it's equally silly to use a big cartridge under the mistaken notion that sheer power will make up for sloppy and indifferent bullet placement. Generally it does't work.



Best post in reply to the op, in my opinion. I took a very large Blackie on Vancouver Island a few years back. Used a 338 Win Mag on that bear. I shot the 26th bear I stalked on that week-long hunt. He was showing signs of being a very old bear. Had a few teeth left. Squared 7', 20" skull.

I waited for that bear to turn broadside and shot him through the shoulders with a 225 grain IB over plenty of RL22. No tracking necessary. I know that 338 was not absolutely necessary. I could have killed that bear with much less gun. But I wanted to use that gun. Difference is, I would never have taken a shot at the South end of a North-bound bear-- even with a gun that 'should' pull such a shot off. I've seen too many of those decisions go terribly wrong. Kinda like it did for the op.

Nut


Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Thomas Jefferson