Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bullet diameter for big game?

Wise words. Picking the shot figures in there too. A smaller gun may limit available angles (not counting head shots, and even this matters on really big critters like elephant.)
All that said, a little bigger provides some margin for error.

As to what is possible, I swear I remember reading where Finn Aagaard and some friends accidentally killed a cow elephant with one round from a .22 LR. "Possible" shouldn't be part of the conversation!

For big game shooting, course it matters. Bigger is better. Faster is usually better. Heavier is better.

The only question is “how much of “better” can you apply precisely and how much is warranted under the circumstances.

As the saying goes when one ages it's the things undone one regrets. I'm pretty sure I could have killed a book, not record but book elk with the High Standard .22 mag derringer we used for casual slaughter with solids. I didn't but I do have the sheds. It was on our own property. Most of the year I saw the animal go down every night and come up every morning. I knew his habits and the grass and one day I was looking down at his ear hole while he grazed. Like Vince Bourjailly, Phillip's father who wrote Don't Get Out Much Anymore about how the sense of ownership or responsibility took the joy out of the harvest I didn't want to kill that elk. But I'm eternally certain that I could have if I had wanted to and equally certain that a once a year hunter could never have killed that animal with anything like the same derringer. Mic McPherson says he killed a bear on Kodiak Island with a .22 rimfire when as a resident raising cattle he was more or less forced into it. So as always it depends but I'd sure discourage anybody from using a cartridge I wouldn't use myself. Bob Hagel said a .243 with a Nosler Partition was up to the job on elk properly applied and I think he's right. I'm too old to chase anything so I'll use a .375 with a 260 grain Accubond and my best bud lo these many years will use a 9.3x62 with maybe a Woodleigh for the romance of it.

What having “more gun than absolutely necessary” brings to the table is somewhat more reliable performance (better blood trails and such), as well as an edge when shot presentations are less that perfect. There’s generally more interior damage and better exits with larger-than-minimum calibers. That may not matter most times, but trying to recover an animal in the dark, in drizzling rain, on a bad-angle shot, I’d rather it be hit with more bullet than the minimum requirement, assuming bullet construction is held constant.

Last fall my brother shot his elk with a 338 win mag 250 gr Barnes broadside! His buddy that was hunting with him shot his elk same day with a 6.5X284 with a 130 grain accubond. Wound channels were almost identical with the slightly larger wound channel going to the 130 accubond! Bullets matter more than head stamps and all those extra ft lbs of energy do very little when its not deposited inside the animal. In fact some hunters with big powerful cartridges switch to Barnes bullets so they don't "waste" meat! Why not in that instance switch to a cartridge that recoils far less and use a bullet that creates more damage. The 130 accubond was found on the offside shoulder of the elk depositing all of it's energy into the elk. My uneducated guess is the Barnes from the 338 win mag still had enouph remaining energy when it left the elk to penetrate through another one. Basically the Barnes likely used around half of its capability accounting for a wound channel slightly less than a far smaller caliber

Bullets matter more than headstamps and if you know how to select the proper bullet for the yardage and velocity it reaches the target smaller calibers have been known to create wound channels that make meat eaters cring.


Trystan

IMHO, smaller calibers with premium bullets can take larger game.

Having said that, I don't want to potentially lose a moose or elk because I chose to bring a small caliber when I have larger ones that I shoot well

If faced with a frontal shot at 60 yards on a bull moose, I'd prefer my 30.06 to my .243

They can, and they have..lots of times...

A good question might be why use a small cartridge when you can easily use a larger one as long as you shoot it well? What is the downside to using a 180 grain Nosler Partition out of a 30-06? Or a 150 gr. Partition out of a 270? There are certainly shot angles that these combinations are capable of making that I would not do with a 243. With similar bullets/velocities the larger bore will always make a larger wound channel. A good shot with a 300 Win Magnum is going to be able to take longer and more difficult shots than the same guy using a 243.

when a person hunts on public land with other hunters around and it could be possible that some are not true sportsmen or honest,they could end up with someone`s well shot wounded animal that ran over the hill and laid down to die and they claim this animal with one shot. this is when a bigger cartridge could help you by shooting and hitting that animal harder and the animal goes right down instead of going over the hill ? as has been said to me :if a big hammer is going as fast as a little hammer and you have a choice with which hammer is thrown at you, which one do you want to be hit with ? your hunting in dang Grizzly bear country and the bear charges you > you wanna a 243 Win. or 338 Win. ? in both of these cases hard to beat a 338 Win. Mag.,bigger is better if you can man up.

LOL. Wanna wrassle?

So, what exactly is the cutoff for BIG game? I don't consider deer or antelope to be BIG game. Caribou, moose, elk are BIG game. I'd would start at .30 cal and use 150 monometal or 165 conventional as a minimum. .308 Win would be a good minimum cartridge. 7-08 would be okay too, but I don't personally slum any 7mm cartridges.

I had this happen over 30 years ago when I shot a big whitetail buck at about 30 feet with a .243 and a 100 grain Rem. cor-lokt. He was hit in the back of the lungs and left bleeding. He was being chased by dogs and had stopped in front of me with his front quarters behind a tree so I took the shot I had. He ran across a road and was shot at by a man that on that day became a former friend. At the second shot by the second shooter he went about 20 feet and keeled over. He had one bullet wound and came to the road bleeding so I loaded him up and left with him. I really believe a 165 grain anything from a .30-06 would have stopped that deer from making it far enough to be a problem. I use a .30-06 or.270 for hunting when deer season is open and often use a .223 for hogs in closed deer season. The reason for the .223 is the ease of staying lined up and quick additional shots when multiple targets present themselves. Not too worried about recovery of a feral pig. My partner in crime on hog eradication uses a 6.5 Grendel with good results.

OTOH most folks I've run into in the woods in AK have guns that are probably to big for them to handle. Making first round precision an iffy thing, at least from the battle sounds I hear during moose season.

I've had quite a few wrinkle nose at me when they ask what I carry and its a 338-06. Prior to that carried 30-30 a lot. Be good with what you have. Don't let size attempt to make up for skill.

That said I've shot moose with 338-378. And deer with 50 bmg too...

Then again I recently made first round hits at 1000 on steel and 650 on steel, and precision makes up for caliber all day long...

Its never a big deal to me if someone else needs to claim one I shot. Could care less if its a world record even. If it makes them happy, I'll just go shoot another.

That said, I've never really seen much to indicate larger caliber kills quicker, faster bullets tend to but even that is not always the case.

If for whatever reason, and there can be reasons, I need it to not move after the shot, the ONLY way is CNS. Other than that I pass on any iffy shots period. Size of headgear or lack of doesn't vary that, in fact larger headgear makes me much more cautious actually...

I have had a lot of surgeries through the years, seemingly right at hunting season! I have had to use some very small calibers ( with the right bullet of course) or miss out on some hunts. Example, in 2000/neck fusion I used a 220 Swift and 55gr Trophy Bonded Bearclaw on mule deer in Utah, Axis and Blackbuck antelope in Texas. In 2001, still dealing with the neck, I used a 6x47mm ( 85gr Barnes going 2900fps) for Axis deer and a Scimitar Horned Oryx. (spike elk size) I knew my limitations as far as range and position of the game. I will take a 243 and good mono for elk ( not a big money/big bull hunt) but I know I'm going to have to limit myself as to range and, again, position of the animal. I used to shoot a lot of the really big calibers ( 416 Taylor, 416 Remington, 416 Rigby, 458 Win, 458 Lott, heavy 45-70 loads, 12ga super slugs (870gr) followed by 375 H&H and 375 Weatherby.) then I had my non shooting eye retina repaired ( non shooting related) and just common sense said "don't do that" anymore. so I went to the 338s and big 300s with brakes. Now, I've gone full circle. With these newer powders and bullets even the old "deer rifle" can be a first rate elk/moose killer. Its a great time to be a rifle looney! ha

I have, quite successfully, taken big game with minimalist cartridge/bullet combos that CAN work when everything goes RIGHT.

I much prefer to use combos that can work when everything goes WRONG.

I'd hunt our whitetails all day long with suppressed sub sonic 22lr hps in the lungs... but its illegal.

One simply has to know limitations. I like being quiet. Just disturbs the woods much less.

I agree with this.
Its ridiculous to say that a 223 has the same terminal performance as a 300 RUM.

I wouldn't. But then I have some ethics. I guess it's all hyperbole though since Alaska doesn't have whitetails.

That is what Bob Hagel said.