When is 'enough gun' 'too much gun'?

-Savage- said:
Apparently, according to the graphic above, a .30-06 (or .308/7mmRM/.270) is NOT "the right calibre" for moose.

If they were still alive, then I would communicate this important fact to my granddad & my dad,
.. who (I'm now embarrassed to say) killed dozens with a .44-40 and a .30-30
Yes, they were both crack shots & pro. hunting guides.
And yes, when living on the homestead in the North, they used these to put moosemeat on the table
But clearly they were wrong.
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The expectations of a cartridge have increased and game is more scarce.
I shot and killed a mule deer with a 45 colt. It worked. It is not a good deer cartridge.
 
It may have been said already, but too much gun comes into play when people talk cartridges and not bullets.

And I've never known a one gun owner who really was worth a hoot when it came to shooting. Shooting prowess and handloading ability are two things you can't fake, you can't become an expert by talking on the Internet, you have to do lots of both to get good.
 
I don't know; I had my 300 Winchester magnum along on a moose hunt and shot a little two point mule deer and didn't lose a heck of a lot of meat.
 
c-fbmi said:
I have shot gophers with a 450 Ackley Magnum with 500 gn bullets at 2500 fps......what does that tell ya !!!!!!!!

I have always subscribed to the principal that I don't get enough time hunting as I want...therefore if I do see an animal at 400 mtrs or a "not so good" quartering away position, I really don't want to have to forgo the shot as I may not get the opportunity again that year. I therefore generally carry a rifle in a cartridge that will still be effective at 400 mtrs using a bullet that will penetrate far enough for a clean kill on a quartering away angle. I have never felt any negative effects if the animal in question is only 50 mtrs away either. My super duper magnum still kills it perfectly dead. My motto also takes care of any grizzly concerns as well, and they have been a very real concern in a lot of areas I have spent a great deal of time hunting.

There is nothing wrong with using a rifle and cartridge capable of taking advantage of any scenario that game may present itself to the hunter, whether it is at 25 mtrs or 450 mtrs, broadside or quartering away or looking straight on and also being appropriate for any game on license and open in the area being hunted. My choice for many, many years has been the 30 cal magnums and for the past 30 years that would be the Wby using 200 gn bullets...........what can I say it works without question or reservation on all NA game, and 99% of all game world wide.

Too much gun was evidenced in a video I watched a while back showing US snipers in Afghanistan shooting Marco Polo sheep at a couple thousand meters with .50s. Don't know what kind of ordinance they were using but one would have had to do an extensive search to find all the pieces of the sheep they hit. It looked like the same effect as hitting a gopher mid ship with a 60 gn 6mm bullet from a 6-284 at right around 4000 fps.......
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Could you post a link to that video?
 
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I've shot bears with 25/06 and 458wm. Both produced ethical kills

To me too much gun is when the bullets become inappropriate for the intended use

I'd hunt bear with a 50 bmg if I had one and had a load appropriate for hunting and a spot to lay prone but I don't have one or a location suitable. Plus I don't wear ear plugs while hunting so a 50 isn't a great choice for me
 
Hoakster said:
You like gopher paste?
Surely that's all that would be left.
It'd be like a scene from 'Scanners'. (That reference will date ya!)
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Funny enough, it did not much more damage than a 22 LR.........zero expansion, just cut a 1/2" hole on a centre shot. Now you want impressive, a 60 gn HP from a 6-284 @ 4000 fps on a gopher at 100 mtrs leaves very little to compost or feed the magpies.
 
ratherbefishin said:
Where once the moderate velocity/ caliber rifles were the weapon of choice for deer hunting,it seems that nothing less than the latest hyper rifles will do....but I seriously wonder how much real advantage to the average deer hunter they offer? I 'm not talking about special situations where grizzlies are likely to be encountered ,or long shots are more the rule than the exception, but in my own experience,most of my deer were killed well UNDER 50 yards...I knew an old guy who used a Winchestor 25/35 with great success on his wood lot.Compared to that I was 'over gunned' with my 303 on typical coastal Blacktails .Today I pretty much just carry a 6.5x55 swede with a fixed M-8 4x Leopold and just regular SP ammunition and the deer seem to drop just as dead with that as the latest 'must have' rifles capable of shooting deer 1000 yards away..
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A lot of little man syndrome out there and it takes a lot of gun to compensate for.
 
Jeez...never fails...every time we see a thread asking about whether or not a gun (any gun) should be sold, there are scads of replies saying "No! Never sell a gun!"

If someone asks whether they should buy a gun (any gun), we hear "Of course you should buy it!" over and over.

And, of course, if someone asks for opinions as to which of two or three guns he should buy, the inevitable and oft-repeated refrain is "Get 'em all!"

But when a gun nut has all these guns, and usually in a bunch of different chamberings, he gets laughed at when he uses something other than a plain-Jane .308 or .30-06 for any of his hunting. If it's smaller, he is told that it is unethical (which may be true at least some of the time). And if...God forbid...it is larger, then he is "compensating" or is guilty of applying "overkill".

There are also the inevitable comments about meat damage or some such nonsense (see "gopher paste" above...), invariably made by people who have obviously never tried a big gun on game. These are also the folks who line up a hunt for something big and heavy, maybe with lots of teeth...and since they've never shot a bigger gun, they ask for advice about their old reliable .308 on such game. Sorry, folks, but "good enough" is not the same as "perfect".

"Too big?" They are too big if you can't shoot them well enough...otherwise, enjoy yourself and don't worry about what other people think.

Or...just use CGN accepted wisdom. Buy every gun you see...buy them all in .30-06...use them for everything...convince yourself they are the best possible choice for everything...and always, always keep your eyes peeled for a good deal on another .30-06. :)
 
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