- Location
- Haliburton County, Central Ontario
What was the question?
Does cartridge selection even matter these days?
- Thread starter Gatehouse
- Start date
the question was:
"If you live in Haliburton County, and are invited to a deer hunt in Fort Irwin, do you bring a shootin' iron that all the good ole boys recognize (example: Savage 99, Winchester 94, Remington 760, etc) or do you declare yourself to be highly suspect as a city lad or worse, by bringing along a rifle operated by a bolt (unless it is a Lee Enfield, which is permitted), and which is chambered for a cartridge nobody has ever heard of. You will be on the receiving end of a hunt camp trial if you also allow that you LOAD YOUR OWN bullets!!!
No need to thank me, I hunted up there for years.
Doug
- Location
- Haliburton County, Central Ontario
Makes sense. OK....Use this logic with grizzlies...what's the new minimum there?
A logical minimum for hunting grizzlies would likely be a cartridge in the 30-06/7RM/303 British Ruger #1 class
How about my 270? Come on, a necked down 30-06 should do it with some of today's bullets?
To build on that a bit, what is a logical maximum? Biggest thing you can shoot well? A case could be made for logical minimum = logical maximum.
How about my 270? Come on, a necked down 30-06 should do it with some of today's bullets?
Sure, it will work fine. I know of several grizzlies that were taken with a .270.
Biggest thing you can shoot well would be different for different people....SO we are back to square 1- Does it matter what cartridge ?
Sure, it will work fine. I know of several grizzlies that were taken with a .270.
Biggest thing you can shoot well would be different for different people....SO we are back to square 1- Does it matter what cartridge ?
Biggest thing you can shoot well would be different for different people....SO we are back to square 1- Does it matter what cartridge ?
Then the answer would be yes.
Jordan Smith
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Calgary, AB
I can shoot a 450/400 3" pretty darn well, but I know my .25-06 like the back of my hand. I could probably nail a charging grizz with the .450/400, but I could probably put one in his forehead with the .25-06. Which should I use?
Jordan Smith
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Calgary, AB
Rec'less would be REAL hard on the rug.....
I COULD just read him a selection or six from my last novel. Poor thing would suicide from sheer boredom, but at least it wouldn't hurt the rug.
You really have to look at all options.....
.
I COULD just read him a selection or six from my last novel. Poor thing would suicide from sheer boredom, but at least it wouldn't hurt the rug.
You really have to look at all options.....
.
Fair observation, but where do we draw the line?
So why not a 6.5?
So why not a .257 bore?
Why not a 243?
Following a similar truth, perfectly placed .224 loaded TSX in the vitals and it will work every time. So we should all use centerfire .22's with premium bullets?
That's the theory, but the reality is we don't always hit the perfect mark.
Murphy will show up and sh1t will happen.
Some times a 20mm cannon wont help, but (in my experience) other times a bigger gun can save the day.
A few years ago my hunting buddy had a couple of hunts in a row where his shots were just bad.
The first was a moose square in the guts and the second was mule deer in the same spot. No vitals were touched...At all.
The deer was DRT and the moose folded within 20 yards.... Both were 375 270gr TSX.
Another buddy poked a huge moose in no mans land above the spine...Not a mark on the vitals or spine and it was DRT...In spectacular fashion yet!
.416 400gr Partition.
No finishing shots required on any of the animals.
Not for a minute am I suggesting that we need 416's or 375's for deer, or that we can shoot animals in the guts with a big bore and expect everything to go well.
On the other hand those incidents certainly made me question the commonly suggested opinion that bigger wont help on a poorly placed shot.
Every notch up the scale provides a small increment in forgiveness in shot placement, lets more air in, lets more blood out, provides a bit more shock, gives us a bit better chance at a second shot, and gives a little more hope for a blood trail.
I expect Murphy to show up and despite advancements in bullet technology I carry more horsepower than I need.
Some times a lot more than I need.
If the same results are obtained (dead animal) then the answer would be NO.
If different results can be expected and needed under different conditions, the answer reverts to "Yes".
Fair observation, but where do we draw the line?
So why not a 6.5?
So why not a .257 bore?
Why not a 243?
Following a similar truth, perfectly placed .224 loaded TSX in the vitals and it will work every time. So we should all use centerfire .22's with premium bullets?
Couldn't tell you ....I don't know anyone that has hunted grizzlies with any of those. I already said where i draw the line, you draw your line wherever you want.
But in the original post, I excluded grizzlies because they are big and scratchy, and most will never hunt them.
I realize that everyone has thier "pet" cartridges and some guys want to shoot wee cartridges at big animals and some guys want to use huge cartridges for wee animals, but what I said in my original post is still true:
Although arguing about small differences in velocity, bullet diameter, bullet weight is fun and shooting different cartridges is fun
