How much gun is too little?

Big Game

Big Game

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
21   0   0
Location
Selkirk,Manitoba
A buddy of mine showed up at our cabin for lunch this weekend with a friend of his and son in tow. They'd been out hunting that morning and had knocked down a nice buck but lost it. I offered to go back and help them track and asked for some details. So the story went that he'd knocked it down twice and then put a third into it when they had jumped it in it's bed. I confidently remarked that "it's a dead deer" and asked hown far of a shot it had been. the answer I got was about 75 yds. but there's no blood to follow. I couldn't believe that a deer that had been flattened twice wouldn't produce any blood so I inquired as to what he had been shooting. A .17 Remington was the answer I got. Is that even legal I asked. Apperently it is. Anyway went back to the area this morning and heard the ravens squaking. Really pissed me off that a nice animal was wasted to an under powered gun. At what point do you say "it's not enough"? I always considered the
.243 Win a marginal deer caliber but a .17????????:mad:
 
many smaller cartridges are legal to hunt with, but my question is ,are they moral???? I believe you should use a gun that will ethically kill what your shooting given your own abilities...
 
Regardless of how small it is, someone will have killed an elephant or buffalo with it. But just because we can doesn't mean we should, and the .17 is not a big game cartridge. Ackley was of the opinion that it was suitable for Catalina goats, and by extension for any game of similar weight. I disagree with that as well. The vast majority of North American hunters can get by with cartridges smaller than the .30/06, in many instances, quite a bit smaller, but it is my opinion that a general purpose hunting cartridge should have a bullet that weighs not less that 140 grs, so I rate the 6.5 as the lower end when animals that approach half a ton are on the list. Is that arbitrary? Certainly, but that doesn't make it unreasonable.

Having said that, I know that across the North the .22-250 is thought highly of as a big game cartridge. But lets look at that in context. Caribou and seals are the primary game hunted across the arctic; caribou don't take much of a hit before they give up, and seals, even big seals are typically shot in the head, the diameter and weight of the bullet in either case is of little relevance to the success of the hunt. Another factor is that the majority of these animals harvested across the arctic, are harvested as part of a subsistence life style, and subsistence hunting isn't about sport or even recreation.
 
I just shot my first buck a few days ago using a single shot .243 Win with 80 gr Federal blue box soft points, it did the job with one bullet to the lungs. I would certainly feel comfortable using the same rifle and ammunition for deer in the future, although I wouldn't want to go any smaller. I have heard of people locally that successfully take deer on the regular using smaller cartridges like the .222, .22-250 and .223 Remington, but I don't know why anybody would use them if they had something a little bigger available.

By the way, the 2012 Manitoba Hunting Guide states that any centrefire rifle may be used to hunt big game during general (rifle) seasons although rifles of .23 calibre or less are not recommended.
 
btridge said:
many smaller cartridges are legal to hunt with, but my question is ,are they moral???? I believe you should use a gun that will ethically kill what your shooting given your own abilities...
Click to expand...
My feelings as well,although I know that it will upset those who hunt moose with .243s or .25-06s.That's fine for them,just not the way I do things. Mur
 
btridge said:
many smaller cartridges are legal to hunt with, but my question is ,are they moral???? I believe you should use a gun that will ethically kill what your shooting given your own abilities...
Click to expand...

That's where I was going with this thread. It wasn't my buddy that was shooting this it was his fiend's kid (who is an adult) and should know better. He claims that he's killed deer with that .17, but that don't make it right. Manitoba hunting regs don't recommend a centrefire under .23, but don't make it illegal. Where's the common sense and hunting morals gone? I can hunt with a .22 mag, but I'd never even think of it. A .17 caliber bullet is such a small chunk of lead I ncan't understand why Natural Resources wouldn't make it illegal to hunt with it?
 
skneub said:
I still feel sorry for the deer
Click to expand...

As hunter's I think we all strive to make quick,humane kills. Doesn't always work out the way we want but at least if adequate equipment is used the end results are usually better. I kind of equate this to bow hunting for deer with field points, sure you may punch a hole through them but........
 
Big Game said:
That's where I was going with this thread. It wasn't my buddy that was shooting this it was his fiend's kid (who is an adult) and should know better. He claims that he's killed deer with that .17, but that don't make it right. Manitoba hunting regs don't recommend a centrefire under .23, but don't make it illegal. Where's the common sense and hunting morals gone? I can hunt with a .22 mag, but I'd never even think of it. A .17 caliber bullet is such a small chunk of lead I ncan't understand why Natural Resources wouldn't make it illegal to hunt with it?
Click to expand...

Well if the deer did eventually die, I guess he isn't a liar.
Not much for ethics though.
Could be the chap needs a bit of proper guidance or a swat up
the back side the head.
 
Even if it were legal, .223 is the smallest I would go. Sure a .17 could do it, if you hit them in the eye or something, but that's too long odds to be comfortable with.
 
Definitely not enough gun. I usually shoot a .270 win for deer and switched to a 6.8 SPC this year. I was actually pretty disappointed in its performance, however I'm confident in my abilities and made 3 one-shot kills with it in the past 2 weeks. I would go as small as a 223 with a good bullet on deer, but even that is much too small for the average hunter to make an ethical shot with.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom