I live in elk and mule deer country right now. I lived in elk and mule deer country in Lakeside, Sommer's and Big Fork, Montana. I've hunted them with 243 win, 6.5x55, 6.5x06, 280 rem, 7x57, 7mm rem mag, 308 win 30-06, 338 win mag and a 350 rem mag. I also use a 25-06 a great deal plus have used a large assortment of various bullet's for all of them.
The lesson in physic's was wonderful and while there exist's many instance's where you can give evidence that physic's is,,,, mistaken, it is really not. Elk and Mule Deer are being shot with cartridge's under 6.5 cal all the time, and those that do it proudly point to the dead animal and say "see, told ya so!". That does not make those lesser cartridge's acceptable for general use. All it prove's is that either the user was very skilled at using it or very lucky. I'm all for very skilled.
Where we run into a problem is that these site's are open to anyone with access to a computer, they don't even have to have one. Many of those people are new or very uninformed in this business of sport hunting and if they find something they want to hear or that make's sense, they may well try it. Then too, when certain cartridges may be selected that are a bit on the shallow side, quite often all the if, and's and but's are left out.
An example would be a suggestion that the 280 Rem make's a fine brown bear cartridge............Who can dispute that it would certainly do the job WITH the added if's, and's and but's? Or you get the writer that say's "the 25-06 is acceptable for elk, I use it all the time but, I wouldn't reccomend it." And so the challenge is put out there.
In another area of this site is a fellow that watched a T.V. program on the shooting of a deer at 450 yards. He's decided that he need's to practice more, guess where thats going! Another post talk's of the 1000 yard shooter OF GAME! Most writing in seem impressed with this nonsense. To shoot at paper target's at those ranges is one thing, live game something else again, thank the father of "bean field rifle's", we all know who that is!
We live in a time when hunting and shooting come's unde pressure from anti's and the most visible part of our sport is thoes of us that write in on these forum's. Those anti's don't spend much time gathering first hand fact's, they get it here. We need to make sure that suggestion's and recommendation's we make are reasonable AND prudent in general, not just for the highly schooled. Some moron that couldn't kill a deer with an anti tank round uses a 257 Weatherby on a brown bear because someone said it's a good elk cartridge and elk are bigger than any other bear HE ever saw, who will he point the finger at for his own stupidity? That's right, us, even tho we never suggested anything of the sort.
We cannot do much about those individual's but we can keep our public opinion's to reasonable and prudent. Especially those of us who have more to say than "yup, 270 does it all.".
