that's a mouthful
thought I was wordy lol, just funnin man, great info
some other perspectives to layer in is where are you in your hunting stages and life period? we tend to do a bit of an arc, pun intended, in this area as well, I forget all the stages but there's the bloodlust fill every tag possible, there's the trophy stage all about the big bone, there's the method stages layered in there (weapon types and choices, bows, guns, high horsepower/low horsepower, modern/traditional etc.) then there's the mellowing out stage, different things become important, for me now it's having the kids do most of the trigger pulling and freezer filling, and method more so in efficiency, I've climbed back down the horsepower max modern performance ladder but using modern performance with a lot less powder to play where I've come to terms with ranges afield on game
the list can be very long in choosing a cartridge and then rifle around it, most of us will start with the bullet, then figure out how much powder we need behind it to push it as far as we want to push it, then figure out what will wrap around that cartridge/bullet combo and that we wish to carry afield for our needs/desires (a 6 lb shoulder slammer magnum or a 9 lb wimpster that lets you watch everything in the scope like a movie), there's a wide range of availabilities but they should match what your goals afield, you will certainly see wide range of efficiency in guys gear to their chosen tasks, some run the line pretty close if not to the minimal side, some like as much insurance as possible
starting with the bullet you may have min diameter, minimum weight, minimum sd, minimum bc thresholds, construction type thresholds for game intended or terminal performance you prefer that then ties into min impact velocities, then you can layer in max distance thresholds which will go hand in had with minimum impact velocity thresholds, time of flight seems like it may have a relationship with max distance thresholds...we're still working that one out some but its certainly worth looking at as we don't hunt dead stuff
likely missing a few other choices in bullet parameters but that would cover the basics for most, then move to the cartridge that will push it to what you need, availability, etc. quite a few factors one may place on this part of the equation, for me one of them is I place high value on factory availability, recoil energy as part of shootability, barrel life, noise (we aren't allowed suppressors in Canada) and again I'm likely missing several parameters around cartridge selection to drive your bullet choice but we get the point
then you move onto the weapon, so many ways to skin that cat to match your goals and methods afield, you can keep it super simple hunt friendly or you can get carried away with rabbit holes of competitive gear and modern elr ballistics technology etc. the limits are widely variable in this first quarter of the 21st century, good time to be a hunter, we can match so many goal options now right off the shelf, it's take a long time to get here!
it's obvious one can overthink the living snot out of this stuff and get lost down some deep rabbit holes, the harder part seems to be to better define ones goals before they start investing in gear to match everything up to what you really end up doing afield, threads like this should help add valuable perspectives, it's pretty amazing what you can do with a basic factory rifle, factory ammo, basic scope, basic rangefinder with these 21st century bullet/cartridge and equipment options, you can dumb it right down or go to unheard of levels from the 20th century, I mean it's common place now for guys here to drive proficiently 20' feet of elevation dope and 5' of wind dope...incredible time to be into this stuff
we can't always forget either there are guys out there who lay down with a slinged 308 and iron sights and shoot groups at 1000 meters that many would be happy with at 500 yards lol, the key point there is the gear is typically far more capable than the drivers, but drivers who put in the time with their gear and their chosen systems can get closer to maximizing that gears potential, figure out where you wanna land and have fun, try not to hurt your wallet too much in process, you can affordably do very well out there now