.223, 6mm, and 6.5 failures on big game

[KHNC]

Have you ever shot a deer, or know of someone else shooting a deer with a larger caliber that also didn’t leave blood?

.50 cal Muzzleloader with powerbelt 220gr bullets leave no blood or a shitty blood trail.

 

[Live_weighT34]

.50 cal Muzzleloader with powerbelt 220gr bullets leave no blood or a shitty blood trail.

Muzzleloaders SUCK but I still love a muzzy hunt every year.

 

[AleksanderSuave]

This is an interesting thread..all 15 pages of it so far.

I'll contribute something as a complete newbie to hunting, but somewhat more comfortable in rifle shooting, and working in data analysis..

I find it odd that the phenomenon when discussing these 3 calibers seems to always come to the circular argument of being "outgunned" for the task at hand.

Im personally interested in going on an elk hunt. It wont happen this year, but its my goal within the next 5 years or less, if tags and all work out.

I have spent more time behind my now second 6.5 creedmoor rifle than anything else I own at this point (20+ arms and the list will keep going up), because I enjoy shooting it, the performance is predictable at distance, its repeatedly accurate, and because the recoil is mild and pleasant. It only got better once I introduced a suppressor to this setup. Recoil now is on par with significantly lighter rounds like 5.56, and it feels hearing-safe as well.

When looking up "elk hunting calibers", I keep seeing back and fourth about 6.5 not being "enough gun" for elk hunting, and suggesting to step up to 6.5 PRC or even 7 prc.

The argument supporting the PRC shift is always "6.5 wont do well past 500 yrds on elk".

Interestingly enough, the other day I decided to google the average distance on elk shots, and wasted a ton of time going down the rabbit hole of MANY forums, including this one and LRH, where guys all discussed the amount of elk they've taken, the average shot distance, and whether it was successful (recovered and packed out and dead after tracking).

The average shot distance, based on EVERY post Ive found on this, was well below 500 yards to begin with (in the US at least). In many cases, it was closer to 150-200 yards, with some occasional outliers coming close to 500 yard shots, but those were in the overwhelming minority. The few guys who did happen to have that in their experience, still averaged 350 yards or less between their combined hunts and in most instances, that was a 1 shot experience that skewed the overall average higher of less than 10 hunts.

What I see quite often which is odd to me, is this moving the goal post criterion for caliber discussions, and then points neglecting the obvious benefit (off the shelf ammo selection, popularity of the round, expanding offerings every year in rifles as well), just to try to justify telling someone else to get something like a 7mm rem mag, neglecting the obvious that the recoil alone (amongst other things) is going to be reasonably more. I also know, and see first hand regularly, at my gun club, guys who get recoil-shy trying their 300 WSM, and look like they're being forced to even shoot it, during sight in season at my club.

We all know someone like this. They are the one who will more than likely wound an animal, by placing a poor shot, due to lack of practice, and more than likely not recover it, regardless of having "enough gun" or not.

Also what gets ignored frequently is that these "enough gun" calibers are routinely within the 1000 round expectancy of barrel life. For those who only take it out once a year to sight in and end up expending less than 1 box of ammo in a whole season, that may be perfectly fine.

However, I like to shoot my deer hunting rifle regularly to maintain proficiency with it, and I'd like to do the same with this future elk rifle, once I build it, so that means at least 2-3 boxes, every other weekend, at minimum of a year, until I feel confident with using it. I may even be up to 100 rounds per session, to start, to really get comfortable with positional shooting, testing ammo, etc.

I'll throw one more newbie thing into the fold. Ammo manufacturers, like anyone else, occasionally put out a product that slips past QC and obviously shouldnt have. Hornady is not immune to that. Theres a multi-caliber recall right now on Hornady Black. Its not the most expensive ammo in their bunch, but its also not the cheapest by any means, for their catalogue.

The post that keeps being referenced to the ELDX that failed...its very possibly that was a bad round. It happens. It also doesnt speak to ELDX as a whole being inadequate, or even the caliber, for the task at hand.

Feel free to disregard all of this with the obvious of me being a new inexperienced hunter. Just wanted to share some observations.