Does the 223/6mm for everything change when hunt cost $$$

Would you use a smaller caliber (223/6mm) on the below mentioned five-figure hunts?

  • Yes, I would use a 223/6mm caliber.

    Votes: 160 56.3%
  • No, I would elect a larger cartridge.

    Votes: 124 43.7%

  • Total voters
    284
Joined
Mar 22, 2024
Messages
64
Just because someone does something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
I worked briefly with an elder who liked .223 for everything— including whales.

I mention it just as an example of how you don’t know what you don’t know until you run across someone who does.
 

Macintosh

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Like all things, just because something goes against conventional wisdom also does not mean it’s NOT a good idea. Most people, in most (all?) topics I have run into, dont realize how much they rely on “because its what Im familiar with”, and how LITTLE they rely on data or any objective measure. Ive found this to be true in all aspects of life, I think its a universal truism of people in general, regardless of what they say. Humans are simply hard-wired to take mental shortcuts and make fast decisions without data, and asking them to apply rationality, the Scientific Method and objective decision making or judgement to a topic that threatens their understanding of what they think they know is an uphill battle-thats just not how human beings tend to think. There is an entire branch of study on human decision-making that has thoroughly documented this. These mental shortcuts and fallbacks on what is familiar and ingrained seem to have been an evolutionary benefit in making snap decisions on who is friend or foe, what is safe or unsafe, etc, but they inevitably lead to patterns of failure in certain areas—its why pilots and other high-consequence decision makers are forced to use checklists rather than rely on mental judgement alone. And it inevitably leads to repetitively circular mega-threads on internet forums like this one. Tens of thousands of years of human evolution have lead us directly to page 22 of this thread.
 

WIDrake

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Jul 30, 2024
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It's funny that people who accept that a 223 can kill efficiently are sometimes referred to as "kool-aid drinkers" when they're making decisions based on empirical data. Of course, the term originates from the Jonestown cult where people committed suicide by drinking kool-aid simply because the people were conditioned to do whatever they were told, without critical thought.

ETA: Not directed at fwafwow at all, your post was just the newest that was showing when I decided to comment.
Whoa whoa whoa man. I'm gonna have to stop you right there incase no one else has.... It was Flavor Aid and not kool-aid.

Let's keep to the facts when talking about killing /s

(/s means sarcasm incase anyone doesn't know, it's a bad joke some won't find funny)
 
Joined
Oct 6, 2014
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Listening to the recent Journal of Mountain Hunting Podcast with Pap Van Winkle as guest. He’s going on throughout the episode talking crap about people shooting elk with .223’s and saying that you should only trust gun writers and industry professionals that have been doing what they have for 20,30,40 years. Guess Pap’s a Fudd.
 

Grizzle

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Well here we go, Paps on the S2H podcast that dropped today. Will be an interesting one to see what happens when he speaks to Ryan.
Listend to it at work, was hopeing for a little more discussion back and forth on bullet choice and big vs small caliber/ cartridge but seemed like they avoided it to a large extent. Ryan got the neutered line in but pap didn't really engage on it. Would have been interesting when pap was talking about smaple size if Ryan had brought up the amount of evidence on this site for .223/6mm performance
 
Joined
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Listend to it at work, was hopeing for a little more discussion back and forth on bullet choice and big vs small caliber/ cartridge but seemed like they avoided it to a large extent. Ryan got the neutered line in but pap didn't really engage on it. Would have been interesting when pap was talking about smaple size if Ryan had brought up the amount of evidence on this site for .223/6mm performance
Havnt listened to it yet, but by your description, sounds like they didn’t want to rock the boat too much. Too bad @Formidilosus wasnt in on that one. They could have atleast kept him in the closet and let him out when it was time to throw down some data.
 

mtnbound

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Nov 8, 2016
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N. Idaho
What I’m curious to know is, would the folks that shoot the 223 and 6mm type combos still elect that caliber if they had to shell out five figures for the hunt? For the sake of conversation let’s just assume the following.
- Your chosen cartridge is legal for this hunt.
- You are paying the bill (not a gift and you didn’t win the lottery).
- Target animals are a Marco Polo Sheep in Tajikistan ($40k) and a Mountain Nyala in Ethiopia ($70k).
- If you hit an animal and don’t recover it, you pay the full hunt cost and your tag is considered filled.

Easy answers - if a 6mm is legal I would use it.
If I’m paying the bill I’m going to use the rifle/caliber that I have the most confidence in and that’s my 6mm.
Don’t care about the animal my 6mm will kill it effectively.
If I hit an animal and can’t find it yes my tag is punched that’s the ethical thing to do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Grizzle

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Havnt listened to it yet, but by your description, sounds like they didn’t want to rock the boat too much. Too bad @Formidilosus wasnt in on that one. They could have atleast kept him in the closet and let him out when it was time to throw down some data.
Haha aka jerry springer show "form come om down" haha I think pap probably has enough following that pissing him off when he's buying and discussing um rifles probably isn't worth entertaining pricks like me
 

mxgsfmdpx

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Oct 22, 2019
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What’s most interesting to me, despite all the evidence on this forum, is that a “yes” answer to the poll is still only just barely cracking half the voters.

We’ve been killing with 6.5 and 6mm guns for 10 years now, and have had better overall results than when we hunted with 7mms and .30s.

Looking forward to my first big game season with .224 this year is all I can say!
 

pilgrim7

FNG
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
Messages
52
A diy hunt is no less valuable to me than a fully outfitted hunt is to most of the guys I know who spend money on that type of thing. Time is my most precious commodity and I spend lots of it researching and preparing to hunt public land. No matter the price tag, I'll be carrying whatever rifle I have available that I am most confident with.
 
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