For me it was finding a rifle for my wife. She was brand new to hunting and shooting. It was soon apparent she didn't enjoy recoil so we looked at smaller cartridges.
She struggled to operate a bolt gun and get back on target quickly so we looked at AR's.
Two states we planned to hunt had .243/6mm minimum so we landed on the 6x45. It was 2015 and all I knew was "I better shoot a Barnes to make up for size". So, shooting the 85gr TSX BT, we headed to Wyoming with a fist full of antelope tags.
It was quickly apparent the 6x45 was more than enough for antelope out to 400yds.
Then we killed some mule deer...same. Then I killed a big cow elk...same.
Between my wife n I, we have six seasons of hunting with 6x45's. We killed a pile of deer and antelope! It was eye opening being able to see hits in the scope and be able to immediately send another shot without moving since we were using AR's.
So, years later, the industry starts making fast twist rifles and slippery, heavy bullets for small calibers in relatively cheap rifles that shoot.
It wasn't a stretch at all once I found the 223 big game thread here. I bought a Tikka 223 and killed a bear with it. Bang...dead. no surprise.
My only disappointment is B tags aren't as available as they used to be...
I want to point out what others have also realized and said. Smaller cartridges have less recoil so shot to shot time is reduced allowing more shots into animals in the first few seconds that count.
That in itself is an important point when comparing big and small cartridges.
I hunted with a 10 pound 300 RUM for most of 10 years. 26" barrel, SRS brake, 210's @ 3000, then 230's @ 3100.
I shot it well enough to see 9 of 10 hits in the scope at any range, so I can tell you from experience, I could put 4, if not 5 223's in an animal in the time it would take to make 3 shots with my RUM simply due to recoil recovery time.
She struggled to operate a bolt gun and get back on target quickly so we looked at AR's.
Two states we planned to hunt had .243/6mm minimum so we landed on the 6x45. It was 2015 and all I knew was "I better shoot a Barnes to make up for size". So, shooting the 85gr TSX BT, we headed to Wyoming with a fist full of antelope tags.
It was quickly apparent the 6x45 was more than enough for antelope out to 400yds.
Then we killed some mule deer...same. Then I killed a big cow elk...same.
Between my wife n I, we have six seasons of hunting with 6x45's. We killed a pile of deer and antelope! It was eye opening being able to see hits in the scope and be able to immediately send another shot without moving since we were using AR's.
So, years later, the industry starts making fast twist rifles and slippery, heavy bullets for small calibers in relatively cheap rifles that shoot.
It wasn't a stretch at all once I found the 223 big game thread here. I bought a Tikka 223 and killed a bear with it. Bang...dead. no surprise.
My only disappointment is B tags aren't as available as they used to be...
I want to point out what others have also realized and said. Smaller cartridges have less recoil so shot to shot time is reduced allowing more shots into animals in the first few seconds that count.
That in itself is an important point when comparing big and small cartridges.
I hunted with a 10 pound 300 RUM for most of 10 years. 26" barrel, SRS brake, 210's @ 3000, then 230's @ 3100.
I shot it well enough to see 9 of 10 hits in the scope at any range, so I can tell you from experience, I could put 4, if not 5 223's in an animal in the time it would take to make 3 shots with my RUM simply due to recoil recovery time.
