That’s too small a sample size.We know one thing, a 54 hawken isn't enough for griz. Hatchet Jack was bad enough to be livin' two year in a cave up on the Musselshell with a female panther but he couldn't save himself from a griz with his hawken...
You said it a lot better than the long-winded post I was working on. But I expect someone will post that a 44 magnum is better than a 223 with 77gr TMKs (or 6.5 CM with 140 TMKs).
I do find it interesting when it comes to bears how many guys will beat their chests on having the biggest revolver, but then poo-poo most rifle loads. These guys are the same ones who put a lot of weight into muzzle energy. Just run the numbers for yourself- Grizzly's .44 mag loads of 320gr hard casts at 1350 have basically the same energy at the muzzle (1295) as a 55gr pill at 3650fps out of a 22-250 at 75 yards (1294).
Since I've been spending so much time on these threads I feel like my 300 rum has been giving me funny looks.
I think a lot of guys have been sweating lately when their magnum rifle asks to look at their browser history.
When I lived on Kodiak the peep sighted 7 lb 375 H&H practice we did shooting empty shotgun hulls at 10 yards was interesting. It was much like quickly shooting a shotgun - and about the only time that gun was comfortable to shoot. It wasn’t until 7th or 8th range session that the practice felt like it was really paying off and times were at least cut in half over the first few times.
A bit of shooting and bringing the good fight to the pages of Rokslide... Hopefully you have time for other life pursuits hahaha.
Colorado is the same. I expect it’s due to the laws not keeping up with technology. 20 years ago would anyone here have said a 223 was enough for elk?
Same mentality and erroneous beliefs that the converts to .223 had to abandon from the old skool. (Edited)
Did you mean to say “had to abandon”?
In Iowa, the only bottleneck cartridges we can use for deer have to be .35 or larger. I believe they thought this would limit people to shorter range shots. But it's dumb. What if I build a 375 cheytac or something? Totally legal. Whoever makes these laws sucks at life.
Yeah, converts had to abandon the old skool beliefs.
There’s lots of books that discuss hunting with smaller cartridges, mentioned “hunting the Rocky Mountain goat” where the author has killed numerous goats with a 257 Robert’s. Heck, before the Alaska national guard showed up with the 30-06, guys were still messing around with 44-40s, 30-30, 250-3000 savages and all that stuff.I know you guys are tired of me talking about my friends, but I hope someone is figuring out how to publish a book about hunting with the small calibers.
The three most significant changes to shooting in my lifetime have been laser rangefinders, reliably scopes that dial, and now, effective hunting bullets for smaller calibers. If you asked me a year ago if I’d ever put a big game rifle together based on a centerfire 22, that would have seemed crazy, but my grandson will get a little fast twist 223 hunting rifle. Even way back when, we all knew guys that shot everything with what would consider light bullets that just fly apart, but there wasn’t a resource that described it well, or dug into the reliability of taking game with them, and what is known to work and not work. If an old fud like myself would buy the book, there must be a large percentage of the hunters all across the country that would find it interesting.
Somebody is going to write this kind of book, and while hunting books don’t make anyone rich, it would be nice to see it go to the guys who are making the change happen.
