This community follows trends from competitive performance sports. You see it in the concept of wilderness athletes vs hunters. Rok is more wilderness athlete and competitive shooting than hunters hunting. That’s not good or bad, but it should filter opinions when you get advice from any forum. It’s super helpful on topics like boots, packs, optics…but it’s sometimes lacking on traditional experience based wisdom.
With the shift to smaller cartridges in PRS and similar…from 30 cal to 6.5 to 6 creed…and the wave of long range shooters who build rifles based on what their hero off instagram has on his barrel sticker…it was inevitable that you’d see more small cartridges with giant optics afield. This brings a suite of assumptions and issues with it as it tries to translate from manicured ranges to saddle scabbards. Things like the assumption that you can simply range, dial, and get hits at 800m…it’s easy…except not in the real world under field conditions with a heart rate upwards of 100bpm and 80+ breaths After running/climbing to get into a shooting position.
There is also an issue with defining performance on game. What does “good” mean?
When you look at professional groups that define ballistics in quantified ways, it makes things much simpler. You can read about the highlights on pistol ammo performance here:
https://www.pewpewtactical.com/fbi-ammo-test-protocol/
The basis is that you need consistent, predictable, terminal performance in a bullet that you can reliably deliver to the target with sufficient retained energy to penetrate the vital area in a relatively straight line and optimally give an exit wound to amplify blood loss/air in to create tension pneumothorax and hasten death.
What cartridges and projectiles are optimal for that task has filled books for decades.
Generally, my view is this- match the tool to the task based on a sub optimal shot. I’ve seen deer killed with 22lr. That’s not a good plan, though. Plan to take a shot through bone, through grass filled paunch, at distance (where your velocity has dropped to a point where bullet expansion windows matter), and be able to do so quickl…without your Kestrel.
A poor performing bullet will still kill effectively on a standing broadside shot. That same bullet will lose its core and fail to punch through grass filled paunch on a quartering away moose. This is why you need a specific # of inches of penetration in calibrated gel (not that gel exactly matches tissue). In selecting a bullet, you need to know the anatomy of your target and how many inches of penetration are required to get full penetration from all angles, what velocity window will guarantee that performance, and when you can’t take the shot.
Frame of reference is a real issue in bias on this topic. Guys who primarily hunt deer have seen how fragile a deer can be…you could kill it easily with most centerfire cartridges. At the opposite end, guys who chase Cape Buffalo, with their armored rib cage and overlapping ribs will swear 375 with 300gr bonded bullets are minimal.
Somewhere in the middle is likely where most NA game animals live.
Don‘t take anyone’s advice. Do your anatomical math. Define your performance requirements. At what distance, to what accuracy and precision standard, then terminal performance-inches of straight line penetration, weight retention, bone blind, exit wound required, velocity/expansion window vs range.