We all know about people who know old guys who took a moose with a .22...but that was a matter of putting meat on the table back I te day, often in family's that couldn't afford meat or a new rifle more suited to game hunting. That was surviving. Today, I believe hunting with a .22 of any sort is still very much doable but it borders on stunting and is entirely unnecessary and unjustified.
I find it interesting that this almost invariably comes up in topics such as this by the more reasonably guys willing to admit that small calibers were used in the past out of desperation. often times we describe relatives that did it during the great depression, or during WWII when there wasn't a whole lot in the way of centerfire due to wartime production practices. however I also think it's interesting that we are still in the grips of a great recession ourselves which at it's peak was actually more crippling than the great depression ever was. money is tight for everyone just as it was during the depression. we say it was ok for them to do it out of desperation in the 20s-50s, but we don't have that excuse now because of foodstamps and credit cards, and better bullet options?
if you are poor and desperate, you are poor and desperate, it does not matter what generation you live in. great grampa Bubba killed animal X with gun Y and bullet Z in 1930, animal X has not grown any harder to kill, and bullet Z has not grown any less potent. it is just as possible today as it was 80 years ago to go out and "kill a moose with a 22", the difference is that today we are in denial just as to how desperate some people are. if you have fallen on hard times and all you have in your collection is a 223, then that is what you take hunting, if all you have is a 7.62x39, then that is what you take, if you have both, then make the decision based on how far you are expected to shoot and the size of game you are after. don't say that a person has no excuse in this day and age and tell them to go out and buy another rifle with money they may not have to spend.
now shifting gears from my poor people rant, there is also the 5 stages of hunting psychology to consider. I'm not sure if this was included in older hunter's ed/safety courses or if it's still taught, but when I was taking hunter's ed, there were 5 stages that many hunters go through at some point in their life.
1. the shooting stage:the shooting stage is often little kids who take satisfaction at just being able to say they shot their gun, whether they harvested or not.
2.limiting out stage:where hunters take satisfaction at actually getting to fill their tags.
3.trophy stage:trophy stage is self explanatory, they just want that big buck that comes out to the hay barn every other tuesday morning at 6:37AM.
4. method stage:the Method stage, also called the Challenge stage is where the hunter takes satisfaction at taking the game a specific way, the tactics are as important as the harvest itself.
5. sportsman stage: where you simply take satisfaction in getting to go hunting at all, regardless of means.
some hunters are just bound in the Challenge/method stage where they are after game for a specific purpose that only makes sense to them. I was very heavily invested in method hunting last year when I decided to challenge myself to make a good hunt rather than just tag out of everything. I called in my first turkey, rather than jumping them and blasting away. I shot my first blackbear, also the first time I've hunted from a blind, the first time I've hunted with open sights, and I did it with a 75 year old rifle just to make it more interesting. I shot my deer with a 9mm carbine simply because, much like 223, the interweb told me it was unethical, unreliable, and underpowered: it was the first DRT deer I've harvested in many years. I hunted elk with a number of rifles, but in the end, the day I harvested I wasn't doing anything fancy.
this year I am being fancy with my elk simply because it is the final frontier for me, but that is neither here nor there. I am a method hunter as of this season, next year I may simply mature into a sportsman but some people just like the challenge of forcing themselves to make a good kill with a weapon that is marginal for the task(muzzle loading, achery hunting, and shotgun come to mind), this will often involve getting closer than you normally would, passing up shots that are less than perfect, and stalking game for long distances to get a good position on them. that is what method hunting is for, to force you to adapt to certain conditions.