Caliber less important than hunting skills(I think magnums are overrated)

Where I hunt here in Oklahoma, about the only thing on the other side of my game, is a tree, so I don't worry to bad about it.

You go to the RANGE to shoot, and sight in. You go to the woods to HUNT.
No situation at the range will prepare you for situations in the field.
 
And what is even better is good hunting and shooting skills and a MAGNUM. case in point last year we hunted in up state Arizona (Williams area) we glassed down a canyon and up the other side and spoted a heard of elk .I checked the distance it was 415 lazered yards I shot at a big cow (only had a cow permit) hit her with my 338/378 Weatherby mag Accumark with an IOR scope on it ,she fell dead where I shot her.my friend Scott shot at another cow with his Winchester model 70 in 3006 with a Lupey varix3 and did manage to hit her but she ran off and left a blood trail that we followed for a long while but it stopped and we never found her .he is a very good shot and rarely misses.I can't help but think if he had a hard hitting magnum we would have had to winch 2 cows off that ridge instead of one that day .so flame away on mags all you want but the work for me .:D
 
I've seen that country around Williams.

What'll likely work on a 200-pound whitetail with an '06 probably shouldn't be tried on a cow elk. Your friend should have known better. Some shots, common sense says to pass 'em up.

The world is full of incurable optimists...

Art
 
Hmmm...400 yds cross canyon?

I have a 375 H&H and it's a fine performer...but 400 yd. shots at elk are difficult shots. More power to you - if you can accurately hit an elk with a 375 H&H or a 378 Weatherby from 400 yards... My 375 H&H causes less meat damage than a 257 Weatherby or even a 270 Win... However, the issue I have is not so much the performance of 'magnums' - but the underestimation of other calibers and the over-reliance on 'magnums' - instead of hunting skills - to make a clean kill. Personally I try to avoid 400 yard shots... Oh, I can make'em...but there's a difference between what I can and ought to do... In most circumstances I try to be within 200 yards of the game. Pronghorns are for me an exception - and for a Pronghorn 300 - 400yds. is common...but it doesn't take much to kill a Pronghorn. Elk? I try to make it within 200 yards...and 300 yards would likely be my limit(a great deal depends on the specific situation ie. a broadside presentation in an open field at 400 yds...might be a lot more tempting than a not-so-broadside shot at 275 yds..) The problem I run into more frquently is the one of the novice whitetail hunter banging away with a 300 Win Mag. in fairly heavy timber at a small buck that is less than 100 yds.away...while I am in my stand with my 30/30 worried about where that 300 Win bullet is going after it has missed the little whitetail or gone through it... :barf:
 
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