"inapropriate" hunting weapons

Scorch

I reviewed your list, and 30 30 is great on Wild Boar, we have alot of them here, and many are killed with that cartridge, usually from a model 94 Winchester, or a Marlin.
 
I find it amusing that threads like these always devolve into, "I killed a charging rhino with a .17HMR" type of stories. OK, I've seen my great uncle dispatch 400 pound pigs with a single shot from his .22 revolver, but he could walk up behind them and put a bullet directly into the brainstem. But this is more clsely related to turning off a light switch than it is to hunting.

It's not about what has been done, it's about using the correct tool for the job. I can use a butterknife to tighten a loose screw or a crescent wrench to hammer a nail, but is it the proper tool for the job?

Yes, in the stone age, bison were killed with sharpened sticks. But in the stone age no one cared if the animal was killed humanely, they only cared about the meat on the spit. WE, on the other hand, can go to a supermarket and buy our protein, thus we must be held to an ethical standard when hunting. That standard is to use the best possible way to kill an animal quickly and humanely.
If you need many caveats in defending ones choice for caliber/gun combinations, (ie. "If the range is kept short", "If the shots are precisely placed", etc.). Then maybe you should rethinkk your choices.

There will be many opinions on this subject, but it always comes back to using the proper tool for the job.
 
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I wouldn't dream of using any handgun less than .357 Mag for whitetail.

And I stopped using 12 GA for squirrels around college age because it was a bit too much and really too easy. Same goes for semi-auto shotguns in general with a possible exception for birds, but even then I wouldn't use it. More of a challenge to harvest squirrel with .22 LR or a single barrel 20 GA.

I wouldn't bother with something as beastly as .375 H&H for anything in North America short of Kodiak.
 
Creek Henry, I certainly wouldn't choose my .243 for an elk gun. However, with a patient and basically-lazy elk at only 200 yards? The neck shot would be a gimme.
Click to expand...

I believe the author in question was using 55 grainer or there abouts though... I hope you were using 95gr!

Actually, the most horrid thing I've heard of was from my cousin-in-law who is mental whose discresions include but are not limited to: has shot powerlines with a 30-06, killed deer with 12 rounds from a 22lr rifle, killed a deer with 7 rounds of 12ga birdshot, and I was watched him twist the head almost off of a wounded jackrabbit. The dude scares me so I don't even varmint hunt with him anymore.
 
Creek Henry,
Your cousin-in-law is an A........I guess I'm not supposed to use that word on TFL. Thank you for refusing to hunt with him. When he gets tired of finding new hunting partners, he'll hopefully quit hunting.

Joe6pak,
Would I hunt whitetails with a 9mm? Well....no. I was guiding a friend who shot a small buck with an '06. I brought my Browning HP to dispatch any wounded critters. I wanted to concentrate on helping him, not filling my own tag. As we approached his dead buck, a doe and fawn got up in front of him, and ran crossways in front of me at about 25 FEET, I put a 124gr hollowpoint into her front shoulder and lungs. She went down, and had we been at rifle distances I have no doubt we'd have found her dead. As she was so close, I walked over and shot her again in the head.

I have also used the .44spl/200gr Gold Dot @ 800fps from my Super Blackhawk to take both whitetails and mulies. They died. Fast.
 
When I was 11 I used to try and go after coyotes with my pellet gun. Luckily I never got close enough to hit one. I feel that was an inappropriate weapon for the task I was trying to accomplish.
 
When I was a kid, I discovered that the box propped up with a stick with a long string attached never works, even after 746 attempts. Various lasso's and the like are inefficient also.
 
You don't think a 243 is good for elk?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY0w1c-gf18

This is one long shot, and made with a 243. For all of us naysayers, this is proof that elk can be taken over 200 yards with a 243. There are other videos on youtube by this same outfit. I have a small bit of suspicion that another shooter made the shot, but then again, what do I know? I ran the ballistics on JBM and the remaining energy at that distance is just under 1200 ft. lbs. of energy, the bareassed minimum according to experts, for taking elk.
 
You know, I was thinking more of an incidental "it was the gun I had" type thing when I started this thread, not a confession booth for people who purposely chose a poor tool for the job.
 
Let's see here...

A couple years ago I took a running buck from about 75yds with a Chinese AK chambered in .223Rem. 6 pointer weighing just under 160lbs dressed. Neck shot - it flipped over in mid leap and died where it landed. Entry wound the size of a .223 bullet - exit wound the size of my hand.

A couple years before that I took a smaller buck - 4 pointer weighing about 100lbs dressed - with a custom 1911. 5" barrel, 230gr JHP - shot taken at 20yds. Head shot - the deer died where it stood.

Last year one of my neighbors took an 8 point buck with a .38sp revolver - 6.5" barrel. Weighed in at about 140lbs dressed - 15 yd shot he said - one bullet to the vitals and the buck ran 25yds then died.

All of these deer were whitetails.
 
I think of it as more of a, where are you, distance, size of game, ect. I had a friend in college who bought a .300 weatherby mag. He talked me into going hunting with him and he got a pretty decent sized deer with that CANNON of a gun. Now arkansas isnt known for their huge deer and this deer was maybe 60 yards to say the most. It was way overkill. There was way overkill on the shoulder, well there was no shoulderS. Flipped the deer in the air. I've killed deer at 100 yards with my .270 wsm and they dropped right where they stood. Its just not ethical to use that big of a gun. If you were hunting elk, mulies, bears or whatever from 200+ maybe so but a mid size deer from 60 or so yards, come on.
 
I'll share a couple of " It was what I had at the time" sort of events.

1. Antelope hunting, prairie dogs, 7MM Mag, hot loaded 140 gr. Ballistic Tips, bad for prairie dogs.

2. .22 Hornet, white-tail doe, 50 yards, shot her in white patch as she looked at me, dropped her, but on cleaning VERY under-impressed with the damage done, I think if I had run up to her and cut her throat she would have soon gotten back up and run away to die later.

3. Again .22 Hornet, squirrels, kills them but messy, takes a head completely off without knocking them out of tree, weird.

4. 7MM Mag, hot loaded ballistic tip again, coyote at about 30 yards. Dropped instantly, when I picked it up its off side leg stayed on ground. Tough on the pelt.
 
22lr sniper rifle

Were I live I have seen guys take white tails with a 22lr and a maglite at night. One shot one kill. Of course these gentlemen don't bother to buy a tag and take deer year around.:rolleyes:
 
I know a few who have shot deer with a .22 LR and light, also they "miss" some. Obviously missed because they ran off, but I have found carcasses in the woods with bullet holes in face, or jaws broken too.
 
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