Suggesting the only reason I or anyone else here "needs" a .460 is because we're a poor shot or we can't bloodtrail, is as foolish as dressing up in safari gear and shooting a domestic cow. BTW....one only needs a .22 for that too. Anything else is just overkill. Watched my dad and Grandpa do it all the time, did it myself a few times too. Just didn't post any pictures.
Personal, non-THR comments (against the rules) aside, I don't need to guess or speculate why folks are using the .460 on deer. Their words are right here for all to read. Since they have said that it is so deer expire more quickly, for whatever reasons or because it has a greater effective range, that is what I have responded to. There really is no argument here at all, because I have ALWAYS contended that speedier jacketed bullets put deer down more quickly. No need to get testy or personal just because you use the .460 in the capacity described. The words are on the screen. I guess folks want to choose the .460 for those reasons but they don't want to talk about it, I don't know.
One more time, you can choose to use the .460 for whatever reasons you choose, or none at all. My point here is that cartridges like the .460 and the 5lb guns that chamber it are not necessary to kill deer. I think we all agreed they are not.
If you'll read the post I quoted, you will see that it was implied that choosing a "lesser cartridge" was somehow related to poor shooting. Which makes no logical sense whatsoever.
Where I must set the record straight, is that there must be a reason for all these references to high fence ranches. I know that at least three of the .460 fanciers in this thread have hunted those places but I see that they are deafeningly silent here. For me, I have hunted high fence ranches three times in my life. THREE. One of those places I will never go back to, because it is like shooting fish in a barrel. I've been hunting wild critters with handguns since childhood and on my own property for 13yrs. So the number of free range, wild critters I've taken with handguns outnumbers those taken on high fence ranches by a HUGE margin. Let us dispense with all that rhetoric about shooting deer off feeders, behind high fences. That said, hunting water buffalo where I have hunted water buffalo is NOTHING like shooting cattle in a pasture. I've raised cattle off and on since childhood so I do have some frame of reference. It's also nothing like hunting Cape buffalo in Africa. It is somewhere in the middle. Which is fine because when your intent is to test bullets on game larger than deer, it's a good idea to do so somewhere in between those two extremes before spend $10-20,000 on a trip to Africa. It's usually a good idea to find out what your bullets and loads are going to do on a appropriately sized animal before putting your life and that of your outfitter in danger. No one involved has any delusions about what we're doing, far as I can tell. Apparently the only delusions exist with those who have never done it and would never do it. I will say that water buffalo do not have the same mentality as beef cattle. They don't like being hunted, they are often not easy to find and they will charge. So I take such inflammatory (and ignorant) comments as those above with a grain of salt but if you want to go after them with a .22LR, be sure to get good video.
As for "dressing up in safari gear", I needed a good laugh. 99% of my hunting clothes are suited to cool, if not cold weather. So I am fairly certain that the poly/cotton 5.11 Stryke pants I wore in Texas (and everywhere in the summer) are far more appropriate to 100° temperatures than wool pants. The thin cotton short sleeve shirt much cooler than my wool long sleeve shirts and coats. I learned a long time ago, working outdoors in hot & humid Florida, that a snug fitting cotton undershirt coupled with a lightweight collared shirt was far better for dealing with the heat/sweat than a T-shirt alone but you might think differently. The lightweight, ventilated Tilley fishing hat is also much better suited than a wool cap or felt hat. The full brim also protects the face and neck from the sun better than a ball cap. As Mark's friend found out, no hat at all is a bad idea when you're not accustomed to heat. Feel free to chase them in your Goretex lined boots if you like but I prefer lightweight, mid-top hiking boots. You may look at a picture and think you have everything figured out but I think we all see that your CNN-level assessment is not congruent with reality and purely driven by personal motives. But thanks for the fashion critique, I needed a good laugh.