- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,341
I think the answer is most definitely yes. The advances we've had in bullet quality in the last 20 years has made the choice of caliber far less important that it used to be. When you read Taylor and his take on caliber choice you must keep in mind that in his day they had two basic bullet choices. Full patch (solids) and exposed lead nose (soft point). The reason that he was such a proponent of high sectional density was that bullet of his day simply did hold together the way our wonderful controlled expansion bullets of today do.
Now on heavy, thick skinned, dangerous game such as cape buffalo, and elephant there is still much validity in using a heavy for caliber bullet even with new age controlled expansion and monolithic solids due to the need for as much straight line deep penetration as you can get. With that being said, it is my opinion that a quality controlled expansion bullet raises the effectiveness and usefulness of a given caliber up drastically when compared to a soft skinned cup and core bullet. the same can be said for bullet weight. In a .30-06 for instance a 150 gr controlled expansion bullet can be counted on to perform like a 180 or 200 gr traditional bullet and a 180 gr or 200 gr quality CE can be excepted to perform like a traditional bullet of similar sectional density in a .338 or similar. The same can be said for any just about any caliber.
Then we have the advances in chemistry that are making traditional calibers one step up in speed as well. The new powders being used for rounds such as the Hornandy Superformance line make an 06 into a .300H&H, a .300 WM into a .300 Weatherby ETC ETC..I wonder if there will comes a time when the case size becomes less relevant than the powder being used?
Now on heavy, thick skinned, dangerous game such as cape buffalo, and elephant there is still much validity in using a heavy for caliber bullet even with new age controlled expansion and monolithic solids due to the need for as much straight line deep penetration as you can get. With that being said, it is my opinion that a quality controlled expansion bullet raises the effectiveness and usefulness of a given caliber up drastically when compared to a soft skinned cup and core bullet. the same can be said for bullet weight. In a .30-06 for instance a 150 gr controlled expansion bullet can be counted on to perform like a 180 or 200 gr traditional bullet and a 180 gr or 200 gr quality CE can be excepted to perform like a traditional bullet of similar sectional density in a .338 or similar. The same can be said for any just about any caliber.
Then we have the advances in chemistry that are making traditional calibers one step up in speed as well. The new powders being used for rounds such as the Hornandy Superformance line make an 06 into a .300H&H, a .300 WM into a .300 Weatherby ETC ETC..I wonder if there will comes a time when the case size becomes less relevant than the powder being used?