- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,341
What is the best round for your target species?
The simple answer is that there not one single “best” round/rifle/bullet/scope for your target species. For deer sized animals just about any center fire is capable of cleanly killing a deer. They are soft, thin skinned and lightly built. The “perfect” deer rifle in the Pennsylvania woods is most likely not the perfect rifle in wide open sagebrush country of southern Wyoming. However either can be made to work in either location.
IMO it’s not until we start thinking about dangerous game and in particular thick skinned dangerous game that we need to seriously consider minimum and adequate caliber, velocity, bullet weight and construction. And that is because we’ve now entered into a realm where inadequate terminal performance even with optimal shot placement can mean injury or death to the humans involved in the hunt.
In my home state 6MM is the smallest legal diameter for hunting big game. So 6MM and up is the answer for what’s the “best” deer cartridge in my area. Same with bullets on deer sized and critters. Just about anything will work, light for caliber, heavy for caliber, cup and core to ultra premium controlled expansion and even hard cast solids where legal.
Would I use a 100 Gr 6MM ballistic tip on a moose or an elk? No I would not, but If it was all I had I would make it work.
The simple answer is that there not one single “best” round/rifle/bullet/scope for your target species. For deer sized animals just about any center fire is capable of cleanly killing a deer. They are soft, thin skinned and lightly built. The “perfect” deer rifle in the Pennsylvania woods is most likely not the perfect rifle in wide open sagebrush country of southern Wyoming. However either can be made to work in either location.
IMO it’s not until we start thinking about dangerous game and in particular thick skinned dangerous game that we need to seriously consider minimum and adequate caliber, velocity, bullet weight and construction. And that is because we’ve now entered into a realm where inadequate terminal performance even with optimal shot placement can mean injury or death to the humans involved in the hunt.
In my home state 6MM is the smallest legal diameter for hunting big game. So 6MM and up is the answer for what’s the “best” deer cartridge in my area. Same with bullets on deer sized and critters. Just about anything will work, light for caliber, heavy for caliber, cup and core to ultra premium controlled expansion and even hard cast solids where legal.
Would I use a 100 Gr 6MM ballistic tip on a moose or an elk? No I would not, but If it was all I had I would make it work.