All hunting camps begin with a tale that runs in the same manner: a clean rifle, a steady rest, etc., and a cartridge that ought to be sufficient. The movie tends to conclude with a long take, a wobbly second shot, or a hunter desiring that he/she had brought along a few more rounds.
Big game cartridges do not break on paper as much as they break in the ugly middle- odd angles, heavy bone, and animals which do not stand still. And although I argue with impact energy like a campfire religion, the terminal performance it actually delivers is what counts at the ranges and angles that the hunt is actually doing. According to one writer on ballistics, it is not the energy that kills an animal.
All of these cartridges have their good purposes. The issue begins when they are required to work in areas that they were not designed to work.
1. .223 Remington
Its popularity with the.223 Remington is due to the fact that it is an accurate round, shoots well, and is amenable in lightweight rifles. At 55 grains or so at about 3,200 fps it may appear on a ballistic chart like a rifle. The constraints are manifested quickly on large-bodied animals: small wound tracks, inadequate shoulder bone margins, and poor penetration when the shot angles become erroneous. Bullet building assists, yet it does not reprogram the fundamental maths of the cartridge, there is very little mass to continue propelling as soon as growth is initiated. That may make a plan that would be a perfect broad side in the field a tracking problem when the animal turns at the shot.
2. 5.56×45 NATO
Due to its similarity to.223 Remington in bullet diameter, 5.56 NATO tends to be mistakenly treated as interchangeable. Not always, but on big game the effect of practice is the same: the same frontal area of small size and limited weight of bullets to the task. Even using more bulky bullets, the performance is narrow-window-performance the heavy reliance placed on perfect presentation, controlled ranges and precise placement. In places where there are minimums, the cartridge is often found on the wrong side of the line, a fact that is often a wakeup to many wildlife agencies as they develop regulations to mirror what they think will happen rather than a best scenario.
3. .22-250 Remington
The .22-250 is a speedy pistol, which normally shoots light bullets at over 3,800 fps. The flat arch that is on it makes it deadly on varmints and a delight on windy days when little game is the game. But “fast” isn’t the same as “deep.” In big game the bullets in the cartridge open violently, and lose their inertia even before attaining any distance, particularly when they strike heavy muscle or bone. Here angles of shot are important as distance: a broadside rib shot and a quartering shot are two entirely different penetration issues, and the .22-250 is designed to do the easier one.
4. .243 Winchester
The Winchester 243 is on the fringe of the big-game discussion. It is a time-tested deer and pronghorn cartridge using 90- to 100-grain bullets and its low recoil can assist in the real world. Things begin to go wrong as hunters extend it into the territory of elks and moose and hope the cartridge will offer a pardon. One of the most famous examples of the field sums up the danger: he shot it nine times and it died. It is not an insult to any individual hunter; it is what occurs when a cartridge has to be placed in ideal circumstances to remain ethical. In bigger game, a deeper penetration and a harder bullet is a necessity and in some cases, that cannot be consistent with a .243.
5. 7.62×39mm
The 7.62 39mm is reliable, not very high recoil, and has a close range with normal loads of approximately 123-grain bullet of about 2350 fps. Within woods ranges, it is able to hunt deer with proper bullets and proper restraint. The weakness it has on big game hunters is in downrange authority and penetration of heavy animals. Speed decays remarkably, and so does the impact velocity upon which most hunting bullets require to depend to enlarge with any consistency and to reach the vitals. Beyond the normal brush-country limit this cartridge may well be a trade-off which does not announce itself until the time it counts.
6. .30 Carbine
30 Carbine was no longer built to punch big game, but rather to use as a convenient military carbine. The way it usually shoots, between 110 and 115 grains at approximately 1990 fps, places it in the realm of hot handguns compared with current big-game rifle games.
That appears as a short range of effectiveness and low penetration reserve. Even in close, it may be tempting as it carries so easily and shoots so fast, but on big game the cartridge does not always provide the depth that one needs when the gun cuts through heavy bone, or when one must shoot around a muscle. There is such thing as convenience; there is such thing as performance ceiling.
7. .17 HMR
The .17 HMR is an accurate aiming instrument on small targets. Usual loads, a 17-grain bullet at about 2,550 fps, cause it to become flat and precise to its category, with very little recoil. However, its muzzle power is a third of that of centerfire cartridges, and the bullet mass is insufficient to pierce though the vitals of large game animals. It is that gap which can not be filled with marksmanship. It is a great rimfire to the task it is intended to perform, but a bad selection when the animal on the opposite end is in hundreds of pounds.
The trend is the same in all seven: the cartridges fail when stretched beyond their design limits; they have inadequate bullet weight, inadequate penetration margin, or inadequate performance at the impact distance. The cleaner standard is easy and long-lasting: use a cartridge-and-bullet combination and adjust it to probable shot angles, probable range, and construction of the animal being hunted, and check via field positions. The cartridge makes the hun easier when it carries enough of a reserve that perfect is not the only option that would be ethical.
