Perspective

[BlindSquirrel]

I love reading debates about rifles brands, models, calibers, bullets, etc. from people, many with a lot of enthusiasm. I'm no expert, but the order of importance for making a clean kill might be as follows:

1. The nut behind the trigger - by far the biggest factor -- includes knowing the capabilities of yourself, the rifle, and the cartridge, knowing the range, knowing when and when not to shoot, good shot placement, etc.
2. The bullet design/composition
3. The cartridge/caliber and its capability (energy, "knockdown power", mass, diameter, etc)
4. The rifle brand, bolt vs. auto, synthetic vs. wood, blued vs. stainless, trigger feel and pull

I'm probably missing many things here. Maybe #2 and #3 should be switched?

One of my pet peeves that is down the list is trigger pull -- I hate rifles with heavy triggers -- which many manufacturers felt the need to make for a number of years. The last few years they have come back to sanity a bit regarding trigger pull.

Obviously, there are a wide range of bullets, cartridges, and calibers that will work for most situations -- and #1 is so far above, the others pale in comparison. With the majority of deer/elk shots well under 300 yards -- #1 is the overriding factor. When it comes to longer distances, a rangefinder is required, as many people estimate distances like they estimate fish weights !

For a highly skilled person at long range -- some of the subtleties become more important.

Even so, it's fun to read about people's opinions of rifles, etc -- as people are different, with different applications, and like to have the "best" gun -- both functionally and aesthetically -- that they can afford -- hence so many options. It is great to have those options!



My ,
BlindSquirrel

[toas243]

Me too ,I harvested a Prong horn last week with a very small caliber ( some would say to small ) ,but with one shot it dropped the Pronhorn @ 370 yards ,I used my .204 Ruger using a factory loads of a 45 grn bullit ,Note Montana allows you to use any caliber for hunting

Now for trigger pull some gun`s need a little love in the trigger dept.

[ehunter]

I agree as normal guy with no reloading skills and no military training I am happy with my 3 rifles and have killed deer with them all 243, 308 and 06. I also use the core lokts that are terrible and I have used the 150 grain on my last 12 deer seen 3 elk killed with the same o6 and bullet all one shot kills. I have been worrying that I need a magnum so I can take those 400 yard shots that I have never needed to take so that I can.

[anschutz1913]

Well, i think that you have it mostly right. I shoot on the rifle team for the Univ. of Kentucky, and am on the national development team for rifle. I shortened the list a bit, but it includes mostly the same stuff. Here is my list in order of importance:

1; the shooter--can you hold the rifle still enough, break a clean shot (squeeze the trigger), control your nerves and focus, and if outdoors, can you read the wind?

2: is the gun shooting well enough: this is 2 factors, the barrel, and the ammo. Each barrel will prefer a certain lot, brand, lot of certain brand...and maybe only at certain torques. Different torques will change group sizes, as well as other factors like humidity, temperature, altitude, etc.

Proof of this stuff in action in the field was during my youth antelope hunt several years ago. I could shoot under 1'' groups at 300 yards prone with a 22-250 65 or 70 grain bullet, i do not remember, but with the 30-06, I could barely keep it in a paper plate, at 200. Although i wanted to shoot the heavier gun for the antelope, I thought that with a heavy enough bullet grain, and a gun that i could absolutely hammer with, that was the better choice. And it was:
I dropped a 14 inch buck with heavy mass at 423 yards after a 2000 yard stalk.