Everybody is always asking what caliber is adequate for deer or elk, etc. My opinion is that if a decent bullet is used at a range you have practiced at, and the deer is hit in the vitals most any caliber will do. I have killed deer with various 22's, and if shots have been fairly short, they do fine. My favorite has been 7 MM Rem with 154 Gr. Hornady resulting in instant kills almost every time at ranges from 25 yds. to ranges that I'd get flamed at for shooting. The longest tracking job with recovery I've had was on a Muley in Wyoming a couple years ago which I shot with a 300 Win through both lungs. The only deer I've lost was shot with a bow. The longest tracking job I've had on elk has been 30 or 40 yds., including one shot with a 243.

I have helped other track elk for miles with no recovery; most of these were poorly shot with either a 30-06 or a 300 Mag.

Shot placement with the right bullet is the key to fast kills. For example, there was an old Native lady in Alaska who killed a brown bear with a .22LR. She was not hunting, but happened to see the bear at close range before the bear saw her. She hit it on the soft bone by the ear, the bear dropped, and she emptied the rifle on the same spot.



There was a guy in Anchorage, a year ago, who killed a young moose with his pellet gun. He would normally scare moose away from his yard by shooting them with his pellet gun, but this time the pellet passed through the ribs and hit the lungs. The moose bled to death internally in his yard. He got in big trouble with F&G over killing this moose, and most Alaskans thought he was a moron for killing the moose in his yard, since moose are all over people's yards up here.



Most of the moose I have shot with my .338WM have dropped from one well placed shot, from 100 yards to 325 or so. However, it does not mean that the .338-caliber is the fastest killing. I have seen moose shot with .375's, .7mm's, .300's, .338's, and the .30-06. Some have dropped fast, and some have walked for a while. All depends on how lethal the shot has been, that's all.

I think shot placement is the most important thing when talking of how effective one chambering is over another. If a gun is shootable by the hunter, and they place a shot well, then it is a degree of how much dammage is done. I once shot a big doe high a a bit far back just catching the lungs. She went about 100yds and dropped. I alos once shot a big buck at about 125yds and hit in that area you hear people talk of above the lungs but not hitting the spine. Buck dropped from the shock of the 225gr sierra starting out at 2830fps. Each animal is differant.

Ray: I remember a Native lady picking berries with her kid near Lesser Slave Lake who shot what at that time was the #1 Grizzly. She used a 22 Long if I remember correctly. I've got the story and pictures some where.

JD: That may be the same story I told, except that I didn't know she was berry picking. All I remember is that she used a .22LR rifle, and shot it by the ear killing it. I saw pictures of the skull in the Internet a few years back, with the tiny six or seven holes on the bone by the ear.