a great deal of your ability to consistently and effectively hit game, and do lethal damage to game,
is related to cost, of the gun and its ammo, that ammo availability , and your ability to hit accurately consistently, matters.
consistent practice, and in many cases frequent practice and, YOUR, proper use of a recoil pad and sling,
makes a great deal of practice and your ability to save cost's by reloading so you can shoot and practice with far more often.
here is a very short list of cartridges I consistently find very effective with the correct ammo.
the
highlighted three, cartridges, I have used and found excellent for 6 decades while hunting deer and elk,
almost exclusively in rough rolling mountain country covered in aspen, conifer and oak brush, where shots ,or even game seen,
at over 300 yards were VERY RARE!
I WILL TAKE THE TIME TO POINT OUT SOMETHING most people will ignore!
almost all the mule deer and elk our group have harvested for 6 decades were shot at ranges under 160 yards, shots made at over 200 were and still are very rare simply because you can not often see game any further in the area we hunt.
for 6 decades every trip we made out to COLORADO,NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ,IDAHO, and WYOMING , to hunt elk and mule deer ,,one thing was almost without exception, something we did every year, we brought a BACK-UP or secondary rifle when we hunted so that if someone's scope fogged or their rifle became non-operable they would not be weaponless and they would have a dependable back-up in the truck that they could use, for the first 25-27 years that was a MARLIN 1895 in 45/70 with a 2x7x scope sighted in to hit 3.5" high at 100 yards with am 405 grain, hard cast gas check bullet,( 52 grains of Varget powder or 45 grains of RL7)for the next 30 plus years the camp back-up was either that marlin 1895 ,45/70 or a browning BLR chambered in 358 WIN also sighted in at 3.5" high at 100 yards with, a 250 grain SPEER bullet over 44 grains of Imr
4064 and a 3x/9x scope, both rifles used federal 215 primers, and there were a very surprising number of elk and mule deer harvested with those back-up rifles and as a result a significant number of people in our group learned that those rifles did an excellent job in the area we hunt and the people who used those (BACK-UP RIFLES) frequently bought and now hunt with almost identical rifles because they worked very effectively in the area we hunt on big mule deer and elk at the ranges and under the conditions we hunt.
much of the area looks similar to these pictures I found posted elsewhere
270 win
30/06 sprng
358 win.
35 Whelan
340 WBY
375 H&H
45/70
450 marlin
now obviously this is a bit tongue in cheek,
because different areas may require different equipment,
and if you watch most videos or out door shows,
or read most hunting magazines,
you might get the idea most elk and mule deer are usually shot at long distance in open grass lands.
While this is true in some areas,
,its certainly not true for many areas I've hunted over 5 decades, most of the guys I started hunting elk with,
advised...
why are YOU so dependent on your WEATHERBY RIFLE,
I don't know how you may go about selecting your ideal hunting rifle,
but the looks and the feel when you shoulder the rifle,
,how its fit and how naturally the sights seem to line up and how easy and naturally you can work the action almost without thinking goes a long way.
and obviously the cartridge its chambered in must have the power and have the reach or flat trajectory to allow you to make any reasonable shot at anything like a reasonable angle and range that your likely to encounter in the field hunting, for the...
