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Old 11-12-2007, 12:14 AM
skeet skeet is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Northwest Wyoming
Posts: 4,614
Pot Stirring

I'm gonna stir your pot a little...maybe. It isn't just hitting the target(animal) that is the part ya have to worry about. It is hitting it in the vitals with enough energy to do the job. Not everyone may be the shot you seem to be...or worry about making that incredibly long shot. The 257 Weatherby is a nice cartridge for long range antelope or deer(and I consider 400-450 to be a very long range on a game animal) but it sure ain't a long range elk or moose caliber. Couple hundred yards max in the hands of an excellent shot. Elk take a lot of killing sometimes. So do big mulies. And forget the 257 on griz. especially with the new griz...the ones that aren't afraid of humans. Weatherby and others used those calibers to kill those game animals...but ya never heard anything bad about those stunts. An elephant with the 257 was just that... a stunt to sell rifles. I read some of the old magazines where people shot bears lions and tigers et al with the 22 Savage Hi Power. Some people got hurt doing it. There was a big hype about the 250-3000 being death on anything years ago. Sales hype, too. Used to be a saying in the car racing industry years ago...Cubic inches win most all the time. Holds true today even with firearms..bigger is better within reason..... as shorter yardage is better too. Except for bears I'd just as soon have 'em in my lap when I shoot. BTW welcome to the site. Lots of nice people here.. Good info also. And we all learn from the new folks too. Welcome aboard

Maybe I should say that the longest shot I ever made(or attempted) on a game animal was an antelope at a bit better than 450 yds. I was confident in my ability to hit it and for the cartridge to kill it. I was used to shooting those yardages on ground hogs and foxes at that time shooting a couple thousand rounds or so a year at critters. Hit most of 'em too. Turned down a shot the other evening on a nice Muley at about 200 yds though. He was in the field eating with the cow critters. About a 30 inch 4X4 too. Eating right next to the ol' prize bull....which ain't mine!!
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Last edited by skeet; 11-12-2007 at 12:24 AM.
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