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It is not meant
The point I am trying to make and evidently is not and was not clear is this.
Hunting is not the same every where even though the game might be 'deer'.
Shooting from a blind or tree stand at game, game that does not know you are there is way/far different than still hunting in the mountains or the prairie where the deer or game may see you when you are still a mile away -- where the hunter has to walk to the game rather than the other way around. If a bullet, load is awsome from a tree stand that does not make it a perfect deer round.
One of my favorite handloading wirters and I think one of the top experts in handloading makes recommendations on handloads for deer hunting. The loads he recommends would likely work very well from a tree stand or hunting close range. I don't think he has ever hunted the same areas as Elmer Keith though. Or if he did his recommendations do not seem to reflect it.
I know a guy who hunts with a 30-378 and uses heavy Sierra match-king bullets and he does well with it. He normally shoots his deer at a longer range than most people would even consider.
I suspect that the bullet might be traveling at less than 2,000 ft per second when it arrives. Is that a good deer load??? For him yes. Is it a good deer load to be recommended to others, IMO - no!
I think it is the same with many other deer loads, bullets, calibers etc. They might be great for one area or one type of hunting but to recommend that load as a good deer load often should be qualified, IMO.
I read an article on Elk hunting where the author said that using a 30-06 would be excellent in this one area for elk. In another area he recommended at least a 300 mag. Finally, he said in another area he felt a 338 Win Mag to be minimum. I have hunted elk in all the areas he talked about. I had the same feelings about those areas. In one area I carried a very light 308 Winchester, which some would say was way too light and they might have been right but the elk were much easier to shoot even though it was a ***** getting to where the elk were. In Colorado I have used a 350 Mag in the dog-hair pine and a 338 Win in the more open areas. I suspect that a 358 Win would have worked as well in the dog hair but I would not have wanted anything lighter than the 338 where I was hunting in the open. A friend however, hunts in the southern rockies of Colorado along the continental divide. He uses a 300 Weatherby mag and has averaged more than one elk for every year he has hunted.
I believe and strongly believe that deer hunting and elk hunting is similar in this one aspect. It aint the same everywhere!
I am not an 'expert' in hunting though and I have hunted for over 50 years. There are hunters that are better at hunting the areas that I hunt than me even my home town area.
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