ohhhhh my , message from bullberry

[Rocky Raab]

I hope I don't raise any hackles, but I agree completely with Fred. More power is NOT always better.

I was at the range the other day and three guys were shooting ultrawidesupermangleums. One of them asked me "What's the best caliber for shooting elk at 1000 yards?"

I said, "Get a 30-06 - and walk 700 yards closer."

He was pissed. He claimed that he and his Dad do it all the time. They often have to "walk" their shots in, but they get their elk.

I didn't ask how many he thought he gutshot and never recovered. But I did point out that even a 1mph change in the wind will move a bullet a foot or more at that range - and that's a gut shot.

(Oh by the way, both of them were struggling to keep their shots on a target at 200 yards.)

Paper ballistics and some magazine writers are tempting many, many shooters (I refuse to call them hunters) to attempt things that only one in a thousand guys can actually do. But every one of them thinks he's that one....

So a big thumbs up to Fred, and an echo from me.

Oh, BTW, Fred is also concerned with the safety margins of those extra fat cartridges. Make 'em one step fatter and the chamber walls will be as thin as tin foil. The design of the Encore and the older Contender make it impossible to make the barrels fatter. You cannot take away all that metal and operate at extreme pressures. That's why he'll chamber for something like a .338 but not a WSM.