Are most hunters over gunned

[marksman13]

https://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthread.php?18918-Very-Sad-Hunt

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=832880


https://forum.gon.com/threads/6-5-grendel-on-deer-results.887539/


I tried finding bad experiences deer hunting with 30-06, couldnt find any.

It’s called confirmation bias. I see plenty of deer lost to 30-06, 270 Win and 35 Whelen every year. I don’t remember the last deer that I shot with a rifle and didn’t recover and that includes everything from a 223 to a 300 Win Mag. I’ve killed more pigs than I can count with a 223, 6.8 SPC and 6.5 Grendel and I honestly don’t remember the last time I shot a pig that I didn’t recover. Learn to put bullets in vital areas and the cartridge you choose just won’t matter any more inside of 200 yards.

 

[marksman13]

https://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthread.php?18918-Very-Sad-Hunt

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=832880


https://forum.gon.com/threads/6-5-grendel-on-deer-results.887539/


I tried finding bad experiences deer hunting with 30-06, couldnt find any.

Also, after reading the links you provided one thing is abundantly clear, it didn’t matter one bit what those posters were shooting because they made enough other poor choices.

In the first link, the shooter was using a bullet that is made to fragment and dump energy on impact and thus, gives very little penetration. He was never going to find a blood trail with that load. Second, he could have called for a dog and probably collected his deer. It’s really that simple. Thirdly, we don’t know where he actually hit that deer because he didn’t recover it. Shot placement could have been just as much to blame as the cartridge.

Second scenario is much the same. We have no clue where those two deer were hit because the hunter did not recover the deer. Again, a dog likely could have recovered those deer and we’d have a lot more to work with as far as shot info. Maybe he made a great shot. Maybe he didn’t. We’ll never know. Can’t blame the cartridge without having all the facts.

Third link wouldn’t open, but I feel like it’s probably similar to the first two.

I have a buddy with tracking dogs and he keeps logs of cartridges involved with the deer he’s called to track. To date, none have a significant lead on the others when it comes to wounded, non-recovered deer. Most of the deer he’s called to track fall into one of three categories. The hunter is a very young or very inexperienced shooter. The shot was taken at a range outside the hunter’s comfort zone. Or, the deer was running when the shot was taken. In almost every case, the hunter blames the rifle, the cartridge or the scope when the real issue is software and not hardware.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Big holes usually cause blood trails no matter where they are hit. This doesn’t mean the blood trail won’t dry up and it really doesn’t mean a dead animal will be nearby but it does indicate a hit was at least made. That, at the very least, gives you something that you may not otherwise have with smaller caliber cartridges.

Shot placement still matters.

FWIW, I have laughably high standards for my cartridges. I know this but still I analyze and critique using impossible metrics.

For instance, I want my hits to DRT the game every time as long as the bullet hits vitals. I don’t care if it is a double lunger or a headshot. Yes, this ignores the anatomical and biological rules of how animals die. I don’t care. These are my own rules and they are paramount to me for making sure I collect my game. I hunt for food and very little else.

Shot placement and big holes. I know I am overgunned. Why isn’t everyone else?

 

[Hugger-4641]

Killed this deer about 8yrs ago. This is the exit of a 300wm Precision Hunter at 120yds. I lost no meat on this deer and didn’t have to track it. But if I had to track it, that hole was gonna keep leaking heavily.

 

[tarosean]

IMO, these calibers are more than adequate, but in the big picture are on the lower end of the scale when measured against some of the much more powerful rifles in common use for the same applications.

Course its not like you have 400# Mulies down in FL Most of my rifles woulfd be overkill for the itty bitty TX whitetails in my pasture.

 

[Chuck R.]

Just one guys opinion on the smaller calibers and blood trails:

https://www.outdoorlife.com/guns/6-...Emi7LN8Z82Y_ktxQQKVxKLhHx1tPG9vrp29iwJDeIQIaQ

For years now we’ve heard from rifle and ammo manufacturers that the 6.5 Creedmoor is their most popular cartridge. It’s an excellent round for open country, and it’s found its way into plenty of Midwestern and Eastern deer camps, too. But there’s one consideration that’s become a head scratcher. A whole bunch of deer hunters are reporting sub-par blood trails from deer—even well-hit deer—shot with their 6.5 Creeds.

Just ask full-time Wisconsin blood-tracker Dean Muthig, who has put his Bavarian mountain scent hounds on 230 deer tracks so far this season. Many of his calls over the years have been from parents who need help recovering deer during the youth rifle season. Not because their kids are making poor shots—Muthig says younger hunters seem to shoot just as accurately as adults. Instead, it’s because they tend to use smaller calibers like a .243—and the 6.5 Creedmoor. It’s not that these kids aren’t killing deer. They just can’t find them.

“The kid made a great shot, but it’s just one of those things where the deer didn’t bleed at all,” says Muthig, who’s been tracking for 17 years. “The 6.5 Creedmoor is like a .243 where—they kill deer, don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of people who kill deer with them. But they just don’t leave a blood trail, hardly ever. And it’s just because it’s such a small entry hole … It’s the size of a pencil, and a lot of times the bullets go in and expand and there’s no exit, and nowhere for the blood to go. … Or if it does exit, there’s not a lot of room for blood to get out. Running deer cover a lot of ground fast, so you can end up with really minimal blood in the course of a few hundred yards.”