by David E. Petzal
For something like three decades, every summer I would go and visit for a long weekend with Jim Carmichel. We would swap lies, swat flies, shoot groundhogs, and admire his gun collection which, trust me, was worth admiring. One year, he had a sheep hunt coming up shortly, and I asked him which rifle he planned to use.
“Whatever I’ve loaded ammo for,” he said. That was the end of the discussion. He ended up taking his Clayton Nelson-stocked .280 and killed a sheep with it. Jim had long previously discovered the first truth about successfully shooting animals, which is:
Any real difference in cartridges, on game, exists only in in gun writer copy or your fevered imagination.
In 50 or so years of writing about guns and hunting, I have fervently looked for some sort of magic among our kaleidoscope of cartridges, and come up with almost nothing. Bullets, yes. I’ve come across a fair number of genuinely rotten bullets, and a handful that are superb. But cartridges? Go away. Leave me alone.
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Tough bullets are better than squishy bullets.
Above all things, you want penetration. If your bullet comes apart, you better know how to track.
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Premium bullets are worth the money.
If you would like to see your PH’s care-worn face light up with joy, tell him you’re shooting Swift A-Frames.
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Disregarding my earlier precept, the .338 is the most effective big game cartridge I’ve ever used.
