Behind the front shoulder is where we put the bullet. Zero need to limit oneself to neck and or head shots!
The farthest we've taken small big game (deer, lopes, black bear) is 505 yards. One 60 Nozler Solid base behind the front and it took 2 steps and pitched over.
Far and away the big 22's are one of the most under rated killing machines that we have to use. I moved to Montana summer of 78, met a few guys who were using them back then. I took to using the same bullets that they mainly used (55 Horn w/c, 60 Horn sp and the 60 Horn HP, 63 Sierra SMP and the Nozler solid bases). Between those guys and my family and friends I can't even beging to guess how many head of big game from lopes to moose that we've taken.
This is a pretty sharp group of hunters, if these rounds weren't working then we wouldn't be using them.
Out to 500 yards on deer and lope's I see zero need for Premium bullets and or using the heavies.We've had such good success with the standard bullets that I mentioned that I just can't see how a heavier slug would do us any better. Now for steel between 500 and 1K absolutely they heavier slugs will out perform our standard bullets. But, we're mainly a bunch of hunters that love to get out there and get at it.
Not trying to be negative nellie here but it's always easy to spot those who've never actually used them, let alone seen 100's of head of game taken with the Big 22's. They'll be the ones throwing salt....grins
Killing is actually pretty darn easy and not in any the rocket science that most make it out to be.....
I have hunted most of my adult life with the Big 22's and if you said that's all I could ever use for anything that moves again I'd be just fine.