(personal opinion RANT!)
I own several rifles of reasonably heavy caliber,Ive killed a large number of game from deer, hogs, to elk , even a few wild steers weighing over 1500 lbs during 35 plus years of hunting, while theres guys with more and less experiance , I always take a great deal of time to look over the results of shots, Ive come to the conclusion that bullet weight,sectional density,jacket construction and SHOT PLACEMENT are more important the pushing the velocity for an extra few fps. every cartridge listed above will kill game if the shots placed correctly, that does not make any of them "ideal" the "ideal " cartridge must be able to drive a bullet completely thru the game in a strait line from any angle and from any reasonable range that its likely to be used at even if major bones are hit and still exit without vering from the intended path. only then can the hunter be sure that the rifle will always be capable of delivering a fatal blow on the first shot if the hunter does his part (shot placement, and getting in reasonably close for accurate target aquirement)
since the bullet does 100% of the damage to the target, it seems foolish to me that we spend so much time argueing about rifles, and spend so little time by comparison on bullet construction, and precise bullet placement. personally Ive found that bullets that weight at least 200-300 grains and have at least a .260-.280+ sectional density (the higher the better) with thick jacket construction that are used within ranges that allow precise bullet placement, and that are pushed to velocities resulting in at least 1800fps ON IMPACT will get the job done correctly on most game.
you can pick the rifle or cartridge of your choice if those guide lines are used and youll seldom have any problems.
put another way,if your bullets don,t expand and exit from any angle and range your hunting from on the game you hunt the combo in use is not "ideal" even if 99% of the game shot dies,because almost any game can be killed with almost any centerfire rifle, that alone does not make the choice appropriate.
if youve read my screen name youll see my choice for 80% of my hunting, does that make my choice the only correct one, of course not! but I think youll find that similar cartriges like the 300mags,338 win, 375 H&H will cover a very wide range of game if the correct bullets are used in a rifle firing those cartridges in the hands of a careful hunter, and when you don,t follow those guide lines your limiting the usefulness of your choice due to range,or more limited target angles to achive a fatal first shot
