Disagree totally with your opinion...and basing my opinion on what I have actually shot, not hear say..as stated in another post regarding mountain rifles...

If one uses the proper bullet and shot placement is correct, a 300 Win will kill cleanly ANY animal that walks the mountains anywhere in the world. As in a lot of these threads, much of this is subjective to the ability of the hunter/shooter, bullet construction, etc...

Guess my point is,if you place a shot through the lungs or heart of any animal, they are going to die, period. Quite often, as often published, the hunter makes a poor shot and then the caliber gets blamed..remember reading on another thread on this site of a hunter that had gone to Africa and used a 340 Weatherby for plains game---wounded an animal, and then blamed the caliber..BS, is what that is...he made a crappy shot....

As to calibers:

Light--I would used a.257 Weatherby--flat shooting, small enought for little guys and large enough to take an elk if needed...fact is, Roy Weatherby used one to take a cape buffalo, an extreme example but done none the less..really not much more extreme than a .275 used for elephant..

Medium--300 or 338 Ultra-mag----can handle up to anything below elephant if needed...

Heavy---.416 is my favorite--but if limited to just one would probably choose the .458 Lott.

Ripp