I have shot a lot of deer and antelope with the 223, 22-250 and .243..they are hamburger machines, they bloodshot the hell out of a deer size animal and ruin a lot of meat..

A 375 or 416 will bloodshoot a baseball size area and punch a caliber size hole in and out and kill very quickly..take your pick...

I have killed Buffalo with the 7x57, 8x57, 30-06 and .308 and they do not die very quickly unless the brain or spine is hit with a solid. and sometimes the spine shot doesn't work as well as expected..A heart lung shot Buffalo with one of the lighter calibers just simply lives too long and if that length of time is expended on hunting you then you have problems..Many of those farmers etc. that you speak of ended up pushing up daisies or recovering from wounds, otherwise all the professional hunters in Africa would be using small caliber rifles...

Bottom line is believe only half of what you read and hear on killing game animals, but use enough gun, or someday you will loose a fine game animal because you got too cocky...