My brother's boss recently took him and his wife to Africa to see the animals. He said the guides carried .458 lever action rifles. Just the thought of it makes my ears hurt, I'm assuming the things were heavy enough to absorb some recoil. Supposedly that gun can stop an elephant. The bore on it is nearly the size of a 20 gauge shotgun. Talk about "enough gun."
I have this fantasy ambition of killing a deer with an atlatl. There's so much else I want to do, and I'm getting older now, that I'm skeptical about finding the time to actually become skilled enough to fulfill that dream, though. I think I will get to the point of constructing the atlatl, after that, I'll see where it goes.