There are a couple things to consider here.
1. Maybe your Edge saved your rear on the poor shot placement? Perhaps if you had been using a lesser rifle you would not have gotten the penetration you did and your deer may easily have covered a mile instead of 1/4 mile. Could have been much worse.
2. We are all humans. If someone tells you they have never made a bad shot they either are flat out lying to your face or they have not shot at much game. I find its usually around 50-50 between these two. Big heavy bullets will get you out of a tight spot better then a light fast bullet, nearly EVERY TIME. That is why the 338 caliber is recommended as minimum for elk at long range.
3. We need to determine what long range hunting is for each specific person as its varies wildly from hunter to hunter. I ask every customer that I talke to that wants one of my rifles alot of specific questions about how they hunt, where they hunt, how far they want to hunt and what they hunt. My recommendations for each customer is generally different. Personally, 500 yards is an easy shot, not bragging, just a fact. I shoot at 1000 yards at least several times a week. I have rifles that I have built in some of the most ballistically potent chamberings on the planet and I know them well. I would call 300 yards and under close range. I would say 300-700 yards is moderate range and 700 to 1000 yards as long range and +1000 yards as extreme range shooting. In my PERSONAL opinion, I have no reason to shoot at game past 1500 yards EVER. Just me.
The 338 Edge with a 300 gr SMK which I prefer over the 300 gr Berger simply because its proven over many years, is a specialty chambering and load designed in my opinion for long to extreme range big game hunting. This combo is not suited for close range hunting(Sub300 yards). It works fine for moderate range hunting but even out to 700 yards, the 225 or 250 gr Accubond would likely be my recommended bullet over the SMK.
At plus 700 yards, hitting the target becomes much more difficult. You want the advantage of the higher BC to help counter windage errors. Again, putting the bullet where you need to is the most important at any range, but at ranges past 700 yards, it becomes dramatically more difficult to do so the bigger bullets with the higher BC helps make this easier. Again, a 338 caliber hole through both lungs equals a big game animal in the back of the truck. A 338 cal hole through one lung gives you a long tracking job. Remember also that an exit in the paunch will almost always seal off instantly with belly fat or other internal organs. The skin around the paunch is also very elastic and often results in very small exit wounds even if the bullet IS fully expanded.
My points are simple, do your best to put your bullet on the mark, use a bullet(Not chambering) that is appropriate for the ranges you will be hunting and the game you are hunting and you will have very few tracking jobs.
I do not believe, IN ANY WAY, that you can be overgunned as long as you use the correct bullet for the job at hand. Here is an example, last fall in Oklahoma on my whitetail hunt. We hunted this big deer for 4 days solid. Knew the area he was at the whole time but never saw him in the food plots. 4th morning he snuck in behind us and we saw him jump into a small patch of bush. I had nothing but my 16 lb Raptor in 338 Allen Xpress loaded with the 300 gr SMK at 2960 fps.
A couple of the guides and the ranch owner pushed through the brush and the big buck came out at around 100 yards at a full run. First shot was a miss, second shot was a miss, by this time the buck was right at 300 yards which we later found out. he was not quatering away very badly, third shot landed just ahead of the ham, took out the spine and exited right on the last couple ribs on the off side. Buck fell to the shot but was not done. He could get up on his front legs. A quick followup shot put a 300 gr SMK through both shoulders and it was over.
Now at 300 yards, this load dumped nearly 4700 ft/lbs of energy into this buck and had I not hit the spine on this deer on the third shot, it would have likely made it over ALOT of ground inspite of OBVIOUS expansion. The follow up shot broke both shoulders and the 300 gr SMK was just under the skin on the off side in a mangled mess of lead and copper but it had done its job perfectly.
Was that the right rifle for the job, certainly not, my lightweight 7mm AM would have been MUCH better for this, simply because the rifle is MUCH better for running shots and the much faster TOF would have helped in hitting this full running buck, BUT, was I overgunned with the rifle I had, certainly not, in my opinion, the SMK performed MUCH better then I was expecting it to as I was asking alot of it at this range.
If you want to shoot at close to moderate range with a 338 Edge, there is no problem at all doing this but you have to put some thought into the bullet your asking to do the work for you. That said, even though I feel one of the Accubonds would have been a much better choice for the range you were shooting, it would not have shortened your tracking job any and possibly it could have even been farther.
We all make a poor shot from time to time, it happens. No one is perfect, NO ONE. But, when we make a mistake and we make a bad shot placement, it would be refreshing to hear more of us blame ourselves then blame the bullet we were shooting.
Also, the Berger bullets are brand new. I have never put one in a big game animal and I have shot several hundred of the 300 gr VLDs already. Until we get a good amount of field data about their use on big game, your taking some what of a chance using them in the field simply because they are not a proven design yet.
Unless your in a position where you know you will be hunting at ranges past 1/2 mile, you may be better served with a lighter bullet but remember that in this class of rifle, the lighter the bullet, especially in a conventional cup jacketed design, generally the less penetration you will get and if you really run up the velocity, that penetration will drop even more. Lots to think about, that is why long range hunting is such a specialized sport. Conventional range hunting, that out to 500 yards, really is not, most anything will work if set up properly, that is not the case for long range hunting at all.
If this sounds like a speech, I am sorry but I get dozens of guys a year saying they had bullet failure or poor bullet performance with a given brand of bullet but then find out later that their biggest problem was shot placement and that does annoy me a bit. As said many times, we all make bad shots from time to time, just own it, there is no reason to blame the bullet that was put in the wrong place to start with.
