Your 3 favorite hunting cartridges of all time

[amschind]

Well amschind, if I don't shoot beyond 400 yards and the ballistics of the 7mm-08 are better than the 6.5 CM to 500 yards, why would I prefer a CM then, especially if I can shoot a heavier bullet. I only shoot premium bullets 150-160 grains with Staball 6.5...giving me 2900 ft/sec with the 150 Swift Sirocco's and touching 2800 ft/sec with 160 grainers....I guess that is better as what I ever thought I would get with the 7mm-08 when I started out with it...that is enough MV and ME for me on the animals I shoot with it (deer, antelope and elk) inside 400 yards. So for now I am more than satisfied with the 7mm-08 and recommend it for anybody wanting a deer rifle with which you can also shoot elk size game if you keep your distances under 400 yards.

I agree, the existence of improvements to existing things doesn't make the older stuff any WORSE. I put together some 170 FP loads for my great grandfather's 1894, and that gun could easily kill an elk or moose at 100 yards. If you're not using heavier bullets then the "Creedmoor" mod does you no good. My thinking is more for folks who don't already have one, where a slight modification to the 7mm-08 might well replace the 7mm RM. I hope that makes more sense.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Well amschind, if I don't shoot beyond 400 yards and the ballistics of the 7mm-08 are better than the 6.5 CM to 500 yards, why would I prefer a CM then, especially if I can shoot a heavier bullet. I only shoot premium bullets 150-160 grains with Staball 6.5...giving me 2900 ft/sec with the 150 Swift Sirocco's and touching 2800 ft/sec with 160 grainers....I guess that is better as what I ever thought I would get with the 7mm-08 when I started out with it...that is enough MV and ME for me on the animals I shoot with it (deer, antelope and elk) inside 400 yards. So for now I am more than satisfied with the 7mm-08 and recommend it for anybody wanting a deer rifle with which you can also shoot elk size game if you keep your distances under 400 yards.

I am a big fan of the 7mm-08 as well. Ballistics basically mirrors the 7x57 that killed everything there is to kill in Africa. And the short action makes for a lighter more compact rifle than the 7x57

It is my go-to Whitetail Rifle shooting 160 Nosler Partitions which are absolutely deadly on Whitetails at 7mm-08 velocities in the 50-175 yard range which is as far as I can shoot from my hunting blinds.

And I took it to RSA shooting 140 grain Nolser Accubonds to take Blesbok, Impala, Nyala, Mountain Reedbuck, Bontebuck and Bushbuck. All one shot kills.

I had a 300 Wby with me and used it on a Blue Wildebeest pushing 180 grain Nosler Partition...one shot kill.

At this point, if I was to use the 7mm-08 again on PG I would be running the 150 grain Swift Scirocco's also.

I don't shoot beyond 500 yards at animals and any theoretical advantage the 6.5 Man Bun has over the 7mm-08 is irrelevant to me. I will take the 7mm bullet everyday.

That said...if someone wants to use the 6.5 have at it. Put it in the lungs and the animal will die

 

[Neophyte]

One thing I didn’t state in my previous post was that as a lefty, and demanding a CRF action, my rifle options are somewhat limited.

The 6.5 Creedmoor is a Ruger, as is the .375 Ruger, and the .338 Win Mag is a Winchester Model 70.

 

[Cls.44]

.44 Magnum, being restricted to straight walled cartridges in Ohio (and works well in handgun or rifle for added versalitility)

.375 H&H for anything the .44 can't comfortably handle

.450 3 1/4 NE though I don't own one, on paper, it seems that Rigby got it just right with the original NE from the standpoint of power, gun weight, and recoil levels

 

[Redfishga1]

7x57mm , 6x55mm, 35 whelen

 

[hoytcanon]

6.5 Rem Mag
7X64 Brenneke
.350 Rem Mag

Nah, too much duplication...

6.5 Rem Mag
.350 Rem Mag
.458 Win Mag

 

[Rule 303]

I actually posted about that on the .35 Whelen thread, but I broadly agree. My first rifle was a push feed Model 70 Ranger in .270. I wound up selling it to a gun collector neighbor (who still regularly kills deer with it) to get an M70 classic stainless in .300 WSM that I've steadily modified over the decades. But the .270 taught me that no matter what I did at the reloading bench, I would always be at the mercy of the bullet makers. A .277 160 grain spire point in a .270 Win AI would be amazing, but I cannot mass produce that bullet. The .358 suffers from the same issue: there are VERY few bullet options that unlock its potential, and even those are unusually scare compared to scarce reloading components. A 300 grain .358, .366 or .375 solid bullet striking at 2200 FPS will kill any creature that walks the Earth. The market has decreed that only two of them are allowed to do so in practice.

Re your last sentence, not strictly true. I have a 358Cal that I can legally use in some Affrica countries on El. These countries do not have a minimum cal but a minimum energy level and my 358RUM more than makes the required energy level.

 

[ofbiro]

7 mm Rem. Mag.
.30-06

 

[wolfhunter]

Everybody likes a reason to have another rifle or caliber 6.5 CM 7mm08 308 win. If you are 30 steps foward from any one of these is there any difference + -

 

[TERMINATOR]

Everybody likes a reason to have another rifle or caliber 6.5 CM 7mm08 308 win. If you are 30 steps foward from any one of these is there any difference + -

There isn’t much difference 100 steps ahead

Or 200

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

243
7MM REM MAG
375H&H
Honorable mention: 300 RUM

 

[wlambert]

If I base it on success rate- no particular order
.338 Win Mag
.270 Win
.22 LR/12 gauge (tie)

 

[RyanPalmer]

Three favorite calibers I have
45-70
405 win.
338 win. mag.

Three calibers I wish I had
257 wby
375 H&H
416 Rigby

 

[LWPhunt]

375H&H
300 WSM
.22 cal
Honorable. My pellet gun has killed more than all things combined

 

[Green Chile]

Three calibers I wish I had
257 wby
375 H&H
416 Rigby

You could hunt the world with the 257 and either of the larger 2. Substitute a 12 gauge for the 416 and never look back.

 

[Don458]

You could hunt the world with the 257 and either of the larger 2. Substitute a 12 gauge for the 416 and never look back.

100%. The .257 weatherby is Fantastic.

 

[aminkus]

.300 H&H
9.3x62
.404 Jeffery

 

[colorado]

270 Win
500 Jeffery

Don't need anything in between

 

[Flewis]

I don’t need anything else either but that damn sure is not going to stop me.

 

[Fenstar]

7x57
9.3x62
.458 Lott