Good article by JB on this a few years back in "Handloader" or "Rifle" that I believe Bangeye referred to a few posts back, "The Perfect Velocity". As I recall JB didn't say it's the only velocity for all shooting situations but 2700fps with the right bullet will take care of most "Big Game" hunting situations.
IMO knowing the trajectory of the load you're shooting and the limits of how far you can shoot it accurately in all situations is more important than any other factor. Our military snipers have made some very long shots and kills with a 308 at around 2600fps. ymmv.
Yes thats the article. I believe that he also included a demonstration of the amount of drop at some distance between a 308 and a 300 mag. of some sort and it wasn't quite as severe as one might expect. Im not advocating using a 30-30 for 500 yd shots on elk but I do find that bullets in the 2700-2800 realm usually allow me to sight in for a point blank range of 300 yds on a deer sized target. I generally sight in about 2.5" high and if I loan my rifle to someone and they startup about where to hold at long range I usually say well if he looks really, really far off you can aim higher on the shoulder but you better shoot at hair. It been my experience that we don't see many deer at 300+ yds and most folks I have run across, will swear that a deer at 200 is 350 yds.
