Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What cartridges have taken the most NA game?

I agree. BobinNH put some sales data up and I think that's about as best we can ever do on this topic. I'm sure the 30-06 and/or 30-30 have put more meat in the freezer than anything else (in recent history) but I'm also 100% sure that the 7mm Remington Mag has to be in the top 10, if not higher. It is just way too popular (no matter what some say here) and can be mastered as easily as any 30-06. Of course, it has only been around for about half the time as others, so it could never be ranked higher than about 5.... probably, in reality, a bit lower than that.

And they were buffalo shooters, too?

A college class appears to be something a dumbchit like you wouldn't know anything about.

Most likely. They moved to PA in 1725 to an area that was rich with Buffalo.

I always found it interesting to note regional differences in big game rifle preference.

Excluding bows, here it is by far the 12g followed by a 50 cal ML , but no metallic cartridges allowed so its moot.

As a kid hunting in the North East, the 06, 30-30 ruled the roost, with 35rem and 303 a distant 2nd. The 303 was big in rural areas of maine.

Thinking on it, all the guys I know who used to use the 30-30 or 35 now use a 308. Its almost to a man.

Oddly, I never hunted with anyone who used a 25-06.

As for the thread OP, if we are excluding .22rf and 12g, I'll go with: '06, 308, 30-30. After that its anyones guess. Sales figures (posted earlier0 dont tell the whole story, but I guess are as good as any.

You simply cannot reason with anyone who shoots anything with the letters...MAG behind it. Just agree with him, he probably needs the validation.

mart;
Good afternoon to you sir, I trust that this first Sunday of 2016 finds you warm and well. I looked up the current temperature in Wasilla and see that we're a wee bit colder than that today, but then you folks' proximity to the salt chuck must help that out a tad.

Anyway on the topic at hand, it's tough to say what round has killed more deer for instance because the overabundance of them in some areas is a relatively new situation.

My late father told me that where I grew up in east central Saskatchewan there were so few whitetail that even after the war it was a remarkable thing to see one and would be much talked about among the neighborhood. The whitetail showed up there in good numbers in the mid to late '60's I'd say.

There were likely more moose in the "bush" areas then - the Canadian Shield geographic area - but I can't prove that.

In the '60's when I was a kid, the rifles we'd see most often in the hands of either Native or farmer/trappers who lived close to or in "the bush" was Winchester 94's and SMLE/P14 .303Br. I should add that the 94's were mostly in .30-30 with the .32 Special running a distant second.

Funny that we almost never saw a Marlin out there too.

When we moved here to BC in the early '80's and got to know a few of the old time hunters from the Peace and Kootenays who'd retired here, the 95 Winchester in .30-40 Krag was always spoken of with great reverence.

After the war however, I'd say that about half the guys seemed to buy Winchester 88's in .308 and the other half went with Husky or Model 70's in .270. Interestingly the '06 wasn't brought up that often and I did ask about it as I was shooting one back then for most of my hunting here.

Lastly, in the '80's it was the guys who'd be in their early '60's now who all figured the 7 Mag was chained lightning. Hey, I went into the local gun shop to buy one in '81, but came out with an '06 because they were sold out of 7 Mags.

Anyway that's not really an opinion on the question I know, just a bit of a report from a guy who has been interested in hunting and hunting arms for my entire life.

All the best to you in 2016 mart.

Dwayne

Nonsense.

Bob,

I couldn't agree more. As I said I personally don't have any use for a 7mm but wouldn't argue it's effectiveness. I've tried to like the 7's in all shades but admit to being lukewarm to all of them. That doesn't mean they are not effective or that magnum owners are bull headed. I've owned several magnums over the years and still have a couple. I think I'm pretty open minded. As long as you see it my way.

Like I said in the start of this thread, this wasn't intended to argue the merits or lack of on any particular round, I was simply trying to illustrate to a coworker that despite the 7 mags popularity, it lags far behind a number of other chamberings when it comes to total numbers of NA game killed.

Dwayne,

Thanks for the well wishes and the same to you. In fact all the best to all the campfire members this 2016. I hope we all get to shoot more, hunt more, fish more and enjoy life more than we did last year.

Mart

Yep......

Mart: I understand what you were trying to find out,and at the same time we can guess based on how long rounds have been in common use,but that's about all.

Nobody here really "knows".

I doubt the 7 mag has taken as many animals as the 30-30 or 30/06.It has not been around as long. Your fellow employee loses that one But the fact remains it gets used a lot and has since 1962. The most popular belted magnum,and I will bet it has been among the top 10 BG carteridges in common use ever since it was introduced.

You can cover a lot of hunters out west during elk season, but you won't see a 30-30 in the hands of very many.

The anti-magnum rhetoric that runs through this place is silly. The implication I see is "I can't shoot a 300 magnum therefore nobody can,and if you do you're an idiot". Laughable.I've found that a bum shot is a bum shot no matter what he uses.

I'd have to agree with this. The 30/30 is probably a distant third. This, of course, is assuming we're only talking big game.

Bob,

No doubt about it, the 7 mag is a popular round and if we were to quantify it to game animals killed since 1962, it would likely be in the top five, maybe even top three.

I never understood not being able to shoot a 7 mag well. I never found them to be objectionable, but then I never found it difficult to shoot a 338, 375 or 458 well. I've seen guys wince at the range with their 308's and 270's. That always puzzles me but I reckon recoil tolerance is a subjective thing.

I can't explain my ambivalence for the 7mm's. At one time I swooned over the 7x57, 280 and the big sevens but can't seem to work up much more than a yawn for them anymore. I guess my current obsession with the unusual and obsolete has overshadowed my good sense.

Mart: I mostly hunt with a 270 or a 7mm magnum. I used to use 300 magnums quite a bit,but not anymore. A 7mm magnum with heavy bullets fills in where I used to use a 300. And not because there's anything wrong with a 300.

What do you like to hunt with? You mention older or obsolete cartridges.

Bob,

I took my moose this year with a 400 Whelen and have hunted with it and a 35 Whelen quite a bit in Alaska, both left handed. Sometimes I hunt with a left handed 300 H&H, a model 8 25 Remington, a Ruger 44 carbine, or a 401 Winchester self loader. I just picked up an 1892 Steyr 256 Mannlicher and have been playing with a Herter's 401 Powermag for a sidearm. I'm working on a deal for a Husqvarna 46 in 9.3x57 and I fur hunt with a 17 Remington and 6mmx222. Like I said, I lean toward the unusual, older or obsolete.

I really like the 400 Whelen. It has become my favorite big game rifle.

Mart

Yup you do like different cartridges! I bet that 400 works! Interesting!

The 45-70 isn't even close to being in the top 10. The round was developed as a military round in 1873 and was considered at the time to be under powered for hunting. Remember just a few years earlier 58 caliber muzzle loaders were the norm, dropping down to 45 caliber made it the original poodle shooter. Traditional black powder loads are about equal to 45 caliber blackpowder muzzle loader rifles which have always been considered borderline for big game.

Despite the myth it was never used as a buffalo gun. Most of the buffalo were dead prior to the Civil war and laws were passed banning buffalo hunting in 1874 to save the few left. Right after the 45-70 was introduced.

By the 1890's the 45-70 was all but dead. The round lay dormant and practically un used for nearly 100 years before being revived by Marlin with a lot of colorful advertising in 1973. It is only recently that the round has gained any popularity as a hunting round. I'd bet money it has killed more game in the 21st century than in the 19th and 20th centuries combined. And that isn't a lot compared to other rounds.

I don't know where you got your history, but the buffalo slaughters didn't begin in earnest until AFTER the War of Northern Aggression. There are many far more versed in that era than I, but it was primarily a late 1860s through 1870s phenomenon with a triple purpose; meat/hides for Eastern cities, clear the plains for railroads, decimate the food source for the remaining native tribes.

The primary calipers used during that slaughter were the .45-70, .45-90, .45-110, .50-70, .50-90, .50-110, and .44-90 (with others used as well) in the Sharps rifles and Rolling Blocks.

I can only add to this by mentioning my own experience. I've been hunting the same place in the Trans-Bluegrass of Kentucky for 15 seasons now. There has been a huge shift over those years. Kentucky has an anything-goes approach to deer hunting. For most of the year, the deer outnumber the humans by wide margin. In November, the hunters outnumber the deer.

When I moved in, 30-30 was probably the favorite, and you could tell with just your ears. If you hear 5-shot strings with a slight hesitation, you know you're probably hearing someone unloading their lever 30-30 at a herd of running deer. That seemed to be the weapon of choice in 2001.

Over time the older generation is moving on, and the younger guys are coming in. Most of them are using '06 and 308 WIN bolt guns and their women are generally shooting 270 WIN. There is a small but devout bunch of 243 WIN shooters. In 15 years, I have not seen one 7mm RemMag, and only one 300 WM. I seem to be the only one lobbing 35 Whelen at them.

Seen pretty much the same thing in New England. Of course there's still some levers, and pumps are pretty popular. But the past two years up there in a camp of 14,the 270 dominates by a wide margin. I see a couple of 7 mags,and 300's. The shift to bolt guns is obvious.

The east is a poor barometer of magnum class cartridge popularity in any caliber. Some use them but by and large there isn't much need for them.