Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters "Rated" big game cartridges

Not "overrated" , i.e. given more credit or popularity than they deserve, not "underrated", i.e. given less credit or popularity than they deserve, but "rated" - they are given enough credit and are as popular as they should be.


.375 H&H
.30-06
.270 (gay jokes notwithstanding)


Hmm, might be a short thread...

I agree with those three.

You got the bases covered:
Big game
Deer and elk
Even a coyote cartridge😊

Nah, the 270 (with proper 150 gr. bullets) is good for woodchucks and prairie dogs, a stretch for coyotes. I agree with the 375 H&H and the 30-06 though.

You have a point

I'll lengthen the thread a bit for you- I feel, and have always felt, that the .30-06 is over-rated. It's a great cartridge, don't get me wrong, but no more great than the .308, 7RM, .280, etc. It's often heralded as the messiah of cartridges, without fault or blemish, which all other cartridges have always wished they could be.

I just don't see it. For all practical purposes, the 7RM does everything at least as well with a few more grains of powder, and the .308 does just as well with a few grains less powder. The same can also be said of other cartridges. Great the .30-06 is, but the idol of all others it is not. This is all IMHO.

You forgot one!

.375 H&H
.30-06
.270 (gay jokes notwithstanding)
.22-250

458 Winchester Magnum. Kind of "ho-hum" these days, but does what it does.

Modern day Ellyfant hunters feel you need the extra velocity of the Lott to efficiently kill pachyderms so the Win Mag has fallen out of favor. Bell only ever needed his .275 and he would have just used his .256 had the ammo been reliable.

I'll throw the300 WBY in there and a second on the 22-250.

Despite the seemingly bulletproof deer running around these days, the .30/30 still seems to get the job done, year after year.

They were considered "big medicine" around the turn of the last century, even for elk and moose, and I suspect that they'd still do the job if magazine articles didn't suggest differently.

It's a pretty good round, though I wouldn't want to use it shooting across a large pasture or bean field.

I kinda like the one I bought a year ago, and when I pointed it at a deer last November, the deer ran about 40 yards and dropped dead. Just like any other rifle would have done.

Yeah, I was reading the "other" thread and wondered who underrates the .243 and .30-30, along with several other cartridges mentioned, except maybe gun writers who want to stir up stuff.

Yeah seems to me that we have long since passed the point where we can rationally rank cartridges based on terminal performance; what with so many cartridges packed so tightly based on caliber, bullet weights, velocity etc. Obviously older cartridges are fully up to the task with the right bullets.

Seems we need other reasons to justify newer cartridges and more modern designs but little of this has anything to do with killing.



Among "rated" BG cartridges my own list has always been comprised of: 270,30/06, 7 Rem mag,300 WM,338 WM and 375 H&H.

You can deviate from these core cartridges for BG hunting but I am not sure very much is gained.

Adequate, however, for pests (golden eagles, badgers, the neighbor's cat, etc.).

Well I rate the 30-30 right up there with....


the Model T..


It'll get you there IF you're not going far!


Jerry

I kill deer with mine every season no problem.

Do they usually take out the radiator?

Nobody uses the .30-30 anymore 'cause everybody's got one.


(with apologies to Yogi Berra)

Now THAT'S funny!

This is a great thread for 35 Whelen whiners to chime in with their grievances about how it "should be more popular", or "why didn't it ever..." , or "why do people like the 9.3x62 over the 35?".