Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Might as well stir the pot a bit more - What are the most OVER-rated cartridges?

I'd say any of the .300 magnums because hunters so armed seem to think they can take on any animal out to a thousand yards even though when they're at the range they have trouble keeping their shots on a pie plate. Of course I'm painting with a pretty broad brush but I'm not implicating serious shooters in this.

There are several cartridges that are OVER rated as far as I'm concerned (AFAIC).

It's very hard for me to be 'civil' toward them so, if you can't say something nice.......

Jerry

I'd agree.... with my edit of your post.

I know of 1 PRIME example of that, a guy bought a Ruger Compact 270 Win Short Mag. The 'short barrel' model and believed the ballistics on the ammo box. I know that he wounded several deer at UNknown ranges because he didn't practice at ANY long range.

That's only 1 example of many in the category you described. It's not limited to the 300 mags.

Jerry

edit to 270 WSM, sorry

Maybe some threads should be started about the most over-rated bullet,scope,rifle.....etc

"Rating" has a lot to do with where you're from. In the US it seems the 30-06 is about the most highly rated hunting cartridge. Or that's how it looks from afar.

Most people around here say "Why would you bother with a 30-06 when the 308 Win does almost all the -06 can, and what it won't do doesn't matter?"!

I think it all stems from the fact that the 30-06 wasn't used by our military while the 308 was.

That's if you call our small force array a "military".

Might I add I respect our defence organisations immensely!

The most over rated cartridges are the ones I don`t use.

It is the most highly rated and yes the .308 argument comes up often.

As long as we're pot stirring, the only proper magnums ever developed have "H&H" as part of their name.....

All cartridges have their use. If not used in the spectrum for which it was designed it might get to be over rated in the users eyes quickly.

I have read the 5.56 was never intended to be a man stopper, it was designed to injure and take 2 out of action to assist the wounded. The ire it caught was, it replaced man stoppers.

I have bagged deer with many calibers. When our state dropped all restrictions except it had to be Center fire I loaded up some 60 grain 222 to use on bonus Does after I bagged my buck with the 270.

I will never do that again, 25-30 yards, broadside, perfect placement behind the shoulder. It blew up one lung, I tracked her and shot her behind the ear as she lay watching the trail behind her.

Yes I should have shot her behind the ear the first time but the head was in some brush. The 270, '06 and 308 had never failed on the lung shot.

So unless you are hunting small deer I feel the 222 class is over rated for deer.

Just gotta use the right bullet....this was a 45 gr. TSX at 247 Yards, and not a small deer.




Nothing stirs the pot like stunt shooting!

Nice buck. As in every thing hunting bullet selection is paramount. I do not remember the brand of the 60 grain soft point. I do know only one lung had heavy damage.

There wasn't a large selection of 224 deer bullets in the late 70's.

But since it was on a long post 64 action and I had traded into very cheaply the lack of penetration allowed me to sell it with out remorse.

Still one very nice buck.

The 256 Win Mag AI loaded to 70,000 PSI and TSX bullets is a 600 yard Mule deer cartridge.
And I dare anyone who has tried it to deny it!!

Just to throw gas on the fire the Jordan Buck which is the #2 typical whitetail of all time and held the world record for many decades was shot with a 25/20. But then again he shot it like 8 times and it still had enough life in it to flop into a river.

I dont know about overrated cartridges, but even the worst ones are better than shotgun slugs...

Id take a 222 any day over my slug gun.

I wonder how animals rate cartridges?

"Hmm, looks like I've been shot. Well, lessee, that feels like it was a 100 grain bullet fired from a .25-06 some 300 yards away. Yep, I better fall down" vs. "oh, pshaw, that 100 grain bullet was from a pipsqueak little .250 Savage 100 yards away, I'm gonna walk around a while".

Dang animals are a lot smarter than we think, that's all I can figure...

I concur.
It's one on my list.


Jerry

By that logic would the 300 Savage be superior to the .308 Winchester?

The .300 Weatherby. Is there anything worse for elk?

I know someone that uses a .300 Rem. ultra mag. on Texas whitetails. He could do everything he does with a .308 but apparently the extra gun powder makes them EXTRA dead.

Whatever jiggles your jimmy, I guess.