Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles What constitutes big game vs varmint rifle?

In the zone between the far extremes, where chamberings can and will fill both roles, bullet manufacturers do a pretty fair job stating the intended purpose of any particular bullet.

Some bullets do well with both. The 6mm 85 grain TSX (not tipped), for example, has fed four 243's here and has done a stellar job with more whitetails than I care to count, turkey, coyote, and groundhogs. Excellent dual purpose bullet. One day when I get around to building one I'll find out how it does launched from an ultra featherweight 6x45.

I've shot plenty of Fallow deer with a 243 and a Sierra 85gn HPBT. The whole discussion often involves what you have in your hand when a target of opportunity Pops up. So if you're out after varmints and deer wanders into your arc of fire, it would be nice to know the bullet in your varmint rifle was up to the job. If it's a 220 Swift shooting a 40gn bullet at over 4,000fps, not a good idea. But the same rifle with a decent 55gn bullet, you may be tempted.

The only place I hear the term”big game” is here or in other media stories.
Most people I hunt with just take up the gun they believe will get the job done, noting the critter, conditions, and expected shot.
Where I hunt this time of year the cow elk season is going and a .223 or .243 are the gun of choice. Either one placed behind the eye means zero waste and good eating. During bull season of course it’s different. The shots or expected to be as tight.
The same light calibers carry easy and works very well on coyotes, Fox, badgers, cats, and also dispatch busted up horses and cows.

The only serious breakdown of caliber designation for me is game versus dangerous game/stopping power. Some places a 30-30 or 35 Marlin is an excellent choice for deer in the bush, while 1/2 mile down the road a guy can stretch out a 25.06 or similar over a large clear cut or ag area.

Dangerous game, game, rimfire, and handgun hunting. Gun up accordingly.

Osky

young lady in our deer hunting group used my 220 Swift Ruger #1 with my handloads bullet used was a Nosler Partition 60 gr. at around 3500 - 3600 FPS this little bullet worked great.

^This!

^And This!!

Yup. My varmint rig is usually whatever I have when I see a varmint.
If I had to pick, 243 win. 8 twist. All day.

Good choice

Osky

I would tend to think that any rifle chambered for the 14's, 17's, 19's or 20 cal. could be labeled as varmint rifles.

ya!

GWB

Well, when I originally brought up this subject the 6mm ARC as a deer cartridge & or duel purpose chambering with deer & coyotes in mind. No doubt some folks for whatever reason find a 6mm caliber insufficient for that task. If some find a 6mm caliber insufficient, I can only question how the cartridge is being implemented. Been a favored caliber for me for going on 40 plus years now with whitetail deer being my primary focus.

Select good hunting bullets; Make good shots at reasonable distances & reliable terminal results, are realised.

WE probably didn't come up with those terms. I would bet it's just another clever marketing ploy by the gun & ammo companies to sell more product.

Touching on this thread, for the first time in a while... been back home on the east coast for 6 or so weeks.

I took a deer this season with a 6 x 45, shooting a 95 grain Ballistic Tip, with 24 grains of powder, in a 1 in 7 twist barrel.

so would this be considered a varmint cartridge? or a deer cartridge? The deer was bang flop, but it was shot at 50 yds or less. Heart shot...

a few age rats shot with it, using a 70 grain TNT, or a 75 grain HP, blew those things apart and provided red mist, a lot better than the same cartridge in 22 caliber.

so once again, a caliber that either one.. depending on how you load it and what you are shooting with it.

slow that vmax or a ballistic tip of that weight in an 06, down to say 2500 to 2600 fps MV. You'd be surprised how lethal they can be. have your MV in the speed a particular bullet functions in, and you'd be surprised what they can do..

Each bullet style has a window it functions best in...

At 100 yds, a 100 grain partition out of a 260 can pass thru a blacktail, before it opens up with an MV or 3300 fps MV.

Yet take a 90 grain Varmageddon bullet, out of a 260 with an MV of 2500 fps or so, at a 100 yds, and in the vitals, it will drop it like a sack of potatoes.

Ya learn alot about stuff like this, working with 12 and 13 yr old Boy Scouts, with their first rifle or their first hunt.

a 90 grain VG Nosler works real well for deer out of a 6.5 Grendel and its speeds. At least on blacktails.

No expanding bullet passes through an animal before it has time to expand. That isn’t how hydraulics work.

You couldn’t be wronger.


All this “shoot it with a rifle, it becomes what you shot with it” is still wrong. Killing a grizzly bear with a 22 makes 22 a big game rifle, is a crock. Certainly you can kill big game with a varmint cartridge, but that doesn’t change the cartridge, or its intended purpose.

The Campfire is full of people singing the virtues of a 223, fast twist and heavy bullets has become a big game cartridge, when it is still a varmint cartridge that has been modified and used to kill big game.

Arguing the use of a certain cartridge does not change what it is, it just describes what has been done with that cartridge…

SchitSmell,

You are an Amazingly CLUELESS Fhuqk and a Lying Piece Of Fhuqking Schit to boot. Hint.



Bless your heart for trying so hard.

Hint.

Fhuqking LAUGHING1............

Actually, the 223 is a military cartridge known by another name. Are people small or big game?

These 223 arguments always deteriorate to stupid, It doesn't take too much to kill a man if you don't care how humane you do it, just ask the boys in Chicago.

It doesn’t take much to kill an animal either. Put a 2” hole through his lungs and nothing will go far. Contrary to what Remington advertised a cartridge as back in the 60’s there are projectiles that can be and are loaded in 22 caliber cartridges that are fully capable of penetrating big game animals and leaving a substantial wound channel through their vital organs.

No animal can live with its heart/lung area scrambled. No animal knows or cares what cartridge did the scrambling. Starting diameter is probably the least important aspect of bullet performance.

Pretty much my contention all along. A .223 will put a hole in a woodchuck you can stick your fist into. Put that same hole in the vitals of a deer and presto! You have venison.