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

I agree with you guys. The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency sees it differently, however.

That ^ ^ ^ ^ right ^ ^ ^ ^ there

I'm not bad-mouthing your 223, the use of it on deer has been going on for years. I was referring to this;

Actually, the 5.56 was designed to wound people. The Geneva convention outlines the rules of war to include the act of wounding, rather than killing the enemy…

I’ll throw my two cents in:
From what I’ve read by Elmer Keith, the construction of bullets available then was poor by today’s standards. Or even a couple decades later. If going after bigger game, then get a larger diameter bullet. 333 OKH etc.
When the 244 came out Remington engineers pretty much seemed to consider that the cartridge was primarily a varmint cartridge. Then the 243 came out and it was considered by many as a better dual purpose cartridge that is varmint and deer.

The belief that a hunter has to go up in caliber to hunt bigger game is not a nearly as common a belief. In my opinion, the big change came in bullet construction. When I was young the best bullet, in my opinion was the partition, but 6.5 mm was the smallest diameter partition.

As I recall, bullet selection for the 6mm’s and the 25 calibers were not that great in the 50’s and 60’s. My ability to buy and test lots of different bullets was hampered by lack of $’s and hunting opportunities. I suppose Winchester and Remington bullets were ok. I couldn't often afford factory ammo though. Most of my deer hunting was with a 03 30-06.

Today, again in my opinion, you can get good performance without having to do what Elmer did. Good penetration and expansion is common even in smaller diameter jacketed bullets.

I still consider the 6mm as a dual purpose varmint/deer cartridge. It’s one of my favorite pronghorn and coyote cartridges - the other would be the 25-06.

I also consider most 22 caliber cartridges as varmint cartridges that’ll do in a pinch for small deer.

Well you have convinced me. All of my guns are Multi-purpose guns.

MaMa Cass killed herself with a ham sandwich. So a 22 should be able to work.

What no one has mentioned, unless I missed it, is the volume of shooting.
If you`ve shot Rockchucks in the mountains, load some 110 HP in your 270 at about 3300 fps, and see them bounce...the 243 with a 55 grn SP at close to 4k will really take them apart, but would I sit at a bench or prone with bi-pod and shoot 50-100 rounds,or 200 rounds at P.D. in a day with either? Not unless I wanted to change out my barrel on either after a couple of days.

Well all depends on what you think is "big" game. Our deer are about 100-110 average. A German Shepard weighs more and is more dangerous, as are the feral pit bulls that are throw outs off dirt roads and pack up. I carry a 6mm Varmint AR 18" on my line cart, for riding fence. I can reach out and touch them with 80s at 3k. For hogs I bring the 358 AR 16" to the engagement with 200s at 2.5k..Bear around here are way less dangerous than a big hog. We have some sizable hogs here, in the 5-600 pound range. The very first one I shot weighed 550 pounds, processed meat weighed 275 pounds and they dress at 50%. Big hogs get the 45-70 in the Mauser 300 at 2.7k. So, it all depends. When I shoot something, I intend for it to stay shot.