Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Opinions on 400-600 yard Calibers for Deer.

If you could get a bit more consistent brass for it, I would say 7WSM. But a lot of others will work just dandy.

I'd have to agree with most of what you are saying except for the target looking big "even in a 2x scope". Were you still talking about 600 yards? I know even with my 4.5-14x40 set on 14x this year my buck at 600 yards didn't look "big". It was deffinately a doable shot but still didn't look big (maybe because it was a dink ). Good points about the wind too. Trajectory error is pretty much a thing of the past with the cool ballistics programs, rangefinders with angle compensation (my 1000 yd rangefinder has it) and good scopes with excellent tracking abilities.

300 ultramag makes those shots pretty easy.

7 mag

162g Hornady SST, BC .625

71.0g of Retumbo, Rem brass, Fed 215 primer
Kiss the lands

3100 fps out of 26" barrel

I will plus-one to the notion that 600 is a whole other beast than 400-500. Kicks my butt too- in terms of "first shot of the day" hits. Which is an astute observation on your part- I see guys talking about donging a target "all day long" at extended range, and I've certainly been guilty of that, but it's that first shot that tells the tale!

A high-BC bullet at "good" velocity is your best friend when it comes to 600 and further. The 6.5's, 7's and 30's can do that at reasonable recoil levels... for deer only, edge to the 6.5's and 7's IMHO.

wow where did you come up with that b.c. of .625, that would be awesome if it were true,hornadys website says .550

Maybe he means the Amax. The 162 is .625...

A-max's true G1 BC is .599 according to Bryan Litz. I have had the opportunity to try many of his suggested BCs. While his numbers deflate the advertized BCs of many manufacturers, I have found them to work correctly downrange.

Back to the question. I have been searching for decades that perfect deer rifle out to 600 yds. High BC bullets. rangefinders, turrets, and ballistic programs totally changed the approach. Used to try for the fastest flattest chambering available. Originally tried 7 STW, 7 RUM and 300 RUM with lightweight bullets. Have gotten closer in recent years but still searching which is part of the fun.... Most recent favorites: 257 Roy with 115 VLDs, 7 rem mag with 180 Berger VLD, 168 VLD or 162 A-max depends on what the rifle will shoot.

Have begun experimenting with Berger's .338 300 gr hybrid that has BC of .818. While many are using the 338 Lapua I chose the 338 RCM. It only uses 57 gr of powder, recoil is reasonable and barrel should last a long time. Retains 3000 ft/lb at 600 yds, vel 2125 fps. Before anyone says this is crazy, read this link and note the impact velocities and wounding abilities this bullet.

http://www.longrangehunting.com/for...ts-using-338-300-gr-berger-hybrid-80968/

i shoot competitively at 500-1000 yards. i have never shot against a .270 . i would like to. grin.

DOBER has it right . there are a lot of good calibers. the important thing is having a RIFLE that will shoot half minute consistently as far as you are planning on shooting.ALL of my remington with krieger barrels fill the bill. along with that you need good ammo and scope. roninflag.

Let me un-qualify my question. The longest ranges that I have killed deer is in the 300-325 range and that was with a .300 Win, cause I thought I needed it. Nowadays, I prefer to shoot lighter recoiling rigs. Several have stated how much of difference there is between 600 and the 4-500 range. Real world killing power, for 100# to 200# deer, what are you giving up by shooting 260/708 vs 270/280 and bigger at less than 500 yards? I know the bigger shoot a little flatter, but with either, you would need to know your dope and range. How about the terminal kiiling performance?

243 win will work and has for many at the ranges that you suggest

My longest kill was at 400 yds, used a 105 amax thru both lungs via a 6mmBR at 2850 mv.

Optimum ballistics are w/larger rounds, but MY shooting is best w/270 recoil vs. a larger 7mag or similar.

No doubt, as above, LR killing requires lots of practice if one wants to 'get r done' on the first squeeze and not botch the job, IMHO.

If I had a 243 fast twist w Amax's on board, I'd lung shoot at those distances.

It's more about HITTING VITALS than 'foot lbs' but once that happens you want the bullet to expand well. Some use 'Target/Competition' bullets - and of those, some do better than others. Amax, Berger Hunting, and even simple ballistic tips can do very well at longer ranges.

400 to 600 yards is out of my comfort range and ability for anything other then targets. I just don't get to practice at those ranges. I'd hate to wound a deer and not be able to recover it. 300 to 350 yards is my limit and my Remington 700 Classic 280 Rem. works just fine for that.

If I could and was going to shoot deer regularly out to 400 to 600 yards I'd probably look long and hard at a 270 WSM, 270 Weatherby Mag., 7mm Rem. Mag., 7mm WSM, 7mm SAUM, 7mm STW, 7mm Weatherby Mag. or a 7mm RUM. Maybe a 300 Win. Mag., 300 WSM or a 300 SAUM if there might be a chance of some bigger game. I've seen some really long shots on hunting TV shows and have read some really good things about the 6.5mm-284 and 6.5mm Creedmoor.

Good luck, NYH1!

I went thru the same process as you last year and went with the 6.5-.284.
No regrets.
Agree with the 2nd paragraph above by NYH1.

I think there are way more 400-600 yard deer cartridges than there are 400-600 yard deer hunters,based on what I've seen in the field,which ain't all that impressive......

I love those offering an opinion who have never done it...guessing is free, I suppose.

Any one who excludes the 270 for the purpose has marbles running around in their noggins....any of you guys ever sat in the butts and listened to a 270 Win fired from 600 yards crack over your head,or watch the impact up close?Or for that matter seen the 270 kill at 500 yards?

I can guarantee you,you ain't gonna survive a hit and neither is a little deer, or an elk for that matter.Funny stuff....really.

A couple years ago and elderly gentleman that was going on his first elk hunt asked me what caliber rifle should he buy for the hunt. I asked him if he had a rifle now and if so what was it chambered in. He told me that he owned a 270 win. I then asked if he shot it well and he said that he did. I told him that he already had a suitable rifle and to simply use the 270. He did.

Long story short is he got a shot at a bull and made a clean 1 shot kill

Great post, as always, Bob
First of all, OP, if you have to ask what caliber rifle you need to shoot deer at 600 yards, YOU AIN'T READY TO SHOOT DEER AT 600 YARDS!
Take the best rifle you have, put up a 4X8 sheet of plywood at 600 yards with a target plastered in the middle- Shoot two rounds from a field position, get up walk around and shoot 2 more from another field position- do that until you have ten shots on the target and then go look at your group. You see, when you shoot at 600 yards, every time you change your hand position on the rifle. it shifts your group. I don't know this from reading, I know this from shooting rifle matches at 600 yards.
Then, consider what just a 3 mile an hour change in wind does to your bullet at 600 yards. When you shoot 600 yard matches,you get to shoot a sighter shot or two, and then try to shoot your target run with the flags as close to where they were when you fired your sighter. Thats because wind doping at six hundred yards isn't as simple as holding your wind gauge up and dialing in a correction. Over 600 yards the wind will change direction and velocity many times, and to predict drift at 600 yards in any significant wind is damned near impossible for most of us, at least any one I ever saw shoot.
And these are just two of the messy little problems that arise when trying to shoot 600 yards. Parallax, bullet concentricity, mirage, shot to shot deviation in velocity, all these things and more take on much more significance past 3 and 400 yards. Then there is the time of flight of the bullet. At 600 yards you are talking bullet flight times of 1/2 second and up, which means if you had done everything perfectly when the trigger tripped and that bullet was aimed exactly for that animals heart. that animal has enough time to take a step and the bullet ends up in his paunch.
Next, what bullet are you going to use that will expand reliably at 600 yards? Here's another thing I know from seeing it- No matter what headstamp you have on your cartridge, a bullet that hits in the chest cavity and doesn't expand is not going to give decisive kills.
Now to clarify what I mean a little more- Some people can kill at 600 yards as easily as I can at 200- It's analogous to a 600 pound bench press- just because most people can't do it, doesn't mean there aren't a lot of people that can- BUT, those people that can shoot 600 yards ( or bench press 600 pounds) have invested a lot of time and money in honing their skills- I dam sure wouldn't want Scenarshooter or Big Stick (AKA Boxer) or BobinNH shooting at my pet dog at 600 yards.
Secondly, I don't claim to be a match shooter of any significance- I shot the four position matches years ago while in the guards, but the learning curve on learning what you need to learn isn't that dam steep.
Boxer harps on the fact (perhaps a tad excessively?) that you need to think bullets and BC instead of headstamps- The reason for that is BC mitigates two problems of long range shooting-wind drift and bullet expansion. So, if you want to shoot stuff way out there, that's the place to start looking-

Fred

Any 6.5 capable of starting a 140 at around 2800 or more I think is ideal.