Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Maximum punch with minimum recoil

I second the 270 Win with 130 grain premium bullets (which I am beginning to classify as including the cheap Federal Fusions! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />) With premium bullet construction, this combo is very hard to beat.

For absolute maximum bang with minimum recoil, you might also look at the 243 with 85 grain Federal Premium BTHP's. I know the debate over whether this a deer or varmint round rages on, but they have performed well for me with a 180 yard pass through on a double lung shot on a 130 lb hog which produced a blood trail a blind candy peddler could have followed the last kill with the combination (of course, this was through the ribs just behind the shoulder without hitting either shoulder.)

This little bullet in the 243, with a ballistic coefficient of .402, is down only 16 inches at 400 yards while still packing 1070 Ft-Lbs of energy. It still has 890 at 500 yards. This round is at least as flat shooting and bit harder hitting in Ft-Lbs of energy than the 85 and 90 grain rounds out of a 25-06 listed in Bob Forker's Ammo and Ballistics II. A&B II lists the relative recoil factors on the two at 1.25 on the 243 and 1.57 on the 25-06. If you trust this bullet in the 243, it may be the best trade off of punch for recoil out there. If you don't trust it, the 100 grain premiums are mighty close to the 100 grain in the 25-06 with less recoil.

All that said, if you want to shoot heavier bullets, I still give the nod to the 270 with a still mild relative recoil factor of only 1.82. I am getting in a lot more shooting while helping cull on friends south Texas ranches the last couple of years, so I am getting more chances to see performance in different cartridges.

I just looked at cartridges for which ammo is plentiful and easily available and fairly inexpensive and where lots of rifles are available. The 240 Weatherby and 257 Weatherby Magnums may be better, and the 6 MM Remington is right in the middle of the mix as well.

DJ

For major punch without significant recoil, look at the .35 Whelen in any type of rifle.

That would be the 6.5x55 Swede as the most punch for the least recoil.
But I no longer have one. I use the 7mm mag because I enjoy the excitement of powerful guns, you know like powerful firecrackers, they are just more fun. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

308 winchester

balt, I could easily agree with that too. IMO "Maximum Punch / Minimum Recoil" has a 30 cal of some sort written all over it. A 308 fits the bill perfectly...

If you lighten up the load on a 358 winchester you don't even feel it but man it'll go stem to stean on a 200lb wt.

Spot

For whitetail deer, 257 Roberts!!!

Any of the .25's. But I like the 120grs.

I'm gonna revise my earlier statement about 25-06....It's awsome and it's one of my all time favorites...but FOR ME, fitting the criteria of the question:max punch with min recoil... 300 rum is a surprise in this department. There's my vote...YMMV


Whoops....forgot to add these.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

7x57 is a good one. 139gr SST's go out of the barrel going over 2800 and the recoil is nothing.

Well if I'm allowed to enter my braked rifle, then I'll go with my 338 RUM with a Harrells brake. Kicks about like a 270 but hits like a true magnum with 250 partitions out at 3000fps +.
Other than the noise the rifle will reach out and touch very well as the bear I took last fall at 489 yards will attest to.

270 WBY

Give us a witness, brother Stick!

.257 Roberts +P
.260 Rem
7mm-08

My .257 Roberts has become my favorite bolt gun.
75g V-MAX at 3609fps
110g Accubond @ 3150fps
115g TSX @ 3013fps
120g A-Frame @ 2947fps.

All +P loads.

If ranges are under around 200 yards, I would add the .30-30.

For my money, no question it's the 6.5x55 mm Swede with 140 gr bullets for even moderately large game. Recoil would be considered very light to light by the most sensitive high power rifle shooter. For the most effective round with the lowest recoil, I don't see how it gets any better than this.

I got quite a surprise when I decided to try some slugs in my 12 Ga single shot!

I was about 14, had shot a few bears with a 30.30 and decided I wanted to shoot one with the 12. So, bought a couple boxes of slugs, and sighted in.

Surprise. Gun weighed probably 5.5 pounds, I weighed around the 150 mark with my pockets full of shells. I might be exaggerating, but I believe I shot the thing prone one time and it moved me back a foot.

Anyways, worked great on bear - excessive fur damage.

For a dedicated whitetail gun, .280/7-08/7x57 w/140grainers all good, .270 with 130s, and work down to 25-06 and 100 or 110 grainers. And just about anything in that range shooting bullets on the lighter end with enough velocity to be a flat shooter would fill the bill nicely.

I currently think IF I was to buy a dedicated deer gun, it'd be a 25-06. Likely a Rem. M700CDL and top it with a Leupold 3.5-10. Not the lightest gun, but pretty good deer/stand rifle yet not too heavy either.

Himmelrr,

Your post described my go-to whitetail rifle as if you have seen it ! It is a stainless 700 mtn rifle in 280, bedded into a McMillan fibergrain Mtn Rifle stock, and topped with a silver Vari X III in 2.5x8. I shoot 140 gr partitions and TBBCs at everything from hogs to deer with it.
Minimal recoil with "punch" when the bullet strikes!

Gene

My vote would go to the .280 Ackley Improved. It offers 7mm Magnum performance with less recoil and powder consumption.

For game from gophers and elk it would be hard to beat the .280AI.

HBB

for deer i like the 7-08, 260, 6.5x55, 7x57, 257 Weatherby and 25-06 for longer range work

for a dedicated larger game rifle, take a look at the 338-06 huge performance without alot of fuss

ditto, especially the 6.5x55SE.