Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats What common cartridge is toughest to beat?

Which one, in your opinion, is already "perfect" in your eyes and couldn't have been designed any better, and why?

22LR

cherry picker!

The 30-06.

The 30-06 is the Crescent Wrench of American cartridges, not perfect, but incredibly flexible/useful across a broad spectrum of cartridge uses.

The 7mm-08 comes to mind.

Despite all the well-deserved Creedmoor hype, the 7-08 is about the perfect, mild recoiling, all-around BG round, antelope to elk.

It has a gentle 20* shoulder for great feeding. It is based on brass that is available even in purgatory. Doesn't have the overly long neck of its relatives. Makes perfect use of the 2.8" SA magazine, and from SAAMI is throated to that magazine length. A modernized SA 7x57, which is about as good a place I can think of for most hunters to be.

The 270 WCF wins everytime against all comers.....

dave

For its age, for what it had to do and the technology of its time, the all time iconic 375 H&H mag. It still kicks ass, is a common "go to" round that truly does it all. I got 2. Can't really go wrong if you needed a rifle from white tails, elk, moose, bears, plains game, lions, buffalo or elephant. Throw in jackrabbits(of course only when they charge. Using 300 gr. Solids)

Winner, winner!

6,5x47 Lapua
338 Lapua Magnum

+2

Winner winner chicken dinner...270!

You won't beat a 7 WSM without going to a long action (bleah).

30-06 and other than Garands, I don't own one at all. Or if bigger stuff on the list, as noted, 375H/H.

Per unit of recoil, doubt you'll beat a 6.5 GAP. It snuggles right up to a 7 WSM ballistically but with less pop. Again, a short action cartridge.

358 Winchester

9.3x62 and 338/06

You have to give props to the 7x57 and 6.5x55. Other than modernizing them to fit in a short action they were pretty perfect for what they are.

What's the value of a short action over a standard action?

Weight and length (or more usable barrel for the same weight and length). Plus fat, short cartridges with steep shoulders are more efficient (decreasing recoil for the same projectile, velocity and rifle weight) and tend to be more accurate.

In terms of cartridges that are tough to beat, I'd say 6mm Dasher (7 or 8 twist), 6.5mm Creedmoor, 7mm-08 and 7WSM/SAUM are examples of very well designed cartridges for hunting in North America. Short, efficient, of various power levels, in the right high sectional density metric calibers, with no major design flaws. The Dasher and 7WSM/SAUM suffer from lack of support though making .243 and 7mmRM more practical choices even though the cartridge design is worse (quite a bit worse for 7RM).

If dangerous game is in play, I would point to .404 Jeffery and .450/400 Nitro Express. There really are no efficient dangerous game calibers (since an efficient shoulder would make the case absurdly wide) so it's just a matter of getting sufficient sectional density and enough diameter while keeping recoil low enough to allow reasonable follow-up shots. Those two have all three properties.

For lever gun dangerous game cartridges, I would look to the .45-90 and .50-110. Not much design to be done really - just needs to fit in an 1886 and hold a big honkin' bullet in a common caliber.

30/06, 7mm08

Ed

Well, value is in the eye of the beholder, right? So a SA might have no value to you. Personally, I prefer short action rifles. Lighter, shorter, and just more efficient.

Edit: all else equal, short actions are more accurate, too.