Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best bullet diameter

many of us enjoy many different cartridges to use for target and hunting,if your a beginner and do not handload , a very good cartridge is just the 30-06 it will do it all in the lower 48 . factory ammo with many different grain weight bullets is avaliable and many stores always carry 30-06 ammo ,even out west ma-pa groceries stores may have 30-06 ammo.if your a new handloader the 30-06 is a easy cartridge to load for and can be very accurate too, a bolt action rifle is a good choice for a handloader too. there are many options out there for you to decide on good luck,Pete53

.25" to .35" is a sweet spot for bullet dia. Lots of good things happen in that zone.

Neither! But if I was doing the shooting I would rather shoot the bb ! Because I bet the recoil from a Bowling Ball rifle would tend to be excessive! LOL

CJ

.284!

.366

Actually, It'll do it all all over the planet.....just use the right bullet. While some will say it is not legal in some instances.....I've never known of anyone that was arrested for using an illegal caliber in big game hunting.

I would second this comment. Cheers NC

All you listed work. But, if one goes by what Jack and Elmer said it is a .27 and a .33 caliber. Since I have been in Alaska the last 54 years I never had a use for any thing smaller then my 30-06 or larger then my .338.

I have them all like a bunch of you do, put them all in a hat, whichever one you pull out will work just fine!!!

Interesting local story

https://app.louisianasportsman.com/...iew&action=full_report&id=155173


And oh yeah ... .375

On good authority - .29

Unless you kill 100 animals of equal size and temperament with each and average out the results, they are all the same.
There is more fiction in cartridge differences than similarities.

I'll use whatever is handy when there is game to shoot...that being said, I'm a fan of a .323" diameter bullet in a 57mm case.

I find a 243 adequate for most of what I hunt, when the 204 seems light. For elk, one of my 30-06's suffice quite well, thank you.

The biggest bull elk I ever killed (a big 6X7) was with a .243 Win. The smallest buck I've ever killed was with a .338, a little paddle head. Each were at ~150 yards.
So the perfect caliber must be somewhere between those two?

I like them all but it is easy to see why the 6.5s are getting the popularity they deserve. They have a good balance of high BCs and lower recoil. They are suitable for almost all non dangerous game. My favorite is the 7mm but with 175s and above in a RM recoil starts to be a factor. But anything between .17 and 50 caliber is good. I could do most of my hunting with a .23 and a .29 caliber rifle.

i have killed deer with a 22 mag,17 Remington, a flatten sharpen`d spoon shape into a broadhead ,even a knife and many different cartridges/calibers so my answer is yes they all work ,its the person shooting his weapon,but have not tried a .29 cartridge yet .

Given the most popular Elk cartridge, and doing high school math a/b = c/d, we can see the 223 is way to big for even the biggest mule buck.

What happens is boys guns weigh ~ 5 pounds and men's guns weigh ~10 pounds. There is power, range, and recoil to deal with. We optimize and they work backwards to justify our answer.

In my situation, I weigh 160 pounds, shoot deer to 600 yards, carry the rifle for just a few miles, not afraid of recoil, but it screws up my accuracy.

This puts me in the 7mmRM 140 gr optimum zone.

If you are 300 pounds and shoot from the truck or 125 pounds and climb mountains, that may not be right for you.... or any of the other listed variables.

I believe the .280 Ross is .289....pretty close to the mythical .29

I have always preferred a bullet of the diameter that matched the bore of the rifle I am shooting at the game.