Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Australia Rank top five popular cartridges for hunting.

Of course it is available. The question was about centrefire cartridges.

For sure it depends on locale.

Local Louisiana Cajuns, easy answer...

.22 WMR, it's the candlepowder that's the variable....

But, they may not always be hunting when the sun is shining....

But, they eat good...

DF

Thinking a large portion of 223 Rem is for blasting at the range in AR's or hoarded for the Apocalypse. No doubt the 223 gets hunted but doubt it ranks number one out of those five if adjusted for other uses in the U.S.

I mentioned in my first post on the thread that I had left out the 22 and 12G. They are very common and I think the various rimfires as a group would be the biggest sellers.

Australia's largest guns/hunting forum (extremely active) I think is like American ones in the sense they are not representative of what you find in the bush. They leave the impression that the 300 Wby and 375 etc. are behind every second bush. I think a much higher percentage of Australian shooters reload than Americans and especially for any of the magnums, Wbys, 375 and 458 etc but also the stuff like 270 etc. I think two reasons are cost of ammo here and also the large volume of shooting.

We also favour faster expanding bullets (people on forums are often not that way) so 130 grain common in 308 and 100 - 110 grain in 270. A local bullet maker here (not Woodleigh) make 30, 303, 358, 375 and 45 and all ar big hollow point quick expanders.

The calicivirus knocked the rabbits back big time 20 odd years ago. They still pop up in patches but the big numbers are gone forever now. The .22s are still around but not much to shoot them at with the decline of the rabbits.

With regard to the five cartridges, I'd go .223, .243, .270 .308 and .30-06. Of the hunters I've met in the bush over the past few years.the 30-06 was the most commen cartridge they were carrying. Probably because they want to, or do, go sambar hunting. Some of the old classics like .222 and .303. are not as popular anymore as they once were. I still prefer the little .222 for foxes over the 223 but the .223 is miles (or kilometres) ahead these days. The .300 magnums are also pretty popular with a lot of blokes choosing one now over the .30-06, especially the .300WSM.

But I still like my oldies like the .222, .250 Sav, .257 Roberts x 2, .257 Ackley, .25-06, 6.5x55, 6.5x57, 7x57, 7x64, .30-06, .303, 8x57, .35 Whelen and 9.3x62.

But I am moving with the times and actually have a 6.5 Creedmoor and a 6.5x47 very soon.

However, my Ruger Number 1A in 7x57 is the one that I keep coming back to after I've played with most of the others. It will be the one that I will keep to the end.

I agree with Mike Mcguire bout greater use of positive expanding bullets in Australia. Americans more likely to class a bullet a failure if it loses a few grains or cant penetrate 36"of ballistic gel+ 6" pine boards on a youtube video. In big game calibres I used to like the older style hornadies and even the .416 calibre woodleighs. Unfortunately the owners at these companies read enough of the same magazines the average gunowner does and they toughened the jackets back in the 2000's.

My theory is as Aussie hunters can shoot a lot more game if they want (being 95% of our game is plague proportion pest animals with no seasons or bag limits) they figure out by necessity stuff falls over okay with cheap bullets. Americans maybe spend more time planning that special hunt which involves a bullet handling any angle that presents.

A bit off tangent but since we are comparing preferences between the countries I will say the yanks are superior meat utilizers. All those guys into skinning, field dressing, trophies, packing meat out. Some Aussies are still into this but most game being pests usually rots where it lays.

One other random observation is the awe given to hogs by Americans Here they are considered just another thin skinned game for a 243 or 357 carbine, 223 with well placed shots, or in my region , dog and knife...

On a US forum though a discussion on hogs often devolves into "battling tusk-zilla with a 338 win mag or 44 mag with hardcasts". Strikes me as funny since Americans have 3 types of bears which can outrun, outswim, outclimb a man(or hog!) and eat you too Now that is a scary animal in my opinion. And yanks think nothing of camping around them or shooting them with handguns and bows and arrows.

Well written sir. Your finely tuned bullschidt detector is working 100%.

Those are very astute observations and well written.

Hogs will definitely eat a dead man. 😳

Where I live, Darling Downs of Queensland, which is Red Deer country 270 Win is pretty popular.

223
257 Roberts
264 win mag
300 Weatherby
338 Win mag

Reckon there would be a lot of new rifles sold in 6.5 Creedmore these days. Agree that 308, 243 and 223 rank up there in the top 3.

If you took out ex army people and farmers that cull the 3006 would be the most popular by far , a range survey is always going to lean towards the 308 , a lot of ranges have a very tight calibre restriction which would never really show what people have or prefer to use , that’s for Vic anyway nsw and Queensland may have slightly smaller preferences as a lot mainly shoot pigs not deer, i love my 270wsm and 35sambar, as for the 223 it’s very popular but I wouldn’t rate it as a big game calibre , mine gets used a lot for culling and works fine for head shooting sure , but I never take it out for fun

I'm always curious to see what calibers other people have chosen to hunt with. For a totally unscientific sampling, my mates (to use the Aussie term) in the US south used these during the last season:

243, 6.5x55 Swede, 7mm-08, 270, 300 Win Mag, 35 Whelen plus one guy who only hunts deer with his favorite 44 Magnum lever action.

What animal are you asking about. I believe that in the US there are thousands of hunters that use multiple calibers depending upon species and location. An elk hunter on the west coast may use a different cartridge than a plains hunter. For Elk the 300WM has been the most popular for several years, followed by the 7mm magnums, the 30:06, 270 and possibly the .308 win. Many use the same for big whitetails and mule deer. Antelope I would guess the 270 win., 7mm mag and a number of smaller caliber cartridges.

.22 hornet
.223 rem
.243 win
.30-06 sprg
.300 win

I wonder how many people that are listing the top 5 cartridges live and hunt in Australia?

22 lr
243
30-06
300 win mag
458 win

A lot of people appear to be putting up their favourite calibres.

You don't need to be Einstein to work it out: Those who have been hunting a lot would use a .270, those that hunt their biggest deer would use a .30-06, those that can't stand the recoil of a .30-06 and "think" a .308 is nearly as good would use a .308, those that like European things and nostalgia would use a 7 x 57, those that want a higher bc bullet than what a .308 gives would choose a 7-08, those that are a bit frail would use a .243, those that don't have lots of money and just do a little bit of shooting or do professional culling would choose a .223, those that are new to hunting and are swayed by advertising or "dream" that they are going to be hunting game at 600 yards or are a bit effeminate would choose a 6.5 CM.