Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Older Cartridges

I was thinking I just thinking the only rifle I have chambered for a newer cartridge is a 6.5 Creedmoor. Every other rifle I have is chambered for an older cartridge.

However I’m at a point where I had just as soon to have a 70s Model 700 in .270 Win or Model 70 featherweight. Also realized I’ve shot but never owned a 30-30. Wouldn’t mind a JM Marlin or a Winchester 30-30. I would rather shoot a deer at 30 yards with a 30-30 than shoot one at 500 yards with any rifle. Maybe one of the new Marlins if QC is good.

B.C. has its place and I like some of the newer bullets. But I have absolutely ZERO, NADDA, no interest whatsoever in shooting at any animal at 700 or 800 yards away. I know B.C. comes into place much closer than that. I have a few hundred ELD-X’s etc. But the reality is a hornady interlock SP has all the B.C needed for 99% of the shots I will ever take at a live animal.

At a point where I had just soon have a lever action 30-30 and a Model 700 or Model 70 featherweight .270 Win or 30-06 etc and a few lbs of 4831 or 4350 and a couple tags. A stainless rifle chambered for one of the same cartridges would be alright.
All the new stuff is becoming less interesting to me. I know this is a long winded post.

Not a long winded post at all. Interesting, but not that long winded. I like your choice of rifles. Especially the Winchester model 70 featherweight. A classic stainless would be a great rifle to have. I love mine. As for your choice of lever action 30-30: My grandpa collected and used Winchester model 94's, mainly 30-30's, but one of his favorites was his 375. I have that rifle now:


I like them all, as long as they function reliably. The 30-30 is indeed an "old cartridge" and an old 94 would be cool to have for sure. I also like what you said about the good ol Hornady interlock too. I've made my furthest shots with the btsp interlocks. One in a 300WSM and the other in a 7mm rem mag. Both shots over 600 yards. However, if you don't like to shoot long range, they work very well close up too. A round nosed bullet in the 30-30 has always worked well and who knows how many deer and elk it has put in peoples freezers? Interests change, and most guys come full circle after trying everything they think they needed.

Thats a good looking 375. I would get more enjoyment out of hunting the woods with that than a new 300 Whomper Stomper. If you haven’t already you should take that 375 after elk.
I don’t mind long range shooting at steel etc. but I don’t personally like long range hunting at all.
If I went out tomorrow and bought the rifles i mentioned above and maybe throw in a Model 70 Safari for the heck of it. Throw in a pile of components or ammo for them i could be content. And take the pick of a light weight .223, 22-250, 243 Win, or 6.5 Creedmoor etc. i could be content with that.

I killed my first deer with open sights in December. I will be 70 shortly. The rifle is a savage 99 made in 1908. I saw this buck several different times before he got close enough. It’s a 32-40. 165 Hornady I don’t own a 30-30 either. I hit him in chest, went out rear hindquarter

I have a 99 in 375, just got it, haven’t shot it yet.

As someone who has always enjoyed math, computing & a bit of quality engineering, I absolutely understand why someone might really enjoy shooting highly accurate BC bullets from a very modern stainless steel rifle with all of the available technology in an attempt to cloverleaf several rounds at distance. It's a demanding challenge that I would (currently) fail at.

But that's not where my heart is at. I'm sort of stuck in a sentimental past where I enjoyed hunting with my uncles and my grandfather using rifles that had lots of blued steel & walnut. Since the majority of my hunting is done in the southeast, my longest shots are often limited to a couple of hundred meters before trees start to become a problem. A lot of my shots could be done with iron sights if my eyesight wasn't so crappy.

Under these conditions, just about everything in my gun safe will put a deer in the freezer. So my rifle choice for a hunting trip is often not based on ballistics but whimsy. Do I want to hunt with my 6.5x55, the .275 Rigby or my simple Ruger #1 in .303 British with a Leupold 6x? If I'm going for a really big hog, sometimes I like something that has an authoritative kick and a corresponding boom. Maybe I'll grab my 9.3x74r or a .405 Winchester. Plenty of uncommon rounds from yesteryear to choose from. Just don't ask me to justify these choices. I buy what makes me happy and that's not always what's practical & makes sense.

And yea, that's a 120 rangefinder film camera in the photo below. So from my rifles to my camera to the tube amplifiers in my stereo, a certain anachronistic theme seems to pervade. Like ridgerunner_ky originally posted, a 150gr Hornady Interlock SP is a useful round that will cover a lot of ground with its average BC.

I own a couple rifles chambered in newer cartridges (300 Blackout, 327 Federal) but most of my stuff is in older or obsolescent chamberings. The new, huge supermagnumcrackenboomers hold zero appeal to me, but some of the smaller offerings like the Blackout, 6.5 Grendel, 6mm Arc, etc, do. Blackout has become one of my favorite cartridges. It's not high horsepower, but it is very stingy on powder, almost nil for recoil, and does its job well at the kind of ranges I shoot.

I'm not a long range shooter at all, and I'm not fond of heavy recoil, so for the most part, smaller to midsized classic cartridges suit me just fine. I'm also a sucker for lever actions, so there's that. 😁

Same. I really like my Wilson Combat AR-15 in .300 HAM'R but it is definitely the odd duck sitting there between a bunch of falling blocks.

Those “older “ cartridges have fed many generations of families. And remember, dead is dead when hunting.. I dont have anything that I would consider a new whiz bang thing.
30-06
.243
30-30
12, 20, 28 ga shotguns….
22 mag
22lr
38 spl
357 mag
380
Etc

I do have a 17 Mach 2 that tickled my fancy……just for fun

I started out with a RAR in Blackout. It was nice, but I'm a lefty, and just through circumstances I ended up selling it to a friend and getting a CVA Scout maybe 6 months later. The Scout doesn't shoot quite as well, but it handles a little better for me. It's still plenty accurate for the yardages I am using it at, so I'm happy with it. It's currently sitting beside a Savage 99 250 Sav and a Henry BBS (the 327) in the safe. 😁

I had a Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel for a bit a few years back. It was a delightful little cartridge, but I just could not like the rifle, so I traded it off.

I feel better when I'm carrying a 250 Savage or 270 while deer hunting

I don't look at my cartridge selection as older more like classic. In the last few years have favored single shots over bolt guns. My last custom #1 is in 300 Savage before that was a 300 H&H. I just had a bolt gun completed of a Kurz Mauser action in 250 Savage. I drank the Creedmore Kool Aid when they first became popular. It didn't take long to puke it up and go with a 6.5X55.
It's blued steel and nice walnut for me no synthetic stocks for the most part. I admit to having three, two Weatherby Ultra Lights and a boat paddle Ruger 338 that hasn't seen the light of day since I took it to Alaska in 99.

I always thought a .300 H&H Magnum would be an interesting classic to have. I saw one earlier today for $67,900 on GunBroker. If I can get a really good price for one of my kidneys, I might add it to the collection.

This got me thinking. I only have one rifle chambered for a cartridge that came out this century. A 375 Ruger just in case I get of my butt and go buff hunting. The next youngest is a 7mm Remington mag which came out 10 years before I was born. The only high BC bullet I've used (on game) was in a borrowed 6.5PRC for an aoudad ram. That shot was a few steps past 350yds and well within range of several other rifles I own.

I've pretty much decided that anything past 400yds is safe from me. I have and continue to shoot at twice that distance at targets but I do so to increase skill at shorter range. I respect guys like Swamplord that "do the homework" and have the capacity to take extremely long shots. For me there are too many variables, namely unforseen wind and time of flight. All an elk or deer has to do is take a step in the half second it takes for the bullet to arrive turning a perfect shot into a gut shot.

So for me, 180s out of my 30-06 and let's get after it.

I'm in about the same boat. My "new" cartridge" is a 700 in 6CM.

The others are 22LR, 222, 223, 257Roberts, 275Rigby, 35Remington 308, 7.62x39, 30-06 & 300H&H.

Could I see a pic of the Kurz 250 Savage?

Newest cartridge I hunt with is a .358 Winchester, favorite is 7x57.

It gets pigeonholed as a "brush buster" or only for short range... but once upon a time, the 30-30 *was* the new wonder cartridge of its day and people used it for *everything*... including elk, bear, moose, etc.

Mine is a 1992 JM 336 that groups 150 TSXs at about an inch at 100 yards.

The 300 H&H has been reinvented as the 300 WSM . I load my 375 H&H (Ruger #1) down using IMR 4227. It makes it a fine deer round and you can eat right up to the hole. I also hunt deer with 405, 450-400, 38-55, 35 Whelan all single shots

The newest cartridges that I have guns chambered in are the 350 RemMag and .223 Rem. The most used are in .22lr, 22 Hornet, 30/30, 250 Sav, 300 Sav, and .308.