Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Quickest Killing Cartridges on Big Game

With which cartridges have you observed (notice I said observed not theoretically conjectured or google searched) the quickest kills on big game (i.e. deer and larger)?


Mine are all on whitetail deer:

1. .300 Winchester and 165 grain Sierra or 165 Nosler BT all bang flop DRT

2. .280 AI with the 120 grain Nosler BT All Bang Flop DRT

3. 6MM Remington with 80 grain Remington PLHP longest blood trail job about 50 yards.

4. .257 Roberts with 100 grain Winchester Silvertips longest blood trail job 50 yards


5. .25/06 with 90 grain Sierra GKHP and 100 grain Hornady longest blood trail job 75-80 yards

6. .17 Remington with 25 grain Hornady HP longest blood trail job 100 yards.

7mag with 160 TSX on coues... DRT 401

7RUM 140 accubond 531 yards on coues. DRT

270 wsm, couple different times and distances... all over 350 yds.

The one that the shooter can put an adequate bullet where it needs to go every time with. Take your pick.

I've seen bull elk drop at the shot from one 100 gr 6mm partition and I've seen antelope run 300 yds after taking two 180 gr partitions from a .300 win.

It's where ya hit 'em that counts.

I've always liked 165 partitions in a .308 or '06 myself. 165 xlc worked well too. Never tracked an animal more than a few yards with either combo. I'm hoping the accubond performs as well. I'll find out this fall. Going to try some 150 tsx too.

7mm 160 gr partition killed everything like lightning when I was shooting a 7mm rem mag.

.270 140 gr. partition, x, and xlc, was the same.

...this should really be interesting.....popcorn?

In my experience there is a lot more detail to the topic that just naming some particular bullet out of a cartridge.

Here is the site that I like the best on the topic but even then I don't agree with it 100%.

Shooting Holes in Wounding Theories

Like Shaun said, I think it has a whole lot more to do with effective shot placement than it does choice of caliber.

here is a few speaking only from personal experience -

30-06/180gr partition, elk, 40 yard broadside shot, elk moved about 3' then fell over.

270 win/130gr partition, whitetail, 180 or so broadise shot, deer fell right there.

243 win/95gr ballistic tip, whitetail, 120 or so yards coming straight at me, dropped his heaf so shot him in the neck/spine, dropped right there.

i'm sure i (and you as well) could have made these same shots, with the same results using some other gun/caliber. all of this only proves it is where you hit em. good hunting.

In my experience speed DEFINATELY kills quicker with the smaller 'large' game animals. But only when COMBINED with a good deep wound in the right place. I have bangflopped several large mule deer bucks at ranges in excess of 400 yards with a .257WBY and 100gr TSX's. A truly impressive and amazing combination if ever there was one. I bangflopped a Black bear last spring at 409 Leica measured yards with my 300 RUM using 180gr TSX's. Also did the some on a couple of Impala and a KUDU with the same rifle and load. Another impressive cartridge and bullet combo to say the least. Impact velocity of over 2700fps with a properly placed Barnes TSX will get very quick results when using a caliber of reasonable dimensions and a good hit.

Whitetail/Mule Deer/Antelope/feral hogs:

1) .300 Win/Weatherby/RUM with 150-165 Sierra BTSP/Hornady BTSP.

2) 3 way tie - .270/.280/.30-06 with cup & core 130-165 gr

3) .300 Mags with premium 180-200 gr bullets

4) 3 way tie - .270/.280/.30-06 with premium bullets

Never killed a deer with a 7 mag and only a couple with .270 mags. .24s/.25s and the big bores I have observed (.338 WM, .35 Whelen) have tended to run a bit further with less bang flops than the above, but never had any real problems with good shot placement.

Lou

.460 Weatherby - any load.
The hunting stops when the trigger is pulled, or as Elmer used to say, "I prefer to do my hunting before the shot".

JW

Shot placement is my favorite cartridge ....

Seriously, I've had deer all go the same distance on heart/lung shot's (10-30 yards, fall over and kick a few times) with a 30-30, 25-06, 7WBY or 300WBY. I must say the 300WBY was the most impressive ... 10 yards and a chest full of jello @ about 175 yards with a 180gr SGK. Small go-insa and a quater-sized go-outsa with a wicked mess in between!

Finn Aagaard wrote that he saw more one shot kills with a .270 than any other cartridge, with his background that says a lot,, Myself I have had a good run of luck with the 7 mag running 140 and 150 Ballistics tips on both whitetail and Muleys as well as a bunch of T-lopes, the farther the better results.

That's been my experience too. The bullets that come out the spout at 3,000 fps + seem to have a more dramatic effect.

Quickest I've seen on deer around here is (fastest to slowest of the really quick) all factory ammo
All deer were alerted to danger and were getting ready to bolt
25-06 (100,115,&120 gr)
240 Weatherby (100gr)
6mm Rem (100gr)
.243 (100gr).

A twelve gauge slug to the head at five paces sure drops 'em quick. They do flop around, so I guess that wouldn't qualify as a "DRT" around here.

Generally speaking if the hunter does his part they will kill very well.
I�ve had more DRTs with small bullets (25 & .277 cal with 100 to 130 grain bullets) traveling very fast. (3000+fps)
I�ve also had a good many DRTs with large bullets (.323 to .458 cal with 200 to 405 grain bullets) traveling very slowly. (1800 to 2400 fps)
Calibers I have used to kill deer size game and larger are:

45-70, 35 Rem, 30-30, .308 Win, 30-06, .270 Win, .25-06, .257 Roberts, 8x57, 9.3x62, .300 Mag and .300 WSM.

My experience has been that a 30-30 and .54 smokepole always drops them on the spot, even with lung shots. All the other gee-whiz rounds I have shot deer with, double punch the lungs and they seem to run a few yards.

Dont know how many deer I have shot with a 30-30, it always drops them right on the spot. Maybe I have just been lucky.

My best results have come on whitetails using a 300 win mag with 150 grain Hornady flat base interlocks. Over thirty kills with this combo,nothing has gone anywhere,some were shoulder shots and some were just lung shots but the deer were dead right there.(I did have one big nine point go about 10 yards but he was hit a lttle too far back and still died very quickly.)


The other caliber which has been just as good on deer is a 270 Weatherby with 130 grain hornady flat base interlocks. Took over thirty with it,all dead right there with various lung and shoulder shots.

I have had good results with lots of rifles but these two were the best with a large sample size of more than a deer or two.

Britt

I once owned a 7mm/08 that shot 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips like a singer sewing machine. It nearly ruined my tracking skills. I killed 12 straight deer with it that were DRT's, and loaned it out twice to two seperate hunters that had the sme results. Ranges from 10 feet to around 225 yards. I got a little bored and started experimenting with other bullets, the first deer I shot with a 130 grain Speer Hot Cor ran about 40 yards before piling up. Thought for sure something was terribly wrong...

Those 140 grain Ballistic tips moving at about 2750 fps were absolutely like a toggle switch on deer.

My only experience has been with 280's, 7 Wby's & 7 Rem Mag. I could not see either of the 7 Mag's outrunning the 280 in the bang-flop category. I just happen to like the big 7's better. Don't need them just like them.

If I had it to do over: I would have kept my original Rem 700 in 308 Win I purchased in 1976 and would still be hunting with it today.