Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Best Short Action caliber rife for Mule Deer/White tail out to 400 yrds????

The two that jump out at me these days are the 7/08 and 6.5 Creedmoor.

If I were in love with short actions(I'm not),I'd grab a Kimber Montana and send it out for a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel,and dupe the contour. This may be delusion but I've done crazier things.

I killed a bunch of my 20-odd deer with a 7-08. It is one heck of a deer cartridge.

HowEVER....... take out the 400-yd requirement that the OP spec'd and I'd say .358....... but I'm a little nutty that way.

Bunch of them fill the bill from the 243 on the small end to the 308 on the larger end and several good ones in between such as the 7-08, 260 rem etc. Take your pick all can take a deer at 400 yds if the shooter does his part.

308
708
260(or any of the others 6.5 creed,6.5x47,etc)
250AI
243

If you handload take your pick. If not I'd go 308. I didn't list "why" to the different cartridges because every single one of them will work great. I'd hate to be a deer at 400 yards if you shoot from time to time. I'd feel comfy with my 22-250AI

The 6mm's appeal to me.

I'd prolly go 243AI.

I would caremore aout the package than the chamber however. All mentioned would be okie dokie with me.

Havent read all the posts, but a Kimber Montana in 7mm-08 firing a 140 gr Accubond would get it done with ease.

Gunner

This exercise proves one thing:

They all work Proven. Lon ago, I always advocated for deer using a 25-28 bore pushing 2700 w/a bullet 120gr or up.

NOW, I inc. the 24 bore as bullets are better than ever i.e. 95BT and Barnes (many others I know and used succesfully). The 25s work great w/100-110s also.

Kaleb, agree, I could use a 22/250AI or even 22BR w/fast twist, a 75 Amax and other's will smoke deer. FLY flat, deny wind.

Jeff, notice you use the 25 WSSM alot, wonder if there was a 6.5 WSSM option...just curious

Being a 6.5 nut a 260/130AB is my go to, but a 6.5BR, even 6BR would do my fine as I learned long ago, it's not horsepower, but shot placement w/good bullets.

Light recoil never hurts, which is prob why I have not felt the need to go 308, but as a handloader I have more options, and I like experimenting for my own desire to learn.

For me, I can and have been lethal w/a variety of combos, though not used 22s or smaller on deer...yet.

Lighter recoiling rounds just allow me to thread my shot thru vitals w/more confidence and ease, and no doubt, when you know you don't shoot a cannon, you focus more on placing your shot, or I do, and you also have less ruined meat. Things to consider.

That puts more focus for me on 6mm and 6.5s, owned a 25-06, but louder than I like, would love to own a 250/ai someday.

My next big venture will be playing w/22 fast twists, lighter recoil yet....always learning.

Sort of. I'm not feverish anymore but I have to keep my leg in a sling to keep the fluid from building up. I just got switched to stronger meds because the ones they had me on weren't killing the infection fast enough.

I think that because of COAL limits imposed by the Winchester/USRA 70 WSSM's magazine length, the .257" bore might be the "sweet-spot" for this case and magazine length combination. The 6.5 WSSM might work well with lighter/shorter bullets, but you'd soon run into COAL issues, assuming that you'd actually want to be able to have cartridges feed smoothly from the magazine. Since I already have 256 Newtons, 260s, 6.5-284s, and 6.5x55s, I think that I have the medium capacity .264" bore cartridge spectrum not only covered, but buried to about 6' deep!

I typically shoot a few hundred pdogs and gsquirrels each year with the 25 WSSM using (mostly) the 75 grain VMax in resized Federal WSSM brass and H4895 at about 3700 fps. Shoots flat, hits hard, and hits pretty close to wherever you put the intersection of the reticle's aiming point.

Jeff

..........Given your parameters using only for mule deer/whitetails out to 400 yards, imo the 7mm08 would be the best choice.

A 7/08 is all you would need and then some. Excellent 7mm bullet selections. The 7/08 (not that it would matter that much), would offer slightly better trajectories than the 308. And a 7/08 could easily graduate up to elk if needed to.

Cartridges based on the 308 parent casing are all excellent choices, but in your case the 7/08 gets my vote.

Anything really that's legal to hunt with....some may shy away from the 223 case but that's about it.... Have at it....

W

Whatever I have in my hands, whitetail haven't become bulletproof yet contrary to some.

An Army or Marine Sniper Team is expected to consistently hit a man sized target at 800 meters using 7.62 Nato match grade ammo.

Since the .308 Winchester and the 7.62 Nato are essentially the same cartridge this shows the POTENTIAL of using a 308 at half that distance.

400 is soooo much easier than 800. The End.

Yeah but do you know how many other cartridges could do the same put in the hands of the same shooters! Given any rifle able to consistently hold 2 MOA or better I'd lay money on all trained snipers in the military or LE of being able to consistently hitting a man sized target at 800 meters. The only reason the 7.62X51 is used is because that is what they are issued to use, given the choice I'd bet most of them would choose a different cartridge as well just like we do as hunters.

Being able to consistently hit a target at 800 meters doesn't show the potential of any cartridge it shows the potential of the person pulling the trigger. If the Armed forces still used the .30-06 the same standard would be expected of the snipers. The 5.56/.223 is capable of consistently hitting a man sized target at 800 meters and we all know how well talking about its "POTENTIAL" at 1/2 the distance on deer goes.



Amen Brother!

Roughly 2.5 MOA?

And that's the "potential" worthy of striving for?

There's a reason that they use the 7.62 NATO, and it's not purely "accuracy potential". Think logistics and lack of choice...

Please note I said they use "7.62 Nato match grade ammo". Not off the shelf ammo.

My point was in showing the "POTENTIAL" of the .308 Winchester.

All I can say as a service member is thanks for having that much faith in military decision making. However a lot of cartridges show potential that are never selected for military use.

As far as match grade ammunition showing potential you haven't shown the potential by emphasizing match grade ammunition. I tried to explain in my post what you described as a test of snipers skill can be easily pulled off by a 2 MOA rifle & cartridge as long as the shooter is up to the task. The majority of today's factory rifles can pull that kind of accuracy (2 MOA) with the cheapest ammunition available.

Taylorce1, tell us about your 250 build?

I know you said no wizzums... but.... a 7 wsm w a break kicks less in my 6.5lb (all up) than any of my 7-08/308s do.