Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Surprising Cartridges for Inherent Accuracy?

German Salazar I think still has his comparison of the 308 & 30-06 up on his blog. His guns are very close to identical. His match scores show the 308 shooting better at shorter range, but the '06 shooting better at long range.

Then there's the old GUN DIGEST article Warren Page did on Remington's accuracy testing of 40-X rifles. They shot each rifle after it was built on an indoor range, and in general they found the larger the cartridge, the less accurate it was. But none were over .30 caliber.

Jim Carmichel wrote about how Ruger found .220 Swifts more accurate than .22-250's in their testing after they started chambering the Swift. Jim found that to be true with his rifles as well.

I did an article on this subject several years ago for HANDLOADER, dragging up some of the old research like the stuff above, and asking the opinions of various people in the shooting business who test a lot of rifles. Most do feel some cartridges are more inherently accurate than others, but some don't.

I think the 375H&H is a very accurate cartridge, and I have seen and owned some that would just stack bullets.

The 220 Swift is another...the 300 H&H just seems to have eyes in some rifles,mostly pre 64 M70's; and some of the smallest groups I have fired from sporting weight hunting rifles have been with the 30/06 shooting 150 gr bullets.

I think rifles have a lot to do with it but I do think there are certain cartridges that are just more inclined to shoot well.

Judging by what the BR shooters use, the 6PPC is probably the most inherently accurate cartridge yet designed. In that crowd, if there was something better, they would be using it.

The .308 I had was the easiest cartridge I to get to group well that I have ever done load development for, though my .260 wasn't far behind in ease of finding accurate loads.

I've personally seen some plane Jane .375 H&Hs shoot some pretty darned impressive groups also.

John

I have a stock Remington 700 in 35 Whelen. It consistently shoots 1.0-1.25" groups. Accurate enough that I don't see any need to tune it (i.e., possibly mess it up). If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The 220 Swift was the first cartridge I loaded for. I bought a Mauser 98 from a neighbor when I was 15 and it shot 1.25" groups. This was in the mid-1950 and the barrel was from an unknown maker and restocked by the neighbor.

I bought a Ruger 77 heavy-barrel Varminter in 1970 and shoots sub 1" groups. I've never felt the urge to try the 22-250.

I agree with that, although some of my smallest groups have been with a 222. If my new 6ppc barrel does not work out better than my last one I might switch back.
Just last month a new small group record was shot with I believe a 30ppc .007"

Sorry you are WRONG.......you must need to shoot more

BINGO !! That's my impression after loading for uh, uh, 38 yrs and too many rifle/cartridges to count or at least remember.

9.3X62, hands down! I've never found one that didn't like the same hole.

.204 ruger. would almost have to try to find a load that was NOT accurate.

9.3X62

REALLY.....REALLY !! you have been loading for uh, uh, 38yrs and you cant tell some cartridges are inherently more accurate than others

I have a 6ppc on an inherently accurate BR rifle (6ppc with a Kreiger 1-13.5" twist barrel), I have a match next month to compete in.....I will record each of the 5 targets and the group size of each target. barrel will be about mid-life by then........you choose the chambering and chamber the barrel and if you can beat my agg. with the chambering of your choice (6mm obviously) I will give you my rifle.
If you cant you buy me 2 new barrels for next season.

btw choose 100 or 200 yds, bolt will accept ppc or .473

boatanchor

I didn't say I had loaded EVERY cartridge BUT a whole lotta 'normal' hunting cartridges.

THANKS for the offer, I am TOO busy finishing Summer and getting ready for HUNTING.

Since the 6ppc is one of or the most popular competition rounds.... it just maybe more 'inherently' accurate.

OR maybe it's just a pussycat to shoot.

Two for me, a CZ-550 in 9.3X62 and a Steyr ProHunter in 6.5X57. My Sako in 6.5X55 would shoot bug holes, but was not sure of the 6.5X57.

This.

Out of my stable, the most accurate rifles (in descending order) are chambered in .220 Swift, .308 Win and 7-STW. Three good rifles with very little in common amongst the chamberings.

"Inherently accurate" may cover more than most accurate.

I have never really seen a direct correlation between cartridge bore, powder capacity, and case size etc. All .22 , 27 are better than 35 38 etc. Overbore, under bore etc some seem to be just right 308 6.5X55 9.3X62 etc I only know what has worked well for myself and my shooting.

boatanchor, Your just too full of yourself!! for anyone to take you seriously. Stop throwing all the muck around you bring with you.

Try to listen and understand what poeple have to say instead of listening for place to talk. In turn they may listen to you.

This thread has wandered away from answering the original question.

There's no real surprise in the .222 Remington and .308 Winchester being accurate, and there's REALLY no surprise in the 6mm PPC being accurate, since it was totally designed to put bullets in the same hole. The 6 PPC's accuracy is about as surprising as a Labrador retriever preferring hamburger to lettuce.

On the question whether inherently accurate cartridges exist, I've seen rifles chambered for a lot of different rounds shoot really well. But all that means is that a carefully-made rifle, or an accidentally-right rifle, can be very accurate, no matter what cartridge it's chambered for. Some rounds do seem to shoot well in just about any rifle.

Plus, I've talked to a lot of people in the shooting industry who test a lot of rifles under controlled conditions, and most of them believe in inherently accurate rounds. I wrote up their opinions in the HANDLOADER srticle previously mentioned, and am not going to repeat all of it here, but there is pretty strong evidence for inherently accurate rounds.

I would agree on the 9.3x62 being one of the surprisingly accurate cartridges. I've shot several factory rifles in 9.3x62, and they've all been very accurate. Just shot my own CZ 550 the other day, and used some old handloads to make sure it was still on target at 100 yards before testing some new handloads for an article. The first two 3-shot groups, both with the old handloads, measured .62 inch each. Not bad for a factory rifle chambered for a cartridge over a century old!