Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Are we gravitating toward smaller calibers/cartridges?

Not in this household.

I'd say #1 and #2 have a hell of a lot more to do with tacticool preppers and not big game hunting.

That's what I was getting at in my earlier post. Go to any hunting camp in my locale and you won't see many smaller cartridges. It's been that way for 30 years...

You'll see 7mags, 300 mags, 338's and 30-06's. The 270 is about the smallest thing you'll see and those guys get jazzed about it being marginal for whitetail deer.

The only ones I know of/about going 'smaller' are on here, and

Unless of course, you got out and used different cartridges yourself,above and below the 30/06 threshold, rather than depend on 3rd party information.

That's pretty much what I see too. Last year WI did away with the last of the deer shotgun zones. Several people inquired about what rifle I thought they should buy and every one of them already had 300 mag on the brain.

The closer you get to the east coast, the bigger the cartridge you need.



Travis

RCBS 2012 Top 10 Rifle Reloading Die Sales - By Chuck Hawks

Curious about the popularity of centerfire rifle cartridges among reloaders? There usually isn't a dramatic change from year to year; it is more like a glacial movement. Regardless, here is RCBS's 2012 sales list (first published in 2013) for their top 10 best selling rifle reloading die sets:
1..223 Remington
2..308 Winchester
3..30-06 Springfield
4..243 Winchester
5..270 Winchester
6..300 Winchester Magnum
7..22-250 Remington
8.7mm Remington Magnum
9..30-30 Winchester
10..25-06 Remington

Although missing the top 10, .338 Winchester Magnum remains the best selling of all medium bore cartridge reloading dies. The most interesting changes on this RCBS die sales list are the .308 surpassing the .30-06 as the number one big game hunting cartridge among reloaders and the .300 Win. Mag. passing the 7mm Rem. Mag. Since all .300 Magnums indisputably kick too hard for most hunters to handle without flinching, the latter is particularly deplorable.

Less surprising in this magnum oriented hunting climate is the decline of the .30-30, which has slid in reloading die sales over the last decade or so. (Of course, the .30-30 has always been a better seller in factory loaded ammunition than in reloading dies.) I regard this trend as unfortunate, as the .30-30 is all the cartridge most hunters will ever need and it kicks much less than the magnums, allowing more precise bullet placement.