Thats what makes a long-range hunters heart go pitter patter, and its what has kept Weatherby in business since 1945. always means more wind deflection. Up until that time, there had only really been two .277-caliber hunting cartridgesthe .270 Winchester and the .270 Weatherbyso the .270 WSM was almost immediately popular. (not the bullet Id choose for this beast, just puts it nicely in line with the others), What does that do for you at regular ranges? Misjudging a 5mph crosswind as 8mph will make a 5.3 difference at 500yd with my favorite varmint load (BC0.400/MV3,400). Before we check that out, let's give a nod to the 240 Wby. Then look at the available options for reloaders, nearly endless, bullets for every application imaginable. Check out ShootersCalculator.com. Perhaps you, dear reader, can provide the formula! The 300 PRC in 225G exceeds this and the 338 Lapua Magnum by a noticeable difference. No, its not a 6.5 Creedmoor, but few things are. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. . Its muzzle velocity is 1880 fps, and muzzle energy is 2355 ft. lbs. The way in which cartridge manufacturers develop rounds to overcome these forces is the twist rates of the barrels in the rifles the cartridges are chambered in, developing longer, more aerodynamic bullets with narrower ogives and case capacity. When the .264 Winchester Magnum was introduced about 60 years ago, it became a sensation with shooters looking to extend their reach in the field. drops 6.7 inches at 300 yards and just under 20 inches at 400 yards. If you had to choose one cartridge to hunt with for the rest of your life, you could do a whole lot worse than the .30-06 Springfield. I too share your endorsement of Ron, his videos are a treat each week. The 50 BMG is still supersonic past 1200 yards. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[336,280],'backfire_tv-box-4','ezslot_7',175,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-backfire_tv-box-4-0'); Spinning high B.C. At 300 yards it has dropped around 13 inches, and at 500 yards it's just under 60 inches (5 feet). Considered by many to be the optimum long-range, large-game cartridge, the .300 Winchester Magnum has proven itself worldwide. Like the 26 Nosler, the 28 is based on the 404 Jeffery case and will remain supersonic out past 1,750 yards. The 300 PRC will cruise above the speed of sound out to 1,650 yards. With a muzzle velocity faster than 3000 fps, it offers great external and terminal ballistics. Impeccable analysis here. That's pretty dang flat. Hornady Precision Hunter 212-grain ELD-X at 2,860 fps. http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator, 338 Lapua with a 300 grain projectile (you can run 250s in the Lapua as well, but most run a 300). Know your trajectory curve and nail the shot distance with a range finder and you can offset huge rates of drop. This lets you focus on having only one caliber to maintain. I hope this report clears up some trajectory confusion and perhaps settles some old arguments. Warm greetings from S.W. Since 1962, when the round was introduced in conjunction with the Remington 700, countless others have arrived at the same conclusion. It has flipped positions with the 6.5, losing by a mere 1.4-inches. Thats true, but the bullets have been vetted. However, at 400 yards it increases to 11.2 inches. Fast and flat shooting b#%ds. With a flatter trajectory and less wind drift the .300 Win Mag offers a useful step up in performance in a similar size rifle. Manners thumbhole stock, trigger tech trigger at around a pound. Accuracy, knowledge of your rifle and its drops at different ranges, and knowledge of the conditions will dictate your very long range shots. A 3 mph breeze at the shooter can become a 20 mph roar in the canyon halfway to the target. Just saying, excellent job to tell the nature of all calibers for hunting from 100 to 700 yards for medium game. The .204 will work quiet well at 500 yards with good shot placement. What are the best long-range cartridges: .22-250 Remington .308 Winchester .300 Winchester Magnum .338 Lapua Magnum .300 Weatherby Magnum 6.5 Creedmoor 6.5-284 Norma 26 Nosler rating) driven more slowly. 6.5 CM The 6.5 CM is a newcomer to the shooting world. For a moose and caribou combo hunt, it's certainly an easy choice..270 Winchester - Like the 30-06, this is a classic caliber that can take on any of North America's big game species. With the ability to handle more aerodynamic bullets than the .270 Winchester or the .270 WSM, the 6.8 Western and its 1-in-8 twist rate allows this cartridge to outperform both at distance. I work at a very large and popular firearms dealer, and I have sold dozens (if not hundreds) if the 6.5, but I havent sold 1, or had anyone even ask about the top 3 in this list. But, as an extreme range competition shooter recently told me, the number of cold barrel, first round hits he sees at 1,000 yards in competition is well below 50%. In your question about Flattest shooting caliber in a Lever Gun, Winchester 1894 shooting a .25-35 caliber bullet. Cheers. Trust but verify. Even at 500 yards the Hornady 225 SST is traveling over 2,000 fps and carrying over 2,000 ft/lbs of energy. Federal Premium, 130-grain Terminal Ascent, .308 Winchester will win no ballistic awards. The 6.5 Creedmoor will remain supersonic out to 1,400 yards and is quickly becoming the most popular long-range, big-game cartridge in the world. Fantastic information. So what if we shoot further than 300? These lists are awesome to go over. Shane Olson, nope, no sarcasm involved, simply pointing out a straight fact, which I stand by. Its very clear that you went through a huge amount of work to pull all of this info together. Only B.C. Mag. Caliber Flattest Shooting Load BC; 7mm R Mag: Hor 139 gr InBd HvMag.480: 270 WSM (1) Fed 130 gr Nosler BT.428: 300 Win Mag: Hor 150 gr InBd . For example a 308 dropping 429 at 1000 yards is ridiculous, thats 10 meters! Weatherbys The goal with the 6 mm ARC was to provide the flattest-shooting cartridge compatible with an AR-15. This is one of the flattest shooting bullets available on the market, with a plethora of different size bullets available that range from 75 grains for small game, all the way up to 120 grains for deer. It makes for easy reading in an \all in one place\ comparison, rather than spending time trying to find this data all over the internet. Somehow stumbled onto this article. Hornady 123-grain SST at 2580 fps. The smaller calibers drop like a rock past 500 yards. Mag. While heavier bullets at low speed dont shoot as flat, they do carry energy further generally. Always amazing to me its not even on those lists. If Ive left out an obvious winner or near winner, write in and state your case. With the highest BC bullets, the 26 Nosler remains supersonic beyond 1,750 yards. that are blowing the ceiling off gun sales, instead of 6 5 CDM? Based on the old .404 Jeffery case, its the same length as the .30/06, which means it works in standard-length actions. It gives you an MPBR of 336 yards. If you are looking for the flattest shooting caliber to 500 yards, you should read anything else. I'm not a huge fan of basing my decisions on bullet energy. But again, that just my opinion. The caveat here is that fastest becomes a bit murky. What I have come up with is the .270 Weatherby Magnum with a 135gr Sierra Matchking and 7828. The 26 Nosler cartridge was designed with the high ballistic coefficient (B.C.) Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush .by Peter H. Capstick, Dino Paravano, Handbook for Shooters and Reloaders (Volume 1) Paperback, The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game: Volume 1: Big Game, Horn of the Hunter: The Story of an African Safari Kindle Edition, Use Enough Gun: On Hunting Big Game Hardcover, Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail: Upland Birds and Small Game from Field to Feast Hardcover March 1, 2018, The Easy Venison Cookbook: 60 Simple Recipes for Deer, Elk, and Moose Kindle Edition. Twenty years ago, Winchester introduced the .270 WSM (Winchester Short Magnum). Appropriate hunting bullets may not reach these levels of B.C. When a bullet is fired, many forces are immediately working against it: gravity, wind, and atmospheric drag. However, I have a question to ask you. 26 Nosler. (-200) Shooting a 180-grain bullet (.507 G1 BC) at 2,960 fps and sighted in 1.5 inches high at 100 yards, the .300 Win. At 500 yards, 5.56 will have roughly 339 ft-lbs of energy which drops to roughly 75 ft-lbs at 1,000 yards. But its so close to the 6.5-300 Wby. etc. With the 6.5 PRC, Hornady has created a better version of the old barrel-burner. Id consider a base of: Among these cartridges, the 25-06 offers the highest MPBR (Mean Point Blank Range) or the max distance that you can adjust a scope to and be +-3 with the most common bullet weights per caliber. Although its going to be easier to estimate drop for a 700 yard shot with a 30-378, compared to a 30-06, you still need to range your animal within +/-25 yards using the 30-378 to hit vitals. Required fields are marked *. The rifle snobs might whine. So since it doesnt work AT ALL for serious shooters, it doesnt get much air time, and then the average hunter who only shoots 2-3 boxes per YEAR never hears about it. Good points, which are all things Ive considered. Obviously Weatherby and Nosler, but are there other manufacturers, vendors, builders to consider? plays a major roll in trajectory, but is second in significance to muzzle velocity. I normally go for high BC and heavy for cal but one place I do run light is I'll shoot a Barnes 110 TTSX 3600 fps in my 270 WSM, for light game and coyotes it's very effective! The good news is that these bullets might shoot even a tad flatter than these numbers indicate. Backfire LLC owns and operates this website. gundata.org has done all this for you already. 17. The Nosler AccuBond is one of the best all-round big-game bullets offered, and Weatherby has smarly offered the 140-grain version for their 6.5 RPM cartridge. Based on the 7.6239/220 Russian cartridge case, the Valkyrie changes the personality of the AR-15. I ran the numbers with the 180 grain Ballistic tip at 3420 fps. At 600 yards, most common cartridges are running out of juice to take down larger game like Elk or Moose, though the 300 win mag/300 WSM still have a bit left in the tank. A flat shooting cartridge matters. How about our drops on the cartridges that made it? Its really tough to spot impacts with that much recoil, and thats becoming increasingly important for shooters. The 300WM with the 210 VLDs at 2950fps is pretty good also. Another one or two probably should have made the original list. Surely this is 42.9 just over a meter? It shoots as flat as a Kansas prairie and holds its velocity way out there. While at the High Bar Homestead with PSA, I was able to stretch their 6.5 Grendel out to 1,000 yards with Federal Premium 130 grain Bergers. Love it Jim ! The flattest shooting caliber and load I could find was the .300 RUM shooting a 150 grain bullet. The .25-06 is fast, shoots flat at 200 yards, and has just a 6.5-inch drop at 300 yards. numbers are accurate. It is a flat shooting cartridge, able to hit a target at 300 yards with negligible hold over. All three cartridges also offer ample case capacity, allowing enough powder to send bullets at drag-defying velocities. Top muzzle velocities with the same combination of powder, primer, and bullet can vary by 100 to 200 fps. I wonder if you could possibly make that load available to me, so I can compare which loads are the best? 1.5" high at 100, would be dead-on at 250, and only drop 30" at 550. Feb 17, 2023. Since this article originally went live, several excellent long-range big-game cartridges have it the market. Target Rifle- Caliber Question. bullet twice that far. Want to run your own ballistics numbers? Only a handful of .277-caliber cartridges are made today, but the .270 Winchester is still by far the most popular, given all the guns and loads out there for it. Still, if youre goal is to push heavy projectiles to the outer reaches, Noslers 28 may be the best 7mm option out there. The 27 Nosler bests the .270 Winchester by about 400 fps with 150-grain bullets. So its not like the flattest shooting rifle gives you a lot more leeway on ranging errors for super long range shots. These cartridges all drop less than 255 at 1,000 yards. It will be built on a stiller predator action, carbon wrap or #4 fluted stainless at 26 inches. Don't get me wrong, but 45-70 are very accurate and can travel quite well buckin' the wind, If youre after deeper penetration, look at the 139-grain Barnes VOR-TX Long Range load. Thanks the max load is the distance load. 1 Normal load using the most popular factory ammo, one heavy load for each, one light load. It would help one decide on if a cartilage was up to a specific task and if one would be willing to take the kick. Posted: 12/20/2020 9:01:19 AM EST [#22] There is a simple . . And here they are: Flattest at 300 yards 240 Wby. Bullet B.C. Based on the now almost-forgotten .284 Winchester, the 6.5-284 Norma was originally a wildcat cartridge and a very popular one, especially in bench-rest competitions. Low B.C. For the Top 5 you have listed, what manufacturers offer a complete rifle in those calibers? It's a shame the .25-06 is in decline at the moment. The 220 Swift would be my pick for coyotes, rodents, and probably pronghorn if it werent for the wind deflection issue. J. Thanks Jim. Nevertheless, flat shooting cartridges have long fascinated hunters and driven cartridge development and sales. Best .270 Rounds The vast offerings of ammo and rifles on the market today is why the 338 Winchester Magnum is probably one of the best elk cartridges a hunter can carry.