Caliber Creep

[ntsqd]

I'm not any help, but I know that Analysis Paralysis all too well.

Local Rangemaster told my wife some years ago (pre 6.5 CM days) that 7-08 with 140's was about the minimum caliber that would reliably knock off the rams. The shooter still had to do their part, but that any lighter caliber made the shooter's job much harder. I'm guessing that either will do that job, but I can't decide on which to build her. Since the action is a Savage I may just order two barrels for it.....

 

[skipglo]

I'm thinking about ordering a MK X from shaw and I can't help but get a strong case of caliber creep. I'm wanting a step up from my .243, which is perfect for the Texas deer I currently hunt. In the next couple years I want to hunt aoudad and antelope. At first I was stuck on 280ai, then I shot a 270, and kind of started to like that one. More looking and researching made me think 300WM or 338-06. So for everyone that has been down this road, what made you finally decide what you wanted?

That's easy for me.....I bought one of EVERYTHING I liked and two of some I really liked!

 

[skipglo]

Old age made the decision for me, when your body starts to tell you that you're old you tend to migrate toward lighter rifles and light rifles usually require less powerful cartridges.

My current favorite is a 22" Kimber Mountain Ascent in .308 Win. It'll do the job out to reasonable ranges on just about anything. For deer, antelope, etc. I don't see any reason why I wouldn't try a shot out to 400 maybe 500 yards.

I took a slightly different road. With old age I went heavier! Designed and built a couple of telescoping Tree stands, mounted on trailers, heavier long range guns to save on walking. Stands have heaters and of course four burner stoves and coolers. 360 deg shooting windows. If I take the stand off the trailer, they have a ski design for pulling, I can position it....raise it with a quad winch, and park the quad or UTV under it and wrap the bottom with Camo cloth so it has its own Garage...
Lmao! Old age SUCKS...but makes us more inventive trying to figure out new creature comforts to keep us doing what we love!

 

[Deleted member 115360]

Despite the surge of the popularity of the Creedmoor (inferior to the
.260 Remington by 50 to 100 fps), take a long hard, and very
serious look at the 120 years yoiung 6,5 x 55 SE ("SwedishMAuser"). Look
especially at Norma (143 BondStrike and 156 Oryx) and Lapua 156-Mega
factory loads as well as reloading data which again equals or exceeds
the bally-hooed Creedmoor ballistics! Again, thus year, many thousands of
Scandinavian Moose (up to a ton in weight) re-discovered the lethality
of 'the Swede!' Doc D

A ton in weight you say? My exploration of this topic led me to a much smaller animal. The outside upper limit of their weight runs about half of that. Closer in size to a Roosevelt elk than a Yukon. Smaller than a shiras even. Now, your point isn't lost, because a 1,000lb animal is still a huge animal, but not as big as you stated.

 

[TexasTB]

243 is a great round and versatile. Had one for years. Currently, my favorite "go to" is the 7mm-08 which is just a necked down .308. I shoot 162 ELDx at 2640 fps... if you want more speed drop down to 140's or even a Barnes 120g bullet.

Other option if you reload is to chamber 7mm08 SAW. it is basically a 7mm08 with a 30 degree shoulder. You can go to West Texas Ordnance website to learn more about that cartridge. It allows me to shoot my 162ELDx at 2800 fps vs. my 7mm-08 which shoots at 2640fps. Have fun picking out your next cartridge. Both are good on game animals (I've shot prairie dogs, coyotes, whitetail deer and Aoudad).

 

[swabby56]

I'm thinking about ordering a MK X from shaw and I can't help but get a strong case of caliber creep. I'm wanting a step up from my .243, which is perfect for the Texas deer I currently hunt. In the next couple years I want to hunt aoudad and antelope. At first I was stuck on 280ai, then I shot a 270, and kind of started to like that one. More looking and researching made me think 300WM or 338-06. So for everyone that has been down this road, what made you finally decide what you wanted?

The 270 built by ER SHAW I believe is second to none. I own one and it has helped me kill whitetails in PA out to over 700 yds with one shot and down with 150 Sierra Game King. The price is right for sure and it is AN EXCELLENT RIFLE. GOOD LUCK AND GOOD SHOOTING!!!

 

[Big Guy]

I'm thinking about ordering a MK X from shaw and I can't help but get a strong case of caliber creep. I'm wanting a step up from my .243, which is perfect for the Texas deer I currently hunt. In the next couple years I want to hunt aoudad and antelope. At first I was stuck on 280ai, then I shot a 270, and kind of started to like that one. More looking and researching made me think 300WM or 338-06. So for everyone that has been down this road, what made you finally decide what you wanted?

Open up that too a 6/284, it's like a load of steroids, ads about 200 yards to that old 243..plus you can ream that chamber and save the cost of a new tube..

 

[Fedwell]

I'm thinking about ordering a MK X from shaw and I can't help but get a strong case of caliber creep. I'm wanting a step up from my .243, which is perfect for the Texas deer I currently hunt. In the next couple years I want to hunt aoudad and antelope. At first I was stuck on 280ai, then I shot a 270, and kind of started to like that one. More looking and researching made me think 300WM or 338-06. So for everyone that has been down this road, what made you finally decide what you wanted?

Have you considered the 25-06? Just a step up with low recoil and Shoots very flat.

 

[rdr59]

I shoot more than some but not as mush as most. I love my 222rem and 243. Hunted with 308 for 35 yrs. Just got 300wsm. Definitely makes it harder to concentrate on making a good trigger press. Now i load it down 165sst at 2900 fps and like it. It really surprised me that it affected me like that.

 

[rbTanzan]

I'm voting .270 Win because it will do it all, not beat the heck out of you, ammo is everywhere & very affordable, it shoots flat, it hits hard enough to do the job efficiently & effectively. For lower 48 & Hawaii, just can't go wrong. If forced to settle on just one rifle, it's the one I would keep.

Yes, there is a phenomenon of "caliber creep," but there are some parameters that can help.

For one, a person should take a significant step "forward," not an itsy-bitsy micro-step. If you want to try a more powerful cartridge, then choose something that is significantly more powerful. For example, a person with an excellent 243 should probably not be considering a 257Roberts or 25-06. The 257 Bob and 25-06 are EXCELLENT cartridges, but they are not really a significant upgrade in power. The bullets are only marginally heavier and only 1 caliber wider.

(Disclaimer: I started out hunting with a 270. So for caliber creep I ended up with a 338WM for my particular circumstances in Africa, then 416 and even a 500 wildcat. My wife shoots California deer with 110gn TTSX, 118gnHH in 270. When we wanted something even lighter for grandkids in the US we went with . . . the 243.)

A significant "step up" might land in the 'three-sisters' category: the 270Win, 280, and 30-06. All can handle good elk bullets, especially 28 and 30 caliber, though the 270 has a slight advantage for flat-shooting deer bullets that exit. That threesome can be upgraded in powder capacity, like the 7mRM, 300WM and 300PRC. However, a person must remember that they are shooting the same bullets. One may notice the 308 missing in this list, and I just got a 308 for grandkids a couple of years ago. That was because I wanted a lightweight rifle (think Kimber) that would be good on hartebeest, and the 308 would definitely be better than a 243 in the African bush. And I didn't want a heavier rifle or a magnum for the kids.

Meanwhile, before creeping up in caliber, consider the option of upgrading bullets. We've recently been loading the 70gnHammerHunter in the 243. The little 20" barrel still does 3550fps. If your 243 has a 24in barrel you can expect 3650-3700fps. That is screaming. The petals will take out the lungs and the cylinder bullet will exit the largest mule deer that you can find. These new bullet technologies do the "power creep" for us without needing a new caliber. So maybe start there, and then for an upgrade get something significant in terms of diameter and power, at least a 270Win, or more powerful.

 

[Oldtime Shooter13]

I have a Winchester 70 Featherweight in 308 that I have had for countless years. I purchased the rifle and my farther fell in love with it. Needless to say I gave the rifle to him and he hunted with the rifle until his passing 20 years ago. I shot this rifle enough for load development and found it to be extremely accurate. Did not take much to develop a few different hunting loads. Only issue was that it kicks like a mule? I have always liked classic stock rifles better than Monte Carlo or rifle with cheek rests. This M70 FWT has always kicked like a mule?

A few years back I thought that I would pull the Featherweight out and hunt a season. I was hoping that dad would end a dry spell! I decided to put a different scope on it. I was shooting with a buddy sighting this rifle in. I wanted to get the rifle sighted in as few rounds as I could so really spending the time to get bore-sighted. I fired a three or four rounds and said that's close enough. I had taken all the punishment that I wanted for the day and had other rifles that I wanted to shoot. My buddy said to me "What are ya a Candy ***"! So I told him to shoot a group for good measure, I was done! One shot later, he agreed, I see what you mean this thing is brutal!

Needless to say I still have the rifle, it's a safe queen. It is zeroed if I ever decide to hunt with it again and drop a critter in dads honor. My safe is full of rifles that a like to shoot. I will say, this rifle is a real tack driver. The only reason that I can think of why this particular rifle recoils so bad is the same reason that it shoots so well. Tight Bore?

If the featherweight did not have an attachment to my late farther, I don't know if I would keep it taking room up in my safe.

 

[logman48]

You cant ever go wrong with the 280 AI

 

[Treeslug]

Yes, there is a phenomenon of "caliber creep," but there are some parameters that can help.

For one, a person should take a significant step "forward," not an itsy-bitsy micro-step. If you want to try a more powerful cartridge, then choose something that is significantly more powerful. For example, a person with an excellent 243 should probably not be considering a 257Roberts or 25-06. The 257 Bob and 25-06 are EXCELLENT cartridges, but they are not really a significant upgrade in power. The bullets are only marginally heavier and only 1 caliber wider.

(Disclaimer: I started out hunting with a 270. So for caliber creep I ended up with a 338WM for my particular circumstances in Africa, then 416 and even a 500 wildcat. My wife shoots California deer with 110gn TTSX, 118gnHH in 270. When we wanted something even lighter for grandkids in the US we went with . . . the 243.)

A significant "step up" might land in the 'three-sisters' category: the 270Win, 280, and 30-06. All can handle good elk bullets, especially 28 and 30 caliber, though the 270 has a slight advantage for flat-shooting deer bullets that exit. That threesome can be upgraded in powder capacity, like the 7mRM, 300WM and 300PRC. However, a person must remember that they are shooting the same bullets. One may notice the 308 missing in this list, and I just got a 308 for grandkids a couple of years ago. That was because I wanted a lightweight rifle (think Kimber) that would be good on hartebeest, and the 308 would definitely be better than a 243 in the African bush. And I didn't want a heavier rifle or a magnum for the kids.

Meanwhile, before creeping up in caliber, consider the option of upgrading bullets. We've recently been loading the 70gnHammerHunter in the 243. The little 20" barrel still does 3550fps. If your 243 has a 24in barrel you can expect 3650-3700fps. That is screaming. The petals will take out the lungs and the cylinder bullet will exit the largest mule deer that you can find. These new bullet technologies do the "power creep" for us without needing a new caliber. So maybe start there, and then for an upgrade get something significant in terms of diameter and power, at least a 270Win, or more powerful.

I started my 12-year-old son out with a .300 Win. Mag. I sighted it in for him and he has several mounted deer and has added a slew of hogs to our sausage-making efforts. He is almost 40 now and still uses the same rifle. I knew that was a great choice for an all-around, all-time rifle.

 

[zb338]

Maybe I'm crazy but couldn't you put a few less grains of powder in a 7MM magnum cartridge,
and have the equal to the 7MM AI? Put a few grains more powder in it and you have the 7MM
magnum.

Zeke