What’s your five? 5 Calibers to do it all...

FrogFire7 said:
Fun!!

Every varmint hunter needs a .223

I'd throw in a good 6mm for varmints, since that's where a lot of my personal hunting opportunity is... I am a little partial to the 6BR.

A good mid caliber for plinking/practice at long range... 6, 6.5 or 7mm... so 6 or 6.5 creedmoor maybe, or .284 win? I like to see a little bullet splash, and traditionally 6.5 Creedmoor is easy to obtain, easier to see splash than a 6mm, easy on us soft shouldered folk, so let's go with that. Also makes a decent deer rifle at most of the ranges I get shots at. Don't hate!!!

Good hard hitting 7mm or 30 cal for hunting long range... 7 mag, 280/ai, 28 nosler. Or 300 win mag, 300 rum, 30 nosler, etc. I personally have always had a fascination with the 28 Nosler. Zero personal experience and mostly out of my budget for a "luxury" gun, but hey, it's MY list, so we will go with 28 Nosler.

I'd have to top it off with a 338. Had an Edge once, found it would be difficult to mag feed. So I'd either go with one set up for that already, or (likely) a different cartridge. None in particular. Lets say lapua for the sake of argument.

There you go, the definitive list of 5 "best" cartridges 😆
Click to expand...
I like the way you think sir!
My personal preferences vary ever so slightly...

223AI instead of regular 223, because I hate trimming, love zapping prairie dogs with 53g vmax at 3400fps, and because they (mine at least, headspaced with 223 vanilla) shoot vanilla rounds every bit as accurately as fireformed AI.

My 6mm flavor is 6XC, for long range varmints or predators with the 80g B-tip varmint, 87g vmax er all, or throw a partition or 108g Berger and duplicate the effectiveness of a 243 for Bambi.
Also fun "plinking" as far as you can see with 105 or 115 match projectiles, and makes a dandy PRS style match chambering.

For a mid caliber (I'm NOT hating on your creedmore!) I'd go with a 260AI, because I NEVER buy loaded ammo, love AI and hate trimming. Great long range plinking/match shooting, and perfect with heavier hunting bullets 142 ABLR 143 ELD-X for anything and everything smaller than elk.

Hard hitting hunting caliber... I'd easily go with your 28 Nosler. Or 7LRM, maybe 300 Win. Don't care greatly here, but edge to the 28 Nos.

My BIG round would be a 338 Lapua AI. (I know, I'm an Ackley fan boy) Good energy, not in the true heavyweight category like 416 Rigby 404 Jeffrey or the 500's, but decent energy considering the (in my mind) huge benefit you don't have to shoot bricks that fall on their face outside of point blank range. It would still kill really big stuff, AND I could effectively launch it a mile.
 
Wallie said:
I like the way you think sir!
My personal preferences vary ever so slightly...

223AI instead of regular 223, because I hate trimming, love zapping prairie dogs with 53g vmax at 3400fps, and because they (mine at least, headspaced with 223 vanilla) shoot vanilla rounds every bit as accurately as fireformed AI.

My 6mm flavor is 6XC, for long range varmints or predators with the 80g B-tip varmint, 87g vmax er all, or throw a partition or 108g Berger and duplicate the effectiveness of a 243 for Bambi.
Also fun "plinking" as far as you can see with 105 or 115 match projectiles, and makes a dandy PRS style match chambering.

For a mid caliber (I'm NOT hating on your creedmore!) I'd go with a 260AI, because I NEVER buy loaded ammo, love AI and hate trimming. Great long range plinking/match shooting, and perfect with heavier hunting bullets 142 ABLR 143 ELD-X for anything and everything smaller than elk.

Hard hitting hunting caliber... I'd easily go with your 28 Nosler. Or 7LRM, maybe 300 Win. Don't care greatly here, but edge to the 28 Nos.

My BIG round would be a 338 Lapua AI. (I know, I'm an Ackley fan boy) Good energy, not in the true heavyweight category like 416 Rigby 404 Jeffrey or the 500's, but decent energy considering the (in my mind) huge benefit you don't have to shoot bricks that fall on their face outside of point blank range. It would still kill really big stuff, AND I could effectively launch it a mile.
Click to expand...

I'm a lot the same way!! I think the only time I have bought factory ammo in the last... 8(?) years was for deer season one year with a new rifle that I didn't have time (or copper mono bullets) to work up a load for.

I love the concept of AI's, I just haven't ever gone that route, with fire forming, etc. Wish they made factory brass for all those!

I'd have no problems with any of those cartridges you mentioned 😊
 
FrogFire7 said:
I'm a lot the same way!! I think the only time I have bought factory ammo in the last... 8(?) years was for deer season one year with a new rifle that I didn't have time (or copper mono bullets) to work up a load for.

I love the concept of AI's, I just haven't ever gone that route, with fire forming, etc. Wish they made factory brass for all those!

I'd have no problems with any of those cartridges you mentioned 😊
Click to expand...
The secret to AI cartridges is in the headspacing, at least as far as I've seen. In any given cartridge the go/no-go gauge dimensions are .004-.008" longer for the AI version. I surmise the standard was set that way so folks could rechamber an existing rifle, and fully clean up the previous chamber. That is probably why people have developed an dogmatic aversion to fireforming brass, because in that circumstance it really needs to be a special operation involving a false shoulder, a jammed bullet or other such contrivance.
I started headspacing my AI chambers just as if they are the parent (vanilla) version, and the advantages were immediate! Zero special consideration required, just load and shoot with the same accuracy as fireformed brass, albeit with less case capacity.
I've even found that pressure acts as if the brass is already AI sized, so unless you are running a compressed load and actually need the improved case capacity to physically fit the desired charge weight (volume) of powder you don't even need a different charge weigh while using virgin brass!
 
Paladin300 said:
Hey guys,

I've been watching our threads for a while now and curiosity has got the best of me. With so many great choices out there for LRH which cartridges and calibers really set themselves apart from the rest, if any? Which ones make almost everyone's must have list? The reality is most people can't afford a half dozen rifles or more, so if you had the opportunity to hunt the world for everything from groundhogs to elephants and were limited to 5 cartridges or less what would they be? Just curious which ones consistently rise to the top and if any of the new Gucci cartridges make the cut or we wind up sticking with the tried and true. Feel free to state your reason or uses for each cartridge. I am not looking for a debate. There are no wrong answers. Everyone has there favorites. Just curious if there is any consistency? I think it could help some of the new guys narrow there choices when selecting their next cartridge....

I'll start! 308, 270 win, 300 WIn Mag, 338 RUM, 375 H&H. What are your thoughts???
Click to expand...
.22LR, 7x57, 8x57, .375 H&H, .458WinMag
 
22lr, 22/250, 270, 300 weatherby, 340 weatherby, 416 rigby hand loaded to pressure. Basically a 416 weatherby. 400@2700. There are so many great choices. Instead of a 22/250 and 270 maybe a 25/06 to do both? The 300 will do anything plus what a 270 will do. 120,s in a 25/06 will crowd a 270. Magnitudes of power. 22lr and then a varmint smaller medium game round. 300 weatherby with a 200 has real muscle. A 340 with a 250 puts a 375 to shame except in diameter with a solid. The fast 416 will handle anything heavy and spank it. To me much better than a slower 45.
 
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