What Is The Best Hunting Cartridge To 500 yds.

[bedrok]

I had to chime in. 7MM, Rem. or WSM. There are plenty of bullet choices for everything, as we say, from mice to moose.

Oops, just saw where the "mice to moose" line was already used here. Didn't mean to be un-original

 

[unirove]

Hunting to 500 yards....more than a few cartridges could suffice. From 6.5mm/.260 to 7.62mm/.30 caliber (with .323 to .338 in magnums to cover the larger animals). What's the quarry? Say any North American game, minus big bears? Muzzle velocity of 2800+ fps. Choose your animal, choose your bullet weight. Depending on bullet choice, smaller calibers offer better SD at a given weight (and BC may be better as caliber increases). As an all-rounder, in my mind the winner is 30-06 for best combination of range, recoil, accuracy and efficiency, yrmv. Here are some possibilities with handloads.

 

[sw282]

l like the 270

 

[Double BC]

Hunting to 500 yards....more than a few cartridges could suffice. From 6.5mm/.260 to 7.62mm/.30 caliber (with .323 to .338 in magnums to cover the larger animals). What's the quarry? Say any North American game, minus big bears? Muzzle velocity of 2800+ fps. Choose your animal, choose your bullet weight. Depending on bullet choice, smaller calibers offer better BC and SD at a given weight. As an all-rounder, in my mind the winner is 30-06 for best combination of range, recoil, accuracy and efficiency, yrmv. Here are some possibilities with handloads.View attachment 157026

Best post ever. Thank you

 

[jimpickens]

270 WSM
243
30-06
7mm-08 Remington
6.5 carcano if you can find the ammo
30-30

 

[Jump-High-235]

"Best" begs for subjectivity ... so I will say ... my Daisy pellet gun. That's right! It guarantees I will not kill anything, so no work or fuss, and I get to hunt again tomorrow!

But when I finally want to kill ... that 300 WM knocks them down in most situations. But that 7mm RM also does the job real well. Oh yeah, those 6.5s sure do the job with low recoil - and the new 6.5 PRC, wow! But how about the old 270?! Come to think of it, the 30-06 may be best and I don't own one ... yet.

 

[Swamplord]

Hunting to 500 yards....more than a few cartridges could suffice. From 6.5mm/.260 to 7.62mm/.30 caliber (with .323 to .338 in magnums to cover the larger animals). What's the quarry? Say any North American game, minus big bears? Muzzle velocity of 2800+ fps. Choose your animal, choose your bullet weight. Depending on bullet choice, smaller calibers offer better BC and SD at a given weight. As an all-rounder, in my mind the winner is 30-06 for best combination of range, recoil, accuracy and efficiency, yrmv. Here are some possibilities with handloads.View attachment 157026

There's a resume for an immediate job in the hype dept at Hornady .....

Most powders max out at 2700 fps right at 60k psi with 190 gr bullets in the '06, pushed a bit harder and you can get 2750 fps and better hope you have a Rem 700 under your cheek not a Savage ....


And....... 300 WSM's run 190's at 3000 fps

Skewed data = bs

 

[unirove]

There's a resume for an immediate job in the hype dept at Hornady .....

Most powders max out at 2700 fps right at 60k psi with 190 gr bullets in the '06, pushed a bit harder and you can get 2750 fps and better hope you have a Rem 700 under your cheek not a Savage ....


And....... 300 WSM's run 190's at 3000 fps

Skewed data = bs

Those are all straight from AmmoGuide - with the recipes. As I said these are possibilities and your results may vary—and surely you know this if you reload. And 2750 or 2800 or 2900...doesn't really change anything out to 500 yards. Same with the .300 WSM stats...these are all accurate generalizations based on his question. Maybe you have a special horse in the race, I don't. The 30-06 is hard to beat. *shrug*

 

[Lenny Foffa]

So many really Great choices for deer sized game out to 500 yards. 30 -06 and .300 Win. Mag and 7 rem Mag are some of them for sure. My personal choice is the .270 Win and if Elk is in the mix and the range may me a touch longer at times, I like my 270 Weatherby mag .

 

[Mram10us]

My uncle got more and bigger elk than I will ever get and he loved his 25-06 and 270. I have neither anymore, but hard to argue with results

 

[Knight]

I personally prefer a 300 Weatherby. with a choice of bullets from 110 grain to 220, It's super flat shooting with plenty of knock down power for any game in North America and the plains of Africa.

 

[nksmfamjp]

If I can launch 190 VLD's from an '06 at 2900, I'm selling the WSM as it only does like 2875!

My point is those muzzle velocities are splitting cases and yielding actions or are out of 30" barrels.

 

[huntinghuasna]

- 6.5 Creedmoor.
- 6.5 PRC
- .264 Mag.

 

[Turnbolt53]

There's a resume for an immediate job in the hype dept at Hornady .....

Most powders max out at 2700 fps right at 60k psi with 190 gr bullets in the '06, pushed a bit harder and you can get 2750 fps and better hope you have a Rem 700 under your cheek not a Savage ....


And....... 300 WSM's run 190's at 3000 fps

Skewed data = bs

Comparisons like these are usually pretty worthless, but this one seems even moreso.

You would have to wonder why the person putting it together would choose a 168gr bullet for the 280AI, but then choose a 180gr bullet for the 284Win.

They're both 284 bullets, and with similar case capacity, it just makes no sense to make that choice.