.468 BC, 1. Most of these are all-around cartridges intended for variety of CXP2 and CXP3 class game that offer an adequately flat trajectory for antelope hunting with appropriate loads (usually the lighter weight bullets . No howitzers or tanks.). Think 30-30 necked down to a .25 cal. 223 Wylde chambered, 20" barreled rifle. You still need excellent range finding equipment and preferably have tested drops in your rifle in case your bullets have exaggerated BC claims. Deer rifle for up to 300 yards? | Firearms Talk Thanks Flattest Shooting Rifle Cartridges by Caliber - Ron Spomer Outdoors of energy at that distance more than enough to drop a deer humanely. Another and even better option for reaching out to a big game animal with an AR15 is the 6.5 Grendel. The spin rate helps to stabilize the projectile along its path, cut through drag and higher case capacities give the projectile more velocity thus delivering the bullet to the target more quickly. Caliber choice for 600 yards | Long Range Hunting Forum I know you won't find them in the US, but just wanted to mention them because it's fun. Yeah, yeah, I know theyre cartridges and not calibers, but lots of people call them calibers so I thought Id roll with it. I have a 27 3/4" barrel 264 Win mag that shoots 130 Accubonds 3350 fps with Retumbo. 10 Best Long-Range Rifle Cartridges Ever Made - Game & Fish Sight in 3" high at 100 yards and 6" low at 400 yards. 28 Nosler cartridge For decades, the Nosler cartridge has ruled the world of a flat shooting range with complete dominance. The 6.5300 Weatherby magnum, as its name suggests, is based on the 300 Weatherby mag and has a case capacity of 98 grains of water. Thus, the .50BMG drops less at 1,000 yards than the 6.5 Creedmoor. When it came out in 1925, 300 yards was considered about the max distance for shots on game, and the .270 Winchester was quickly recognized as one of, if not the, best commercial option for that. Though that shot didn't take advantage of the 7mm Mag's flat trajectory, it convinced me of the cartridge's superior qualities. Weatherbys The muzzle velocity is a plus in windy conditions, with the bullet arriving on target with minimal drift. Ive posted your article on my wildlife and hunting group on FB. The goal with the 6 mm ARC was to provide the flattest-shooting cartridge compatible with an AR-15. I already have a Swarovski Z6 3-18 bt. flat-shooting, and light recoiling cartridge was extremely effective on deer-sized game. 6.5mm calibers I took the shot prone and then stood up after the wildebeest tipped over after a perfect shot. No, its not a 6.5 Creedmoor, but few things are. Now, the .280 AI is finally a SAAMI-approved cartridge, and while ammunition options are sparse, its performance is right there with the 7mm Remington Magnum. Take a look at the MPBR column and note how close they all are. All in all, here are six bonus cartridge, all highly capable of reaching way out there. Run those numbers on JBM. I am impressed at all the data you went through to come up with the three chosen. I would like to see a chart on down range energy. The smaller calibers drop like a rock past 500 yards. A flat shooting cartridge matters. How hard would it be to add a 223wssm to the mix. Since 1962, when the round was introduced in conjunction with the Remington 700, countless others have arrived at the same conclusion. Depending on the caliber you are using, a long-range shooting may be at 1,000 and more yards, but if you are committed to rimfires than 200-300 yards is very long-distance shooting. A benefit of that, you can fing .308 ammo off-the-shelf for any practical application. 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. The flattest-shooting popular rifle cartridge at 1,000 yards is the 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum, followed by the .26 Nosler, the .28 Nosler, the .22 Creedmoor, and the 6.5 Weatherby RPM. Is it possible to show those on your web site list? Thanks again. Wind also affects bullets differently, and a cartridges ability to overcome these three forces makes it better or worse for shooting flat and far. Kind of underwhelming, right? Dear James The 27 Nosler bests the .270 Winchester by about 400 fps with 150-grain bullets. If youre after critters deer-size and up, the field is dominated by .30-caliber, 6.5mm, and 7mm cartridges, with the best long-range options remaining supersonic out to at least 1,400 yards. unfair comparison, Hornady makes a 139 grain BTSP for the 7mm mag very flat shooter, Great info, thanks for your difficult work. Its like a shorter, beltless version of the .300 Winchester Magnum. The multiple loads for each cartridge are not at all pulled at random. One argument for a flat-shooting cartridge is that it covers mistakes. With their Vanguard line you can do it for less than $900. A 100 yard miscalculation short or long will vary your hit by a vertical of 2.3-2.9 feet, enough to completely miss or wound the deer. 7 Best Long-Range Cartridges: Hit Stuff Really Far Away This is with a 58gr charge of Hodgen 4831 powder. Perhaps you, dear reader, can provide the formula! . The actual rain is pretty old-school, not digital distances and whatnot, but it's cheap and the people who work there are great. Warm greetings from S.W. Top Five Long Range Cartridges - The Best of the Best The non-bonded bullet should deliver good terminal performance up close and at distance. Indeed, some deer also live in places where a 50-yard shot is much more likely than a 500-yard shot. Mag. No exotics just yet, theyll come later. This newer Weatherby 6.5 combines plenty of gas with manageable recoil. Danny. For most calibers, such as a 45 getting the impact to be on target at 75 yards, the impact at 50 will be an inch or so high and an inch or so low at 100 and 4 to 6 inches or more low at 200 yards. Our margin for distancing error at 700 yards just went from 12 yards with the 30-06 to 25 yards with the 30-378. HOWEVER after going through Cartridges of The World by Barnes and Skinner it has come to my attention that 7.21 Lazzeroni Firebird is ever more overbore. With the 6.5 PRC, Hornady has created a better version of the old barrel-burner. Forums. These cartridges all drop less than 255 at 1,000 yards. Published Apr 14, 2022 12:07 PM EDT. I ran the numbers with the 180 grain Ballistic tip at 3420 fps. A good hunting cartridge has to fit in a rifle thats comfortable to carry all day and wont kick you so hard that you cant shoot it well. Cheers. It propels a 17 Grain bullet at 2,550 feet per second. Unfortunately, the .223 WSSM has fallen by the wayside in recent years. With a flatter trajectory and less wind drift the .300 Win Mag offers a useful step up in performance in a similar size rifle. I truly don't believe a senseable person would use ANY .22 caliber rifle for deer hunting. 10 Varmint Rifles for Small to Medium Predator Animals - Wide Open Spaces The amount of drop is directly influenced by velocity, energy, rifle barrel, and bullet design. Jim, The .308 Winchester will win no ballistic awards; its simply a shorter version of the time-tested and beloved .30/06. It will push a 90-grain Fusion bullet to 500 yardswhich is probably the limit for . I've been looking at the .257 weatherby that drops about 34" with a 100gr bullet at 500 yards and the .22-250 is another at around 36" with a 50gr bullet. Bullet B.C. Good points, which are all things Ive considered. Mag. Like the 26 Nosler, the 28 is based on the 404 Jeffery case and will remain supersonic out past 1,750 yards. You cant pull data from different sources with different lengths of barrels and different loading methods and expect to get true results. Now, you might think this cartridge is new and unproven. Taylor's formula calculates a less-inspiring TKO number of 37. Flattest shooting AR15 cartridge to 500yds coyotes I have neither the scientific knowledge nor mathematical skills to figure out the perfect blend of factors that produces the flattest trajectory winner. No, this is merely a fun exercise in ferreting out the cartridge/bullet combination that shoots the flattest at reasonable hunting distance with a bit of extreme range (1,000 yards) thrown in for spice. Ron Spomer Outdoors 1.1M views 6 months ago Head-To-Head: 6.5. . I'm not a huge fan of basing my decisions on bullet energy. Just dont try to enumerate its downsides to anyone who knows anything, because there arent any that matter. He is a well-known entrepreneur, having started many successful online brands, and lives in St George, Utah. 5 Great Calibers for a Big Game Combo Hunt - Kawdy Outfitters Yep, me too. What do you guys think the flattest shooting caliber would be for hunting I have heard 6.5x284 but the bullet CE appears better on a 270. Recoil is stiff and some find it hard to master. Both are of course bolt-action rifle cartridges. This cartridge is the .270 GIBBS and is based on the 30.06 case with the shoulder moved forward and at a 35 degree angle. Most common calibers are just fine for regular range shots under 300 yards. 11 Best Deer Hunting Calibers - Big Game Hunting Blog drops 6.7 inches at 300 yards and just under 20 inches at 400 yards. The rifle snobs might whine. In ballistic terms, a 235-grain .375 bullet at 3,000 fps exits the muzzle with lots of energy: 4,695 ft-lbs. Shooters have no real idea how much drop a bullet has at long ranges like 1500 yards. Lets start by acknowledging we can minimize our search by ignoring all cartridges within each caliber that dont produce maximum velocity in that caliber. Check out ShootersCalculator.com. 3. The result of this work was a flat shooting and hard hitting sniper cartridge with 200 to 400 yards of extended reach compared to the 7.62mm M118. Thank you. Not only are new loads being offered, new ARs and even bolt action rifles for the Grendel are being introduced. Most common calibers are just fine for regular range shots under 300 yards. Generally, a 300 Win Mag's 150 grain bullet delivers a 3,260 fps muzzle velocity, while its 180 grain bullet achieves approximately 3,000 fps. They have 1 particular cartridge thats something of a hot-shot for flat shooting, long distance devastation; the Weatherby .30-378. Links or names greatly appreciated, Thanks! I realize that you looked at several different loads for each cartridge to figure out which one was the flattest shooting. bullets at faster speeds allows the projectile to get to the target sooner, minimizing the amount of time all three forces have to affect the bullets trajectory. Flattest Shooting Hunting Bullet 257 Weatherby Vanguard 26" pipe. spitting a 100-gr. Posted: 12/20/2020 9:01:19 AM EST [#22] There is a simple . Before we check that out, lets give a nod to the 240 Wby. Lots of hunters consider the .270 Winchester one of the best all-purpose, short- and long-range cartridges of all time. Always amazing to me its not even on those lists. For deer and lesser critters, its a solid 500-yard cartridge. With a muzzle velocity faster than 3000 fps, it offers great external and terminal ballistics. Thank you for the time it took to work all this data up in an easy to absorb article, where are you getting your information for the bullet drop? That said, average shots on mule deer are often longer than what most hunters typically encounter on eastern whitetail hunts. And yes, the .223/5.56 even dominates that match. Choosing the flattest shooting rifle cartridge in each caliber category seems fair, fun, and revealing, so well do that before identifying the all time top dog. It is about the easiest caliber to hit with at that range you can imagine. It really is the best all-around hunting rifle caliber. There are EXCEPTIONS to almost EVERYTHING with the huge wide range of ballistic specs due to EXCEPTIONAL things people/companies do with cartridge loads these days, but the article was referencing the NORMS for these rifles, not the EXCEPTIONS based on unusual or exotic cartridges a FEW people will use. The 10 Best Long-Range Hunting Cartridges | Field & Stream The story of an old humpback Browning that's Sign up for the Field & Stream newsletter and get the latest intelligence straight to your inbox. Thanks for your hard work and entertaining videos, your passion shines through! Considered by many to be the optimum long-range, large-game cartridge, the .300 Winchester Magnum has proven itself worldwide. Flattest shooting caliber - PredatorMasters Forums In 2022, he was named as the brands Shooting Editor. Federals EDGE TLR .270 Winchester is another outstanding option. This lets you focus on having only one caliber to maintain. Shane Olson, nope, no sarcasm involved, simply pointing out a straight fact, which I stand by. Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. 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. Omg I wish I seen this alot earlier than I did.. Ive literally spent hours on hours on ballistics calculators trying to figure out which new cartridge was the flattest shooting but also had enough energy for an ethical kill at long range and it took me countless hours to basically come up with what your chart told me in seconds grrr.. What I have come up with is the .270 Weatherby Magnum with a 135gr Sierra Matchking and 7828. I noticed the WSSM family was not on your list I assume because of the higher velocities they would be higher than the standard calibers. Faster velocities mean flatter trajectories. Generally, traditional Weatherby Magnum cartridges perform slightly better than their Winchester or Remington magnum counterparts. However, the lead that the 25-06 has is pretty small. A 10 mph right angle wind at 500 yards can divert even a fast, high B.C. And it gets there with a lot less powder the either of the two Weatherbys. Myth Busting Big Game Calibers - CHUCKHAWKS.COM 260 Rem However, it proved to be mostly a flash in the pan. The .224 Valkyrie is the flattest shooting 0.224 caliber cartridge . At 1000 yards a .308 Winchester will have dropped around 400 inches (30 feet) where it has lost 55% of its velocity. My grandkids have a poem for this photo: Cartridge cartridge on the table, choose the flattest if youre able. Federal Premium, 130-grain Terminal Ascent, .308 Winchester will win no ballistic awards. But to do this, it must launch a heavy bullet and that means recoil can be stiff; from an 8-pound rifle, it generates more than 33 foot-pounds of recoil, which is more than twice that of the 6.5 Creedmoor. Don't get me wrong, but 45-70 are very accurate and can travel quite well buckin' the wind, He has managed multiple gun ranges, and has hunted around the world. 3 Flattest Shooting Rifle Cartridges - LiveOutdoors 500-yard drop: 45 inches (based on a 100-yard zero). Thanks for the chart for bullet drop but for Big Game Hunting I would rather see the down range energy. First, some boundaries. Noslers first proprietary cartridge is basically a steroid-monster 6.5 Creedmoor. . It was introduced in 1962 and essentially knocked the .264 Winchester Magnum several notches down on the popularity list after hunters and shooters put the 7mm Mag to the test. So it ends up being a very fair comparison. Fantastic information. Save big on firearms, accessories, tactical gear, clothing, and ammunition from now until March 29. Mag. So what can we learn from these numbers? Twenty years ago, Winchester introduced the .270 WSM (Winchester Short Magnum). It will be built on a stiller predator action, carbon wrap or #4 fluted stainless at 26 inches. I just want to quickly thank you for the great videos and for producing this table of bullet drop data. Does it matter if there are -30 of drop or -40 of drop if the answer is simply to spin the turret a few extra clicks? I see lots of Wildcats mentioned here. It was also a resounding success and has remained popular with hunters looking to stretch their effective range. With those thoughts in mind, it is easy to see why the 26 Nosler, 28 Nosler and the 6.5300 Weatherby Magnums are the best flat-shooting cartridges offered to rifle shooters today. I noticed in your video that your chart also listed energy and recoil. Its bullets will remain supersonic out past 2,000 yards. I have found that when talking about these large caliber hunting rounds, there is not a tremendous difference in bullet drop. On the other hand, wind speed and direction are inconsistent. For the Top 5 you have listed, what manufacturers offer a complete rifle in those calibers? Nonetheless, 7mm bullets can be extremely aerodynamic and, as legendary elephant hunter Karamojo Bell proved, effective on even the largest animals. Therefore the .17 Remington is the round for you. bullet 12 inches at 500 yards, a low B.C. When you havent time to engage a laser rangefinder, knowing you can reach the kill zone with a dead-center hold at any distance out to 373 yards is pretty comforting. It's muzzle v. Nosler Trophy Grade Long Range, 175-grain AccuBond Long Range at 3,125 fps. The flattest-shooting popular rifle cartridge at 1,000 yards is the 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum, followed by the .26 Nosler, the .28 Nosler, the .22 Creedmoor, and the 6.5 Weatherby RPM. It is not always the caliber that is in question. Its drop at 1,000 yards is 330.30 and at 500 yards its drop is 50.00. Awesome indoor range. But the premise is based on my farm, where distances are limited to 560 or so yards. I too share your endorsement of Ron, his videos are a treat each week. I appreciate the kind comment. 243 and 25-06 had to be left out because it didnt have enough at 600 for even deer. . numbers which are not quite as accurate as G7 numbers in predicting trajectories of todays wildly long, sleek bullets. Most shots are taken at short range, but some experienced marksmen with good rifles, known distances, and good conditions may need to make connections at longer distances. But as with the 6.5 PRC, there are not a lot of factory-ammo options to choose from. Nevertheless, flat shooting cartridges have long fascinated hunters and driven cartridge development and sales. A 30-06 will take any game on the NA Continent. BUCK DOYLE Preferred Caliber For 500 To 1,000 Yards And Beyond: .260 Remington (130-grain Berger AR Hybrid OTM . If not. It has flipped positions with the 6.5, losing by a mere 1.4-inches.