A 180grn 308win will solve anything which is sorted by a 220grn 35 Rem.
The answer, of course, is the 9.3x62.
Now, what was the question...?
GR
It is the plague of the gun world. When I first started on these online gun boards, caliber wars seemed both entertaining and relevant. As I have gained more experience, I have come to understand that we spend the most time discussing the things that actually matter the least. Now caliber wars seem like an obligation at best, and always so trivial.
Whether hunting, competition, or defense, being effective is going to be 99% shot placement. Of that remaining 1%, probably .5% is bullet performance. In the last .5%, we have caliber, gun make and model, and all the other useless crap we spend 99% of our time squabbling about like old maids in a sowing circle. It really it quite ridiculous.
So it's more of poor choice of twist rate limiting bullet weight than the frontal diameter of the bullet?A guy merely has to look at the bullet weight offerings within these calibers to understand the breaks, which tend to correlate to the game weights for which they are used. Using your examples: 6mm’s tend to top out around 105-110grns, with the 115 Dtac’s being a fast twist novelty. 6.5’s, alternatively, run up 140-160grn - obviously more capable of extreme penetration on heavier game. Most 35 cal rifle cartridges do not carry commensurate case capacity, simply existing as necked up 30 cal cases. Such, their horsepower isn’t all there, and their bullet weight capacity isn’t what it really should be for their caliber. A 180grn 308win will solve anything which is sorted by a 220grn 35 Rem. Equally, the 375 cases are commensurately larger, resulting in far greater power factor, typically with a greater bullet weight capacity to make use of all of that powder.
I had one of those. Tried to love it but couldn't. It took more powder to get the same velocity as a 260. I'd like to try the 9.3x62, but I have a 35 Whelen and nothing to shoot with it.Or 6.5x55
I was talking more about bore diameter than actual cartridges.New and (ever so) slightly improved vs older and still doing what they’ve always done.
At normal hunting ranges, the differences are minuscule at best. At long range, whether that be hunting or long range shooting, the differences do show up. But we’re talking LONG range.
So it's more of poor choice of twist rate limiting bullet weight than the frontal diameter of the bullet?
Looking at it that way makes sense.Doesn’t even have to be poor twist rate. A short action case isn’t going to push a 250grn bullet very fast. Even most standard bolt face long action cases won’t. A 300 grain bullet? Even slower. There’s no replacement for displacement.
Poor twist rate can be remedied by a custom barrel. Insufficient case capacity cannot be. This is why we hear guys say a 338-06 doesn’t “do anything” a .30-06 can’t do, or a 338wm doesn’t do anything a 300win mag can’t - but then we see a .338wm doing more than a .30-06, and a .375 H&H doing more than a .338wm. For most cartridges which aren’t terribly overbore, adding bullet diameter without adding bullet weight doesn’t add killing power, and typically, nor does adding bullet weight without adding case capacity. Maybe consider it this way - given a certain case capacity, say a .308win case, going down or up in bullet diameter too far into overbore or UNDERbore capacity ratios will limit your efficacy. In this example, a .243win, even in a fast twist barrel, isn’t really more than a whitetail rifle, whereas a .308win steps up a rung in game weight capability, however, the .358win really doesn’t. The .243win is overbore, the 308win less so, and the .358win relatively underbore.