What is your "nearly perfect" cartridge?

[swampcrawler]

022515

posted*Jul 5, 8:33 AM

Iv always had this obsession with finding a firearm and cartridge that could fill every roll I could possibly need it for excluding defense. In my neck of the woods shots are close, and the biggest game we have is small whitetail and hogs. No moose or bears for me. I also love to go out shooting feed thieves and other various swamp vermin such as raccoons, possums, nutria, and armadillo. I'm a huge fan of pin point accuracy so shotguns are out. And, idealy, a cartridge for me would be suited to a nice hard hitting hunting load, but be easily loaded down for plinking and vermin smashing. It would have to be easy to load for using common components and legal to hunt most game we have down here.*

For my particular needs and wants, I honestly can't come up with much better than .357 max. With a heavy jacketed pill over a shovel full of 4227 it packs plenty of punch for the most vicious 150 pound whitetail, while a 158 gr or heavier cast bullet over half a pinch of unique is nearly quiet enough to shoot without hearing protection, ridiculously cheap, and still rather accurate for those feed thieves and elusive steel plates. It is legal for our rifle and muzzle loading season, easy to load for, and uses fairly common .358 pistol bullets.*

The only downsides to the little cartridge is the brass made from unobtanium, and the fact that squirrel and turkey can't be hunted with center fires.*

So, I'm not really looking for suggestions for my particular needs, but rather curious as to whether anyone else has found one near perfect cartridge for nearly all aplications,*
Or even just one beloved one for no reason other than than you love it. What do you guys shoot??

 

[barnbwt]

7.5 Swiss, specifically the GP11 milsurp loading. Does practically everything a 30-06 can do, with 20,000psi less pressure and a shorter (but slightly fatter) cartridge. It is actually fairly similar in case profile to 7mm Mauser, being a sort of "Ackley Improved" .308cal wildcat of it.

For similar reasons, I also think 5.7x28 would be a very compelling cartridge if we could just get some locked-breech platforms for it. Maybe the 22 Johnson, or rather, a modification of that wildcat to match the 5.7x28 neck profile and overall length, would be even better from a reloader's perspective due to the slightly wider case head and subsequently stronger primer pocket (the chief weakness of the 5.7x28 cartridge, even in a locked-breech platform). Does everything the 4.6x30 can (but with bigger bullet, so slightly less efficiently with regards to body armor), but with 8000psi less flash, noise, brass wear, and risk of kaboom.

TCB

 

[wanderinwalker]

For me I think it would be a .300 Savage. Though I've never even held one, let alone fired a round out of one, on paper it seems like the perfect blend of ballistics for what I want in a rifle round.

More punch than a .30-30 with better ranging capability due to the use of spitzer bullets, without the recoil and blast of something significantly bigger like an '06. While we do have black bear and moose around here, I'm not likely to hunt either unless it's purely for survival. And last I checked there is a plethora of pointy .308" bullets that would be fun to play with but are not practical to use in my little .30-30 lever gun.

(Honestly I might have voted the .30-30 as my "near perfect" excepting the inability to utilize said plethora of pointy .308" bullets in most .30-30 rifles.)

 

[jim243]

243 Winchester, Duh.

Jim

 

[R.W.Dale]

357 mag in short and long guns.

If it needs more range or killing than this one provides proceed to 30/06

 

[Lj1941]

.308 Winchester

.308 Winchester with 7MM08 a close second.

 

[big boom]

.243 win 100 grain

 

[Float Pilot]

6.5x55mm Swede Mauser.
Low pressure,
Long range,
Low recoil,
High accuracy in several types of rifles,
Great sectional density.

 

[jmr40]

I see your point, but don't want the range limitations of the 357. If we don't include big bear anything from 243 up will take any other animal in North America reasonably well. Throw in the big bears and 308 is about the minimum.

Most folks could pick any one and be perfectly happy with it. It comes down to personal preference, how much recoil you want to deal with and your skills at longer ranges.

My 308's would be the last rifle's I'd sell. But since I'll never hunt big bear I'd probably be just as well off with 7-08, 7X57, or any of the 6.5's including 260. I chose 308 only because ammo is everywhere and reasonably priced.

 

[bannockburn]

Tough choice between the .30-06 and the .308. Probably go with the .308.

 

[barnbwt]

Wait, are we talking 'ballistically' perfect, or just what we like the most because it's most common and cheapest?

TCB

 

[LUCKYDAWG13]

for me in all around rifle caliber hands down 30/06

 

[Potatohead]

Another day and another thread goes by where the 6.5 Grendel gets no love...

 

[P.B.Walsh]

30-06, CLOSELY followed by .308, the 6.5x55mm Sweed, then the 6.5 CM. See where I'm going? The long action cartridges are a bit more versatile, besides in semi-automatic platforms.

But the 30-06 is the king of rifle cartidges in my opinion.

 

[taliv]

for me, 260 AI

better ballistics and cheaper to reload than 308/30-06, and about the same as 243 with the heavy bullets, but it wins past 1000 and has more energy. it's still short action. you can get quality brass and it lasts forever. barrel life is same as 243, maybe a hair better.

i just screwed my 7th 260AI barrel on my main rifle.

 

[MCMXI]

If I had to pick just one cartridge it would be the .308 Win. The short action cartridge works well in bolt actions, semi-autos, full-auto, short barrels, long barrels and subsonic suppressed. There's a wide range of bullet weights/type available with many powders for reloading with good case life. It's accurate out to transonic range (1,000 yards with long barrel), has fairly light recoil, good barrel life, and is readily available in many stores and is effective on most US game at "typical" hunting distances.

I have five rifles chambered in .308 Win and had six until I sold the M1A. Yep, .308 Win for me.

 

[denton]

6.5x55mm Swede Mauser.
Low pressure,
Long range,
Low recoil,
High accuracy in several types of rifles,
Great sectional density.

^^^This, except I reload mine to modern pressures in modern firearms.

Except on days that I think the 7x57 is better.

Seriously, at modern pressures the 7x57 will spit out a 162 grain pill at 2750 FPS. What's a 30-06 going to do that is more effective than that?

 

[eastbank]

for me its the 7mm/08,100gr -3200fps for varmits, 139gr-2800fps for deer size animals and 175gr-2500fps for larger animals. eastbank.

 

[dvdcrr]

I dont know much about 357 max but it sounds cool. There have already been some great suggestions. For my purposes I like 270 WSM , 257 Weatherby, 6mm Remington. I also really like the aforementioned 7.5 swiss, it hits like a hammer.

 

[19-3Ben]

357 mag in short and long guns.

This, a hundred times over. I've often said, it's the perfect "one cartridge to do it all" round. It can be chambered in everything from a snubbie that will fit in your pocket, to a Ruger 77/357 (or Win. 92 and clones) that could be used for deer hunting.
Is there any other round that can run that gamut?

If it absolutely has to be a rifle round, I'd go with .270 winchester.

 

[Malamute]

The '06 would be first choice, especially when specifically intending to hunt, but I do like lever guns for carrying. The 348 gets a strong second. Both can be loaded with round balls for 22 level small game/grouse performance, and any step up in cast and jacketed.

Some of us actually do live in grizzly country. My choices may be different if I lived somewhere else, but those are what I seem to use most. I like the 35 Whelen quite a lot also, and may be entering into a meaningful relationship with the 356 Winchester round before too long.

 

[Revoliver]

Another vote for the .357 magnum.

Otherwise, the .308.

 

[swampcrawler]

Everyone seems to have excellent taste! The 357 mag, 7.5 swiss, 6.5x55, 243, 308, 5.7, 6.5 Grendel and 260 have all held my fascination at some point or another.

It's amazing how many variations there are on blowing a soft metal cylinder out of a hard metal tube.

 

[headoftheholler]

Another vote for 6.5x55, low recoil, great SD, hits hard and accurate.

 

[MountainBear]

Still the .30-06 for me. 108 years and still going strong. 110 grain handloads up to 220 grain solids.