Hunters and shooters are enamored of new cartridges and rifles. That's a fact. We want the best cartridge available to pursue our given game, and with a new cartridge, that means a new riffle. This is great news for the manufactures.
I haven't paid much attention to new cartridges in a decade or longer. I was vaguely attentive when the 6.5 Creedmoor came out, but it didn't do anything that I needed to do, so it became a mild buzzing in my ears. My sister-in-law shoots a .260 Remington and has taken her deer with it many times. It works well for her. Her husband thought about stepping up to the Creedmoor, but couldn't justify it. She's deadly withthat older cartridge.
When I go to the deer woods, I'm apt to carry a .30-06 Springfield. My load pushes a 165 to just over 2800 I've never fired at a deer over 200 yards. I've also never had to track a deer over 50 yards.
I toyed with the .243 Winchester for a while. The 10 twist barrel would stabilize a 100 grain Nosler, but would not stabilize a 107 grain Hornady A-Max. I toyed with the idea of getting an 8-twist barrel, but the 100 grain bullet put deer down with authority. I never could justify the expense just for another 7 grains of bullet.
Recently on YouTube, I came upon Ron Spomer's channel. He's got a lot of good hunting and shooting videos, with good advice. In one video he was talking about the PRC line of cartridges, and I admit I had never heard of them. So, I started Googling and found out that Hornady has come out with a new line of whiz-bang cartridges designed for long range shooting, using fast-twist barrels and proprietary brass, designed for those long, sleek pullets. Good stuff. Right now, you can get them in three flavors, 6.5nn, 7mm, and.30 cal. They are being touted as the 21st century answer to all you questions.
And, that is fine. The ammo companies need to sell ammunition, and hunters are always looking for something new. I'm not going to talk bad about any of them. They are not trying to sell to me, because I am simply not in the market. I may commission one more rifle before I go, but it won't be a newfangled cartridge. I'm thinking more along the lines of the 250 Savage, or maybe a 7mm Mauser. But then, there has always been that yearning for a .257 Roberts. Decisions, decisions.
7 comments:
I saw an article recently that compared the 6.5 Creedmor with the old 6.5 Swedish and found almost identical performance... In my opinion most of these new cartridges are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I'll stick with the well established instead of the new hotness.
Jonathan
Ammo companies sell ammo regardless of caliber and chambering.
What these new whiz-bang rounds do is sell rifles and barrels.
It's something Jeff Cooper mentioned a lot in his editorials by asking, "what does it do that the rifle you already own doesn't?"
Most of the time the answer is nothing.
I'm the kind of gun geek that would have lots of rifles that all did the same thing, the same way, in different chamberings just because.
Sadly, I am not endowed with Elon Musk financing, so a handful of calibers will have to do.
Been hunting with a 7mm Mauser for years. Does everything I need.
By the way, congratulations on your new governor.
Back-in-the-day the specification for the designers of the 30-03 cartridge was that it be able to incapacitate a horse at a half mile.
Horses are bigger than deer or even elk. A half mile is 880 yards or eight times farther than most of us actually shoot big game at.
Things have only gotten better since then. The 30-03 became the 30-06. Powders got better. Rifles got better. The much-smaller .308 Win can now do more than the 30-06 could in 1940. The improved performance of the 30-30 Win is not as pronounced but it is still real (Flextip bullets come to mind).
Anybody who trash-talks the classic cartridges is unwittingly telling us far more about their woodcraft and shooting skills than about any merits or deficiencies of any particular cartridge.
I found that as cartridges fell out of favor, used guns became available at reasonable prices. I always reloaded, and often with cast bullets. Had a lot of fun with obsolete calibers - most of which, including military surplus, could be made out of other brass. (Example: 7.5x55 Swiss out of .284 Winchester, before PPU ammo became available) . A gun, dies, and mould could be had for very reasonable cost. Still shooting a S&W .41. Magnum got for $250, after .41 fell out of favor with police and hunters.
I've shot deer with a .308 Winchester since 1976 and have never seen a reason to change that. I have never lost a hard hit deer (lost a doe that was only nicked). Other than a .250 Savage, (about a dozen with that one), that is about it.
I have killed one deer with a rifle. My dad's 30/40 Krag. With Core-Lokt ammo it works pretty well. But since I am in Michigan, I have always tended to just use a 12 gauge with either the Forstner slugs or 00 buckshot.
Those both work pretty darn good also. The last time I hunted, 2 years ago, I used a cheap home defense shotgun, with an open choke and a short barrel. But I used the new sabot slug, with a 1 oz. rifled slug. I killed a buck at around 60-70 yards, holding right on, and it dropped in it's tracks.
I do have to say that I prefer to hunt in thicker woods, and shots are usually limited to the 100 yard distance, usually less. But my sister's husband, who has now passed away, would hunt with his Browning in 30-06, and could shoot and hit deer at over 400 yards away. He would hunt in the farmer's fields, here in Michigan, where you often could see over 800 yards.
I have owned a couple of 30-30 calibers, one a Winchester and one a Marlin. I could shoot them accurately out to 150 yards, with the old round nose lead, but I never got a shot with either one. I currently own a 1916 Spanish Mauser, converted to .308 Winchester. But I don't use it to hunt. It is just nice to keep for any possible need or to loan to a nephew. My sons both have plenty of guns of their own.
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