Your Next Rifle Will Be In Which Cartridge

[SidecarFlip]

300 Win Mag, I have everything else I need. I have a philosophy about calibers. I always buy one that if, for some reason my ammo gets lost or misplaced, I can go and buy what I need over the counter. Not that it would shoot as well as my custom built handloads but something is better than nothing and why when I go on a hunt, I always take 2 rifles with me of different calibers.

You have a wildcat or obscure caliber and something happens to your ammo, you are SOL.

 

[Str8shooterTX]

Dasher is done and awesome. Now to build a big boy in 300PRC

 

[Hugnot]

None of the above. It will be a 6mm-06, 8 twist. A first for me

 

[436]

None of the above. It will be a 6mm-06, 8 twist. A first for me

I've always liked that wildcat, but... I found that the .240 Weatherby Mag was the same thing off the shelf, besides any of the 06 actions, and a re-barrel job worked just fine if one didn't want to spring for one of the more spendy Wby MkV's Other then cheap brass, that you still have to put a lot of work into I couldn't find any real advantage over the .240 Wby Mag. Like most cartridges and firearms it's really all about tasted and what makes a guy feel good. Good luck, cheers.

 

[Hugnot]

What's that word - "penurious" ? - goes along with bags of cheap .25-06, .270 Win, & .30-06 brass.

Big boiler room & skinny bullets. Can't get H 4831, RL23, H1000 but will try IMR4955 & IMR 7977 (plenty @ LGS) with favorite 6mm bullet(s), 87 VMax's & 95 Berger VLD's.

 

[GonzoK34]

6.5-284 is a caliber that covers varmints to elk at ranges out to 1000 yards. If I was starting out with just one rifle it would cover everything in between. At the present I have purchased the following for my new build. Rem stainless steel LH S.A. Receiver. HS Precision Series 2000 Varmint Stock. HART SS Super Match Grade 6mm 1-7.5 Barrel Blank. TRIGGERTECH Adj Trigger Build: GRUNING PRECISION. 243 AckImp, 26" finished length. 32degree Pictinney Rail pinned to reciever with 8/32 screws. Reciever tuned and trued to bore axis. Gruning has built several rifles for me over the years and his primary work is Law Enforcement Sniper Weapons. Many of his builds have contributed to National Swat Team Match First Place Wins. As well as lawful conclusions of bad situations. Sergeant of Marines Ret. 100% Combat Disabled Veteran SEMPER FEDELIS

 

[Mustang72]

Wow almost twelve years old and still going!
Bedding the stock on my 35 whelen today. Waiting to see what Steve comes up with in an absolute hammer before getting it Ackley improved. Shoots great at 500 but impact velocity is getting kinda low.

 

[MOJO67]

6.5 PRC

 

[436]

What's that word - "penurious" ? - goes along with bags of cheap .25-06, .270 Win, & .30-06 brass.

Big boiler room & skinny bullets. Can't get H 4831, RL23, H1000 but will try IMR4955 & IMR 7977 (plenty @ LGS) with favorite 6mm bullet(s), 87 VMax's & 95 Berger VLD's.

All good points, but... you still have to fire-form in the end to get dimensionally uniform brass, more work, powder, primers, and more noise... yet! always fun Cheers.

 

[GonzoK34]

All good points, but... you still have to fire-form in the end to get dimensionally uniform brass, more work, powder, primers, and more noise... yet! always fun Cheers.

True and a pleasure to fine tune everything to my satisfaction. Nightforce scope and lots of time developing loads for prairie dogs, coyotes, deer, antelope and so on! Nearing 75 years on Mother Earth I have worked hard to earn the right to reward myself for a "Job Well Done"! SEMPER FEDELIS

 

[Hugnot]

The 6mm-06 will be a small brother to my 6.5-06's.

Inspection & sorting, then, 9-10 grains of HP38 & some real old CCI 350's & COW (cream of wheat) makes the cheap brass uniform & fit real good (est. 20,000 psi). Then F/L sizing, neck turning (.288), trimming & annealing. Real easy to produce 100 cases. A cost analysis of the situation given $90.99/50 Norma & $36.99/20 Weatherby brass clears the way for the somewhat arduous & labor intensive production of the common, ordinary, & antiquated host but high performing 6.5-06 round. .30-06 Lapua brass ($115/100) for ultimate high quality belt-less ammo.

Barnes 6mm & 6.5 Match Burners are a good deal & shoot good. I plan to use 6mm 87 Vmax & 95 Berger VLD bullets in the new 6mm -06.

Edit: The three shot 6.5-06 group shown below measured about .44 inch at 200. I think, the extra work (sorting, COW FF, trimming, turning annealing) helps when shooting beyond 400 out to 1,000. Turning necks is probably the most important as it provides a nice slip fit of bullets into cheap, fired, un-sized brass having variable neck wall thicknesses. Using new 6.5-.284 Lapua brass in a 6.5-.284 would really speed things up.

Edit 2: COW FF would result in uniform head-space using brass dumped out of the bag.

I plan the use the future 6mm -06 for long range yote shooting.

 

[MOJO67]

HUGNOT,

Former, but long time 6-06 owner here. No need to waste your time fire forming brass. Find some new, good quality 25-06 brass and pass it through a 6-06 full length sizing die, check OAL and your good to go. My 6-06 was a custom, sporter weight rifle and it shot 105 VLD's into .5 moa groups with regularity. No tedious or arduous brass prep required. Such an easy cartridge to load for. Don't make it harder than it has to be.

 

[simmonzz]

You left out 300NM. I'm pushing a 199HH around 3225 and on the hornady 4dof app it's looking to be a really really flat efficient shooter

 

[Scott E Ames]

I would vote for the 300 PRC but it could not be on a list started back in 2009. Plenty of power to play with the others on this list. I would pick the 300 WM if only choosing from this list.