flattest shooting caliber to 500 yards
How about our drops on the cartridges that made it? Thanks etc. Here we go! What Is The Best Hunting Cartridge To 500 yds. Most of the calculators out there show larger drop rates then your table. Noslers first proprietary cartridge is basically a steroid-monster 6.5 Creedmoor. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Great job. Both are of course bolt-action rifle cartridges. You still need excellent range finding equipment and preferably have tested drops in your rifle in case your bullets have exaggerated BC claims. . Though that shot didn't take advantage of the 7mm Mag's flat trajectory, it convinced me of the cartridge's superior qualities. Most center-fire rifles that are legal for deer hunting can take a deer at 300 yards. You are using an out of date browser. It is a flat shooting cartridge, able to hit a target at 300 yards with negligible hold over. Always be open to new possibilities. I appreciate the kind comment. Thanks for the chart for bullet drop but for Big Game Hunting I would rather see the down range energy. What bullet weight did you select for the .270 Winchester? Richard Mann What about the guy who wants to go long with his AR-15? Want to run your own ballistics numbers? Hello Jim, I\d be curious to know what the minimum cost is for just the rifle or a quality budget build. It takes 200 rounds to fully break in a barrel, so theyd finish it off in just 2-3 competitions (where you fire 200 rounds in a weekend). Drop is constant at the gravitational pull of 32 feet per second accelerating at 32 fps. The advent of precision rifle competitions and the laser rangefinder has increased the publics desire to go long. Of course, the .270 Win was developed in 1925 when 1000 yard shots were effectively unheard of. He just never made it official. 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. 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. For example, A 7 SAUM, 280 AI and 7 Rem Mag. In other words, the 223 Remington throws the same bullets as the 220 Swift, but cant approach its maximum velocity, so theres no chance it can shoot as flat. the max load is the distance load. If the 300 RUM surprises you, know that it surprised me, too. These are all under my extreme heading, because theyre all brutal on cost and recoil. A Canadian sniper had a record kill at over 3500 yards last year in Afghanistan. I dont get it. Im going to include a few in here, and my basis for including them is going to be inclusion in Federals 2013 catalog, because thats what Im basing my numbers off. With a muzzle velocity faster than 3000 fps, it offers great external and terminal ballistics. The 257 Weatherby Mag. But lets take a quick look at a historically popular flat-shooting cartridge, the .270 Winchester. It really is the best all-around hunting rifle caliber. And is it fair to include Risky Ralphs overstuffed, compressed-powder loads that exceed the highest handloading guides top loads by 400 fps and leave primers looking as if theyd been squashed on a train track? For bigger game, I could easily hunt with either the 240 or 6.5-300 Weatherbys. More hunters should get to know this fantastic round. Most common calibers are just fine for regular range shots under 300 yards. If not. So if you take flat shooting to mean aiming right at something far away and hitting it, theres not really enough difference between the main popular cartridges to get out of bed for. 10 Things We All Hate About flattest shooting caliber to 500 yards Yash June 15, 2021 57 views 3 minute read This is the one in the middle, the flattest shooting caliber to 500 yards. Copyright Ron Spomer Outdoors document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) They are normalized within caliber. inspired a lot of comments, dissent, and different candidates for the title, so lets take a more detailed look at the flattest of the flat. Ive included different bullet weights/BCs for most rounds to illustrate how BC changes drop at longer ranges. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Whether or not thats true, my own success rate at 1,000 yards informs me to always stalk closer if I can and to forego shots at any distance unless Im supremely confident I can make them. Deciding on the three best flat-shooting cartridges does not come down simply to one statistic, but a combination of all the factors inherent to a cartridge. . p.s. Muzzle velocity certainly makes a difference in how fast the bullet reaches the target, but it is by no means the only factor to consider. With the 6.5 PRC, Hornady has created a better version of the old barrel-burner. Accuracy, knowledge of your rifle and its drops at different ranges, and knowledge of the conditions will dictate your very long range shots. +Nick Strother, he TOLD you right up front he was only including cartridges that can be found chambered in most any rifle. Only B.C. It combined flat-shooting ballistics with hard-hitting bullets in a package with lighter recoil than the .300 Weatherby Magnum, which debuted in 1944. The 300 Win Mag is definitely on the list. Terry Cross. 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. Perhaps you, dear reader, can provide the formula! These rifles can hardly be considered to be flat shooting. I asked around a few years ago and found 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum as the most overbore commercial cartridge. Jim, It nearly matches the ballistics of the Winchester Magnum, but does so in rifles with faster-twist barrels and modern powders that extend barrel life. There's currently no better option for the AR-15 when the range extends much past 500 yards. Recoil statistics are offered for reference. This is not just a product of the .27 caliber bullet and its ballistic coefficient numbers. The URSA gongs are 37 inches round and if you get 4 out of 10 you advance in 500 yard increments. The actual rain is pretty old-school, not digital distances and whatnot, but it's cheap and the people who work there are great. So, Winchester slightly modified the .270 WSM case so it was a bit shorter and then specified barrels with a faster twist. during their trips downrange. The longer the bullet is in the air, the longer gravity can pull on the object. Aug 31, 2013. Its just human nature to celebrate and admire the biggest, bestest, and flattest. modifies results at some point. Modern high-ballistic-coefficient bullets is where the .375 H&H really steps out of its traditional box. Norma offers a 156-grain Oryx load that wont shoot as flat but provides great terminal performance. Nonetheless, 7mm bullets can be extremely aerodynamic and, as legendary elephant hunter Karamojo Bell proved, effective on even the largest animals. again. 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. Somehow stumbled onto this article. For flat shooting over a relatively close range you need a lot of velocity, BC doesn't matter that much over shorter distances. rating, that 100-grain bullet is hanging in there. You can't go wrong with a .308 for a 500 yard rifle. Don't get me wrong, but 45-70 are very accurate and can travel quite well buckin' the wind, I suspect Weatherby got wind of Noslers work on its superb 26 Nosler, so they released Roys old wildcat to steel some of Noslers thunder. A rifle is suitable for flat shooting as long as the 500-yard impact range of the rifle falls below the 40''. I stopped there because few hunters are going to tolerate the recoil or rifle weight needed to operate a flat shooter above 338-caliber. Ditto the 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5-300 Wby. Check out ShootersCalculator.com. Have fun hunting! Yes, the article most definitely included the 7mm Mag, but the specific cartridge mentioned by Nick is what the original article would have included as an exotic version, NOT something found chambered in most any rifle. If youre planning on buying a gun to shoot long range shots this is recommended reading. The amount of drop is directly influenced by velocity, energy, rifle barrel, and bullet design. ), Hornadys Precision Hunter 178-grain ELD-X at 2,600 fps is probably the best long-range option, but look also at the new 168-grain Berger Hybrid Hunter load from Federal, RELATED: 6.5 Creedmoor vs. .308 Winchester. What caliber rifle shoots the flattest? But lets have a round of applause for our antiquated 220 Swift, just 0.2-inch off the record! Its biggest disadvantage, in some people's opinion, is .25 caliber bullets have low BCs. As for targeting game at extreme distances, yes, I realize there are thousands of dedicated, well-trained long range shooters who are as good at 1,000 yards as many of us are at 500 yards and some of us at 200 yards. The .22-250 is accurate, fast and delivers devastating performance at long ranges. Heck, I cant even find agreement on maximum muzzle velocities in handloading manuals from Speer, Hornady, Nosler, Berger, Swift, Hodgdon, Norma, Sierra, Barnes Furthermore, just because the manual lists those speeds does not mean your rifle will deliver them. If the hunter is looking for a flat shooting caliber with good energy and speed of distances around 400-yards, then the .270 would be the obvious choice. A benefit of that, you can fing .308 ammo off-the-shelf for any practical application. Thanks, 26 Nosler 127 gr LRX 3602 Ft./Sec. At a 100 yard zero sight in the 500 yard drop is 37. Underwood Ammos 110-grain Lehigh Controlled Chaos bullet at 2800 fps is another great option. The round is on the cusp of energy at 300 yards, but it is a favorite among short to mid-distance deer hunters. Often theyre inflated. Meantime, lets enjoy our deeper dive into flat shooting hunting cartridges (hand carried and shoulder fired. Join F&S+ to read exclusive stories by your favorite writers. All Rights Reserved, My Group Therapy: Shooting Log Book | 100 pages (6"x9") | Record Target Shooting Data & Improve your Skills and Precision Paperback June 13, 2019. MY 45 cal ball travels at 1633fps with a standard charge, and 74-5gr for a full charge (2040fps). Mag. A 25 yard miscalculation at that distance will vary your hit by half a foot and outside our 6 imaginary circle of vitals. The Liberty Ammunition .308 Win. 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. It will push a 90-grain Fusion bullet to 500 yardswhich is probably the limit for big game with this cartridgewhile still retaining enough velocity to initiate expansion. Nor could most of us scrape up a good excuse for owning one. Wondering if anyone can find anything flatter within that range, suitable to kill a whitetail deer with? Heres a chart from my Popular Hunting Cartridges Compared article. Your Knowledge is greatly appreciated! If you are looking for the flattest shooting caliber to 500 yards, you should read anything else. 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. At 500 yards . Since I have shot my .270 Winchester primarily with the Hornady 150gr spire point and I know at 500 yards it drops close to 50 inches. Yeah, yeah, I know theyre cartridges and not calibers, but lots of people call them calibers so I thought Id roll with it. The lesser charge is a flatter, close group load. I am impressed at all the data you went through to come up with the three chosen. J. 26 Nosler. Another and even better option for reaching out to a big game animal with an AR15 is the 6.5 Grendel. 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. The flattest-shooting cartridges usually have Nosler or Weatherby in their name, and the top three flat-shooting cartridges were created by those respected companies. Now, one manufacturer specializes in fast, powerful, ridiculous cartridges, and thats Weatherby. So what can we learn from these numbers? again. A 30-06 will take any game on the NA Continent. The issue with the Nosler cartridges is barrel life. (For anyone who gets worked up about the fact that the .30/06 isnt on this list, feel free to swap it with this one, as long as you dont mind the extra kick. So since it doesnt work AT ALL for serious shooters, it doesnt get much air time, and then the average hunter who only shoots 2-3 boxes per YEAR never hears about it. 223 Wylde chambered, 20" barreled rifle. Despite its relatively low B.C. (-200) 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. Mag. Another issue is recoil. Must be true since it was posted on the internet. Nosler Trophy Grade with a 150-grain Nosler AccuBond Long Range at 3300 fps. I was once hunting plains game in Africa when my PH told me, holding a rangefinder, that the wildebeest was 155 yards away. (This is essentially what Hornady did to the .260 Remington to make the 6.5 Creedmoor.) The .224 Valkyrie is the flattest shooting 0.224 caliber cartridge . But, as an extreme range competition shooter recently told me, the number of cold barrel, first round hits he sees at 1,000 yards in competition is well below 50%. Take a look at the MPBR column and note how close they all are. 500-yard drop: 45 inches (based on a 100-yard zero). . Excellent work!! Notice that it is only 3 grains lighter than the 150-grain .264 atop that Weatherby. Why? numbers which are not quite as accurate as G7 numbers in predicting trajectories of todays wildly long, sleek bullets. Check out ShootersCalculator.com By Adriel It is about the easiest caliber to hit with at that range you can imagine. Both are 338-378 Wby. Wind also affects bullets differently, and a cartridges ability to overcome these three forces makes it better or worse for shooting flat and far. bullet faster than did the larger volume 30-378 Wby. For some reason it pushed Noslers 125-gr. Trust but verify. However, the .220 Swift and the .22-250 have been used to take deer out to distances a lot of folks got no business shooting, for a long, long time. The 27 Nosler bests the .270 Winchester by about 400 fps with 150-grain bullets. The goal with the 6 mm ARC was to provide the flattest-shooting cartridge compatible with an AR-15. Preferred Caliber For 500 To 1,000 Yards And Beyond: 6.5 Creedmoor Preferred Rifle And Optic: A Rainier Arms precision rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor and enhanced by H&H Precision with an Orias chassis from Killer Innovations. It is capable of sending a 55-grain bullet from the muzzle at 3,700 fps. And that light recoil not only makes you a better shot in the field; it also makes practicing more fun and productive. My grandkids have a poem for this photo: Cartridge cartridge on the table, choose the flattest if youre able. Please, keep up the great work! (not the bullet Id choose for this beast, just puts it nicely in line with the others), What does that do for you at regular ranges? rating) driven more slowly. So what if we shoot further than 300? Thats true, but the bullets have been vetted. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. This is more a theory question than anything. Dear James I would like to see a chart on down range energy. The newest addition to the Nosler line of proprietary cartridges is the 27 Nosler. Impeccable analysis here. It propels a 17 Grain bullet at 2,550 feet per second. My name is Steve and I have just viewed your video on the Flattest Shooting Cartridges. 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. 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. bullet twice that far. 6.5mm calibers It has flipped positions with the 6.5, losing by a mere 1.4-inches. http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator. In fact, we may say that its the only thing that matters; however, factors that lead to time of flight changes are important to consider. Why is the 7 MM Ultra Mag also called the 7RUM not on your lists? The 300WM with the 210 VLDs at 2950fps is pretty good also. Pest control, home defense, and long-range shooting can all be done with 5.56. Fun? Dear Adriel, please be so kind to provide statistics on the following calibers as well: The muzzle velocity is a plus in windy conditions, with the bullet arriving on target with minimal drift. It will be built on a stiller predator action, carbon wrap or #4 fluted stainless at 26 inches. Another one or two probably should have made the original list. The .308 Winchester round shoots pretty flat out to 200 yards when it starts to drop. With a recent elevated popularity, due in no small part to the rise of the six-fives, the Grendel is now getting the attention it deserves. Best Ive been able to do is run ballistic charts on many combinations, knowing that muzzle velocity is of major importance and bullet B.C. Fantastic information. At 600 yards, most common cartridges are running out of juice to take down larger game like Elk or Moose, though the 300 win mag/300 WSM still have a bit left in the tank. Therefore the .17 Remington is the round for you. This is the darling diameter for American big-game hunters. Up until that time, there had only really been two .277-caliber hunting cartridgesthe .270 Winchester and the .270 Weatherbyso the .270 WSM was almost immediately popular. That should be pretty close to flat. It is an ideal choice for deer-sized game in open country, and a fine choice for mountain game. . Below is the information Ive gleaned from 17-caliber through 338. Its very clear that you went through a huge amount of work to pull all of this info together. Ive posted your article on my wildlife and hunting group on FB. Thats what makes a long-range hunters heart go pitter patter, and its what has kept Weatherby in business since 1945. Based on the 7.6239/220 Russian cartridge case, the Valkyrie changes the personality of the AR-15. Your email address will not be published. These cartridges all drop less than 255 at 1,000 yards. Indeed, some deer also live in places where a 50-yard shot is much more likely than a 500-yard shot. The flattest shooting caliber and load I could find was the .300 RUM shooting a 150 grain bullet. Choosing the proper ammunition and knowing your own capabilities at those distances is most important.
