Youre going to miss with any flat shooting cartridge out there and with a perfectly accurate rifle. Any cartridge that drops less than 40 inches at 500 yards or close to 200 inches at 1000 yards should be considered a flat shooting cartridge. But if you can shoot this cartridge well, with its supersonic speed out beyond 1,650 yards, youre just about unstoppable at distance, and there are lots of factory loads and riflesaffordable and expensiveto choose from. I'm not a huge fan of basing my decisions on bullet energy. By way of comparison, the .270 Winchester (based on the .30-06 Springfield) offers a case capacity of 67 grains. 10 Varmint Rifles for Small to Medium Predator Animals - Wide Open Spaces But can it defend that title at 1,000 yards? The round is on the cusp of energy at 300 yards, but it is a favorite among short to mid-distance deer hunters. 270 and 30-06 carry enough power out to 700 yards, 7mm pulls a bit further, and 300 win mag pulls a bit further still. The Flattest-Shooting Rifle Cartridges: A handy table - Backfire I still shoot a .270 caliber cartridge and the same 150gr bullet, but with a 3gr powder charge boost. 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. 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. But dont waste your time trying to convince us a slower cartridge in any caliber can shooter flatter than the ones weve identified as category leaders. Not many of us can afford the ammo, let alone the rifles and scopes that chamber it, in such calibers as 375 CheyTac, 408 CheyTac, or 416 Barrett. 3. . cleric; Jan 28, 2023; Bolt Action Rifles ; Replies 13 Views 475. Another issue is recoil. Also look at Federal Premiums 180-grain Nosler AccuBond offering at 2,960 fps. Flattest at 500 yards Weatherby's wildly overbore 6.5-300 wins again! (Essentially, you don't have to arc the 300 Win Mag's bullet trajectory in order to strike a target up . I asked around a few years ago and found 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum as the most overbore commercial cartridge. Flattest at 500 yards Weatherbys wildly overbore 6.5-300 wins again! 1. . http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator, 338 Lapua with a 300 grain projectile (you can run 250s in the Lapua as well, but most run a 300). Four Great Calibers for Elk | The Outdoor Line Blog Like the 6.5 Creedmoor, the .280 Ackley Improved can remain supersonic out to 1,400 yards. REX'S INDOOR RANGE - 77 Upward Rd, East Flat Rock, NC - Yelp It has flipped positions with the 6.5, losing by a mere 1.4-inches. With their Vanguard line you can do it for less than $900. I've been looking at the .257 weatherby that drops about 34" with a 100gr bullet at 500 yards and the .22-250 is another at around 36" with a 50gr bullet. It is a flat shooting cartridge, able to hit a target at 300 yards with negligible hold over. The 27 Nosler bests the .270 Winchester by about 400 fps with 150-grain bullets. The rifle has five caliber offerings . Hornady Precision Hunter 143-grain ELDX at 2,960 fps. A big 7mm like the 7rum can put a 140 with nearly a .500 bc downrange at over 3500 fps or a 120 with about a .400 bc in the 3600+ fps range. Nosler is loading the 27 with their famous AccuBond, which is one of the best big-game bullets ever crafted. Hornady 123-grain SST at 2580 fps. But you did such an awesome job with this data. I too share your endorsement of Ron, his videos are a treat each week. Nonetheless, 7mm bullets can be extremely aerodynamic and, as legendary elephant hunter Karamojo Bell proved, effective on even the largest animals. But what are the flattest shooting rifle cartridges? Your Knowledge is greatly appreciated! However, at 400 yards it increases to 11.2 inches. At 500 yards even the flattest shooting rounds are going to be dropping somewhere around 30". Great work mate including .22LR what a hoot (Incoming!) The biggest deficit is the roughly 57 feet of drop at 1,000 yards. Case capacity is literally and figuratively the driving force here: Both Nosler offerings are based on the 300 Remington Ultra Magnum and both boast case capacities of 93.5 grains of water. 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? I am curious to see how it does for a 22 that can push any bullet weight made for it. Those, then, are my conclusions. 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. If youre after deeper penetration, look at the 139-grain Barnes VOR-TX Long Range load. 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. That's pretty dang flat. Still, a flat-shooting cartridge will often perform well with wind as well, because it is in the air for less time between the shot and hitting the target. The way in which cartridge manufacturers develop rounds to overcome these forces is the twist rates of the barrels in the rifles the cartridges are chambered in, developing longer, more aerodynamic bullets with narrower ogives and case capacity. (This is essentially what Hornady did to the .260 Remington to make the 6.5 Creedmoor.) 6.5-300 WBY (-204) So what if we shoot further than 300? It propels a 17 Grain bullet at 2,550 feet per second. 3 Flattest Shooting Rifle Cartridges - LiveOutdoors But truth be told, every Weatherby cartridge is a long-range cartridge. These cartridges all drop less than 255 at 1,000 yards. A rifle is suitable for flat shooting as long as the 500-yard impact range of the rifle falls below the 40''. That, combined with their relatively small size, means that compared to cartridges of similar powder capacity, the 6.5s will almost always do more, in terms of external and terminal ballistics, with less recoil. RELATED: How the Brand-New 27 Nosler Revives the .277. The .223 Remington will easily take care of any varmint out to around 500 yards, but at extreme distances loses its punch. 17 Best Long Range Calibers in 2020 - Ranked by a Marine A 3 mph breeze at the shooter can become a 20 mph roar in the canyon halfway to the target. For bigger game, I could easily hunt with either the 240 or 6.5-300 Weatherbys. Ive updated the chart description so its more clear that it isnt in inches. 10 Best Calibers for Deer Hunting - Gun News Daily But there is a big contender missing I think. Trust but verify. The Fastest .308 Win. on the Market? - The Shooter's Log rating, that 100-grain bullet is hanging in there. Flattest shooting lever gun - SASS Wire - SASS Wire Forum Been there done that, so Im not playing holier-than-thou. Besides recoil, the downside is the limited availability of factory ammunition and rifles. This is with a 58gr charge of Hodgen 4831 powder. Always amazing to me its not even on those lists. View Quote. Top inherently accurate 2000 yard calibers | Sniper's Hide Forum Check out their concise ballistics charts. So lets roll with this! Most common calibers are just fine for regular range shots under 300 yards. The muzzle velocity is a plus in windy conditions, with the bullet arriving on target with minimal drift. Target Rifle- Caliber Question. I am looking for a really flat shooting cartridge up to 500 yards for a Remington rebarrel project I have. Beyond 600 or 800 yards, however, the efficiency of the high B.C. The 257 Weatherby Mag. Just dont try to enumerate its downsides to anyone who knows anything, because there arent any that matter. No howitzers or tanks.). 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. Best Deer Hunting Calibers for 2022 | Outdoor Life I know it is very uncommonly talked about. With a growing choice of ammo from 90-130 grain projectiles and the benefit of a great ballistic coefficient with the 6.5mm bullet, 500+ yard shooting can be almost boring. 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. flat-shooting, and light recoiling cartridge was extremely effective on deer-sized game. I\d be curious to know what the minimum cost is for just the rifle or a quality budget build. It is capable of sending a 55-grain bullet from the muzzle at 3,700 fps. Great job. Hunters and shooters should also know that wind deflection of bullets is a more challenging part of hitting what you shoot at than is drop. Some of those 26 and 28 Nosler rifles only have 600-900 shots of total barrel life. Its just physics. Since this article originally went live, several excellent long-range big-game cartridges have it the market. Published Apr 14, 2022 12:07 PM EDT. And for all of you whove just learned your flat shooting champion really isnt, sorry. Hornady's ELD line of bullets is considered the most precisely made, and the flattest shooting for any specific caliber. 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. 10 Best Long-Range Cartridges of All Time (2023) - Gun Digest Considered by many to be the optimum long-range, large-game cartridge, the .300 Winchester Magnum has proven itself worldwide. The 300WM with the 210 VLDs at 2950fps is pretty good also. The .204 will work quiet well at 500 yards with good shot placement. The final two cartridges above are mislabeled. 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. It will push a 90-grain Fusion bullet to 500 yardswhich is probably the limit for . the max load is the distance load. Posted: 12/20/2020 9:01:19 AM EST [#22] There is a simple . Thanks for your video and the information on your website. Recoil statistics are offered for reference. 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. I hope this report clears up some trajectory confusion and perhaps settles some old arguments. These lists are awesome to go over. I have found that when talking about these large caliber hunting rounds, there is not a tremendous difference in bullet drop. Flattest Shooting Hunting Calibers | The Hunting Gear Guy The good news is that these bullets might shoot even a tad flatter than these numbers indicate. They are normalized within caliber. Just curious if you included the 300 Norma or maybe I missed it. Another one or two probably should have made the original list. 30-378 weatherby (214). Barrel length will change MV. via the Davenport formula. Great chart, I appreciate all your work on this. At 300 yards it has dropped around 13 inches, and at 500 yards it's just under 60 inches (5 feet). Flattest at 1,000 yards Heres where things start to change. Based on the antique .404 Jeffery cartridge case, the 27 Nosler is the first new .277-caliber rifle cartridge since the .270 Winchester Short Magnum, which was introduced almost 20 years ago. But you wouldnt want to hunt with it. The 26 and 28 Nosler as well as the 6.5300 Weatherby Magnum all utilize heavy for caliber bullets with high ballistic coefficients that are stabilized by barrels with fast twist rates. 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. Both are of course bolt-action rifle cartridges. Thats true, but the bullets have been vetted. 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. If you dont have good range finding equipment, youre hooped either way; humans will have extreme difficulty judging 700 from 725 without physical land markers or other range finding signs. What Does A .308 Ballistics Chart To 1000 Yards Look Like? The .224 Valkyrie is the flattest shooting 0.224 caliber cartridge . 28 Nosler cartridge For decades, the Nosler cartridge has ruled the world of a flat shooting range with complete dominance. Nosler Trophy Grade Long Range, 175-grain AccuBond Long Range at 3,125 fps. Some Tips on Choosing the Best Varmint Caliber This is one of the flattest shooting bullets available on the market, with a plethora of different size bullets available that range from 75 grains for small game, all the way up to 120 grains for deer. No exotics just yet, theyll come later. My father has been shooting a 6.5300 wby we had made for him in the early 80s and it was only limited by bullet construction. The drops are listed in feet for the really long range shots, so theyre pretty close to your numbers. 4/1/2016. Nosler Trophy Grade Long Range with a 129-grain AccuBond Long Range bullet at 3,400 fps. The Chey-Tac M200 Intervention is the bolt-action rifle built to handle this round, and shooters have been documented firing a group of 3 shots within 16 inches at 2,321 yards. Fun? What are the best long-range cartridges: .22-250 Remington .308 Winchester .300 Winchester Magnum .338 Lapua Magnum .300 Weatherby Magnum 6.5 Creedmoor 6.5-284 Norma 26 Nosler Check out ShootersCalculator.com. Dear Ron: What's the flattest shooting rifle? Flattest shooting to 500 yds. | Long Range Hunting Forum No, this is merely a fun exercise in ferreting out the cartridge/bullet combination that shoots the flattest at reasonable hunting distance with a bit of extreme range (1,000 yards) thrown in for spice. JavaScript is disabled. Even at 500 yards the Hornady 225 SST is traveling over 2,000 fps and carrying over 2,000 ft/lbs of energy. Sight in 3" high at 100 yards and 6" low at 400 yards. Flattest shooting caliber - PredatorMasters Forums Just hoping my bad experiences might inspire you to avoid some of your own. Often theyre inflated. 10 Things We All Hate About flattest shooting caliber to 500 yards Only a handful of .277-caliber cartridges are made today, but the .270 Winchester is still by far the most popular, given all the guns and loads out there for it. You can't go wrong with a .308 for a 500 yard rifle. It will be built on a stiller predator action, carbon wrap or #4 fluted stainless at 26 inches. But lets take a quick look at a historically popular flat-shooting cartridge, the .270 Winchester. What rifle cartridge has the flattest trajectory? - Quora Dear James It's not until you get farther out that BC starts making a big difference. bullet. Thats equal magnitude to 200fps less flatness! Yeah, 6.5s are all the rage, and their blinding popularity has taken some shine off the old .270, but the latter is still one of the very best long-range hunting cartridges. What Is the Flattest Shooting Caliber? - MG Arms Inc Normas 180-grain BondStrike Extreme at 3,084 fps is new and very flat-shooting. 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. projectile that you might crown that one King, especially since that 100-grain sounds a bit more reasonable for deer-sized game. RELATED: 6.5 Creedmoor: The New King of Cartridges? Have fun hunting! = 3002 inches = 250 foot = 76m above target at 1000 yds now thats a challenge ! If not. That does not appeal to my simplified physics understanding of the subject. It just murders your shoulder, ears, and pocketbook at the same time . J. 7 Best Deer Caliber Under 300 Yards - eatingthewild.com The Nosler AccuBond is one of the best all-round big-game bullets offered, and Weatherby has smarly offered the 140-grain version for their 6.5 RPM cartridge. 11 Best Rifle Calibers For Precision Shooting - BadAssOptic Great chart and thanks for what must have been an incredible amount of work. Thanks What a great tool that you have built. 223 Remington, or 5.56 NATO is more than capable of shooting over 500 yards with accuracy. It combined flat-shooting ballistics with hard-hitting bullets in a package with lighter recoil than the .300 Weatherby Magnum, which debuted in 1944. I\m also a huge fan of Ron Spomer so well done for the recognition of his great work too. Your email address will not be published. Twenty years ago, Winchester introduced the .270 WSM (Winchester Short Magnum). Really enjoy your youtube channel. 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. Thats what makes a long-range hunters heart go pitter patter, and its what has kept Weatherby in business since 1945. (A bullet far from optimum for shooting elk.) Well placed shots seem to work and poorly placed shots tend to fail. I just want to quickly thank you for the great videos and for producing this table of bullet drop data. And they can change in your rifle and will change at different velocities. It's wide-open so anyone from beginners to pros, 25 caliber pocket guns through to race guns. In general, lightweight bullets driven very fast shoot flatter than heavier bullets with better aerodynamics (high B.C. Feb 17, 2023. Then look at the available options for reloaders, nearly endless, bullets for every application imaginable. This should be recommended reading for all shooters learning to shoot long range shots. For example, A 7 SAUM, 280 AI and 7 Rem Mag. Based on the 7.6239/220 Russian cartridge case, the Valkyrie changes the personality of the AR-15. Answer (1 of 5): Trajectory flatness is a function of muzzle velocity. Is the 270 Good For Elk? - eatingthewild.com With the popularity of this cartridge due to America's favorite rifle, the AR15, more and more people are stretching the . Pest control, home defense, and long-range shooting can all be done with 5.56. Brownings 175-grain Sierra Tipped GameKing load has an advertised muzzle velocity of 2835 fps and a very high ballistic coefficient. The 300 Win Mag is definitely on the list. Generally, traditional Weatherby Magnum cartridges perform slightly better than their Winchester or Remington magnum counterparts. . By the way, while the 6.5-300 has been on the market just five years, Roy was shooting it in the mid-20th century. Now, the .280 AI is finally a SAAMI-approved cartridge, and while ammunition options are sparse, its performance is right there with the 7mm Remington Magnum. Our margin for distancing error at 700 yards just went from 12 yards with the 30-06 to 25 yards with the 30-378. Indeed, some deer also live in places where a 50-yard shot is much more likely than a 500-yard shot. . The .25-06 is the flattest shooting, hardest hitting, lowest recoiling cartridge available. Don't get me wrong, but 45-70 are very accurate and can travel quite well buckin' the wind, He is a well-known entrepreneur, having started many successful online brands, and lives in St George, Utah. Mag. I thought Id run an article on the flattest shooting rifle cartridges to compare and contrast both whats popular, as well as a few of the high performance options out there. With the 6.5 PRC, Hornady has created a better version of the old barrel-burner. Noslers first proprietary cartridge is basically a steroid-monster 6.5 Creedmoor. Developed form the military, Winchester . What do you guys think . The first category will include cartridges with a +/- 3" maximum point blank range (MPBR) of greater than 270 but less than 300 yards. Nosler Trophy Grade with a 130-grain Nosler AccuBond at 2900 fps. When it came out in 1925, 300 yards was considered about the max distance for shots on game, and the .270 Winchester was quickly recognized as one of, if not the, best commercial option for that. Choosing the proper ammunition and knowing your own capabilities at those distances is most important. The Amazing 22 Creedmoor: A Wildcat Worth a Hard Look The Best Caliber for Long Range: .300 Win Mag - Firearms News bullet 12 inches at 500 yards, a low B.C. Top 6 Long-Range Competition Cartridges - Guns and Ammo There's currently no better option for the AR-15 when the range extends much past 500 yards. It shoots as flat as a Kansas prairie and holds its velocity way out there. A 30-06 will take any game on the NA Continent. This old timer remains a phenomenon, flat-shooting and effective. 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. Even the heaviest Weatherby factory load (120-grain Partition) leaves the muzzle at 3,305 feet per second and retains 1,221 foot-pounds of energy at 500 yards. Thanks Will! But lets have a round of applause for our antiquated 220 Swift, just 0.2-inch off the record! . With a muzzle velocity faster than 3000 fps, it offers great external and terminal ballistics. 4 Stunning Long-Range Rifles That Will Shoot Past 1,000 Yards Mag. Hornady's Precision Hunter 145-grain ELD-X at 2,950 fps is the flattest-shooting .270 Winchester load. Find out which ones made the cut. The amount of drop is directly influenced by velocity, energy, rifle barrel, and bullet design.