What cartridge would you choose for long range big game hunting?

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I've hunted elk with a .270 Win for many years most of my elk have been under 30 yards, a few as far as 400 yards. I wouldn't recommend the 270, 308 or 30-06 for 500 yards shots, particularly if the hunter hasn't done this in the past. I think the 7mm Mags using 160g or heavier bullets and the 300 Mags shooting 180g or heavier bullets are a better choice. The shooter better know how to calculate elevation vs line of sight distance and there better not be much wind! The 7mm Mag in a reasonable weight rifle doesn't kick much at all in my opinion.

Chuck
 
all of the recommendations you have been given are good, 308,270.30-06. I think the ultimate long range whitetail cartridge is the forgotten .264 win mag. 6.5 with great sectional density hauling butt. Just don't take it on a p-dog shoot, .264 is a known barrel burner.
 
Anybody else notice how often Weatherby pops up in this topic?

My personal choice would be the .300 Weatherby. I hate it for the recoil and love it for the results. It will take an Elk @ 600 yds. or a Cape Buff @ less range.
 
scope is everything

no hunting this year going back to school so i can read & spell smart ass it is your understanding that missing here
 
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kw5891, slow down, pay more attention to how you write, and edit for correctness. As with any of us who post here, it is not the responsibility of the reader to understand. It is the responsibility of the writer to make himself understood.

From your post, it sounds as though you need both more practice time in shooting targets at 100 yards or more. For many of us, that distance is looked upon as an easy "gimme" shot. Tight groups are quite common, but it takes practice.

It also sounds as if you need more time in the outdoors, in more open country. I've hunted in jungly parts of Florida, around Blountstown. I've hunted in wide-open country where shots inside 200 yards would be quite uncommon. I've found that I had to get my mind used to the circumstances of the terrain wherein I was hunting.

I agree with you about sighting in for 2" high at 100 yards. I've been doing it that way with most hunting rifles for over half a century. I have a 500-yard range here at my house, with three 22" hanging plates. I have found that with a 10X scope and a halfway-decent shooting table, I readily hold groups of one MOA or very close to it.

Best luck,

Art
 
300 Wby for cape buff!!!!!?????

Swampghost - No PH in Africa would let you shoot Cape Buff with anything smaller than .375 - it's the LAW!!!
 
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30 caliber has the best bullet selection. 300 mag (many to choose from) all viable options. Shooting til proficent the real key to long range accuracy.:)

Safe shooting
Doug
 
HI Folks.

One thing I have noticed about big bores is once the bullet is set in motion, it's hard to slow it down. I remember Justin Linebaugh using a .475 Linebaugh pistol, at something like 175 yards, and, the bullet retains a huge amount of energy, really not slowing down much at all, like less then 10%.

So, that said, if you launch a 500 grain bullet, at 2400 fps, what sort of drop do you have at 500 yards? How about a 400 grain bullet, at 2600 fps? These are out of a .475 Lott, by the way. Only real problem is finding a scope that can stand 100 ft lbs of recoil...
 
Q: "...if you launch a 500 grain bullet, at 2400 fps, what sort of drop do you have at 500 yards?"

A: If zeroed at 200 yards, a 250-grain .338 bullet at 2,500 ft/sec (slowest data given) will drop 53". So, for a 500-grain bullet at 2,400 ft/sec, the correct answer would be "Bunches". :D

Think "NBA" from mid-court.
 
Good news is if you hit your target, it would retain a LOT of energy.

I knew there was a reason I wanted an open site, short range rifle....
I can't see my 270 yard drives land most of the time, now....
 
I have an '06 Ruger I consider max range humane shot with 400 yards if I was to practice at that range, I have it sighted at 100 and never had to shoot at game past about 150 so far.
I'd choose the .300 Weatherby myself and practice with it.
 
If you sight in a 500g bullet at 2400 fps (assuming 470 Capstick Swift A-Frame) 2.5" high at 100 yards, you're dead on at 25 yards, don't have to worry about hold over out to 200 yards, then 6" low at 250 about 12" low at 300. I wouldn't shoot that cartridge further than that and only of course at plains game past 100 yards. Why hunt dangerous game if you're going to shoot them from more than 25 yards away?

Chuck
 
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Chuck:
Would you please run numbers on 500 and 600 grain bullets, maybe 550's too, in 458, and .475, at 500 yards zero?

Maybe 400's too. 400's at 2900 fps would make a real intresting cat and buffalo load...
 
Those l-o-n-g shots

Just to post something- I am bored with reading only...:o

Bought some meat at a butcher's during my holiday in the Eastern Cape. Kudu country, very dense bush, so shooting (hunting?) is slope to slope across the valley. This guy had many photo's of himself and his dead kudu in his meat shop, taken over the years, with distances like 733 yards, none closer than 500.

Talked to him a little and I came to the conclusion he was an excellent marksman but not so good in range estimation..

But it is true, some guys regularly shoot springbok with their .270W at 300 yds. They also wound some.

An animal shot at such long distance accross a valley may jump and run away and when you get to the position where he stood, and if you can find it exactly after the 600 yards slog through the dense bush (if you even take the trouble to go there) you may not be able to follow the tracks. To make certain that it was NOT wounded is rather necessary, I believe.

I once went out with a hunting party in Namibia, all members of a local legal firm - they in fact chartered my aircraft to take them there - so I hunted with them, except that I walked on my own. I am not a corporate man.

I hunted each area the day after they had hunted it. Found one of each kudu, gemsbok and hartebeest and a few springbok carcasses, most of them with perfectly placed shots.

Lesson? If the animal does not drop dead at your shot it does not say that it was not a perfect shot. So one must take the trouble and check out carefully. But worse, it may have been a low or a high shot, or the wind may have put it into the stomach (although the slap of the strike is unmistakable)(Of course I've done it.(Twice!).

Problem is, with that LONG shot you may not find the exact position where the thing had stood and then you have a problem to get all the facts.
 
I am not advocating extreme range gameshooting,but as a toolmaker I built a rifle for the task you describe.
First,I selected a projectile.I wanted a high ballistic co-efficient,good penetration and a broad range of performance velocity.I chose a 200 gr Nosler accubond,30 cal. Cartridge is 30-338.Velocity 2900.
I had a Husquvarna magnum bolt face action,so I trued and lapped the locking surfaces,squared the receiver ring,and surface ground the reciever bottom.
I put a 26 in Lilja #3 stainless barrel on it.

Hi-tec specialties stock,,ss pillars,steelbed,freefloat,canjar trigger,blind box.

Scope is a Leupold 3.5-10 x 40 mm,Boone and Crockett.

If I zero center crosshair @300 ,the B+C gives correct zero @ 4 and 5.I have not bench verified longer ranges,but I have useful aiming points to 600 meters.

My crosswind value comes up 12 MPH for the B+C ladder.

At over 700 yds,this will still hit like a 30-40 Krag at 100 yds.(I live @5000ft,and the elk are uphill from here).

I have whacked a deer and a pronghorn with it,less meat damage than my .257 AI.
But,last year when I went Elk hunting,I carried my 21 in bbl 375-338.I wasn't figuring on shooting at elk past 300 ish.
 
Why do so many want to shoot deer and elk out to 500 yards-others coyote out to 400??

Perhaps many of those 400 yd shots are really 135 yards.
 
Appologies for going off topic.

Using the example of my .257 AI,115 gr a 3055,chronographed,the 6x42mm leupold on it has a 2 mil,or approx 7 MOA duplex.A brisket to whithers fit in the duplex means a little over 200 yds.I zero it dead on @ a measured 300.I can estimate and kentucky a bit with that rifle till an antelope is nearly small enough to be a crosshair to post fit,then I know we are approaching 400 and it is a wrong idea.I also use a Leica laser,so in either case,I am not just eyeballing range.I have access to a 4 section ranch and I have places measured out to 1090 to practice,and at that range I have put 3 rounds through a bleached out cow scapula that woulkd have made about a 6 inch group.I practice shooting at long ranges.
Once,lasered,layed over my pack,not much breeze,I did a 430 yd antelope shot.One shot instant kill,but no brag shot.Hit it in the neck,aiming heart lung.
Could have been an esophagus shot,or an anteloped stepping on his intestines real easy.It made me think.
The wind is in threads,it is a constant variable.Ref the book "Position Rifle Shooting",he says sandbag a riflescope on a target a 600 early in the morning.
Wait for the mirage to build.You may find your target "moved "3 feet.

I described building a 30-338 in a post above.I actually used Leupold data for the scope values ,loading manuals,and my Sierra ballistic software to design the trajectory of the cartridge to match Leupolds reticle before I built the rifle.I also knew I wanted a minimum impact velocity of 2200 fps@ 600.

I can make a hit at long range,but I still believe Hunting,past about 3 one has to be willing to say,no,it is iffy.Sometimes a little over 4 can be pushed,but there is chance.
Don't get me wrong,I can most likely get a one shot kill on a deer at 800,but I don't accept the risk because wounding is too ugly.
I watched some elk hunt video about crossing hilltops and shooting across valley at 4 to 6+ hundred.One hunter got a one shot kill.The rest shot the legs,butt,guts,reloading and needing 3 to 5 hits to bring down an elk.
Just not my style.
I want to know where my bullet is going to hit,not hope it hits.

I love the technology of rifles,but the HUNTER,can use a 30-40 Krag or a .303 and get 150 or less away and kill anything.
 
I'll stick a comment in here about range estimation. My uncle was a gunsmith, and often sighted in rifles for people at his 100-yard range. His common sight-in was for 2" high at 100 yards, which works quite well for almost all of the non-magnum deer cartridges and for the typical distances at which 90+% of all deer are shot.

So a customer comes in, complaining that Joe's sight-in didn't work. He'd missed a deer at 300 yards. Joe takes him and the rifle to the bench. "Yeah, that's it! That's 300 yards," the customer exclaimed. They darned near got in a fight over it, with the customer refusing to believe that the "long distance" was only one hundred yards...
 
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