And if you want an affordable hunting or target rifle the Creedmoor is a good option. BadAssOptic.com is a participant in the Amazon.com Services LLC Associates, AvantLink, Impact Radius & ShareASale Affiliate Programs, affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees. The new Sako Finnlight II sports an innovative stock and Cerakote metal paired with the terrific 85 action. Chamber specifications are precise and most Creedmoor rifles come with slow-twist barrels that are designed to utilize bullets from 103 grains and up with ballistic coefficients of .500 or better. The reason why 6.5mm cartridges are exploding in popularity is because they are ultra-efficient. Still, while the rimless .338 Lapua was made as sniper rifle cartridge with semiautomatic firearms in mind, the 338-378 Weatherby Magnum was developed as hunting style ammo and the biggest .33-caliber long-range commercial cartridge. loads. Assorted 5.56 Rounds (XM193, XM855, Gold Medal 69gr) While this may not be the first cartridge that comes to mind for long-range shooting, with an appropriate bullet, the compact .223 Remington or 5.56 NATO is more than capable of shooting over 500 yards with accuracy. He just never made it official. Though it's primarily a hunting round, the 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum will also work for shooting long-range targets. Our blog and video on the Flattest Shooting Cartridge Ever! Gravity impacts all objects the same. bullet faster than did the larger volume 30-378 Wby. The final two cartridges above are mislabeled. . 11 Best Rifle Calibers For Precision Shooting - BadAssOptic Unless youre shooting really far. Equally, cutting through the air slows the projectile down, eating away at its energy. Just $1 per month , These rounds have the reach and the power to put down big-game animals way out there, By 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. Richard Mann (Curiosity? In brief, the ballistic coefficient is a mathematical representation of how streamlined a bullet is, i.e., projectile's ability to resist air drag. Recoil is negligible, making it a great option for hunter with sensitive shoulders. In comparison to .300 Win Mag factory loads, the 300 PRC ammunition is loaded with either 212gr or 225gr bullets. 500-yard drop: 45 inches (based on a 100-yard zero). And while that pokey 300 grain 338 Lapua round drops quite a bit compared to the others in the list, its carrying a lot of energy: enough to take a deer at 1775 yards. 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. The ballistics coefficient of the bullet (a formula which considers the mass, diameter, and aerodynamic drag of a bullet to understand its ability to fight wind and continue on its path) greatly impacts time of flight because it keeps the bullet from slowing down due to inefficiency of flight. projectile that you might crown that one King, especially since that 100-grain sounds a bit more reasonable for deer-sized game. Love it or hate it, the 6.5 Creedmoor was a game-changer. It fires .277-inch bullets in the 165- to 175-grain weight class which means, you guessed it, higher ballistic coefficients. and MV do. 243 and 25-06 had to be left out because it didnt have enough at 600 for even deer. Flattest at 500 yards Weatherbys wildly overbore 6.5-300 wins again! Using the larger .378 Weatherby case, the .338-378 get a 20-percent more case capacity than .338 Lapua and thus gained higher muzzle velocity. When considering cartridges for their ability to shoot flat, overcoming drag is critical. If it makes you feel better to hate the 6.5 Creedmoor, go ahead. With their Vanguard line you can do it for less than $900. Heres a chart from my Popular Hunting Cartridges Compared article. The accurate, potent .300 PRC also makes a great long-range target round. And once they started shooting, squirrels . To even things out, Ive zerod all cartridges at 100, drops are listed in feet and cartridges that fell below 1000 ft-lbs didnt get past the next 100 yard clip. When zeroed at 150 yards, the tiny 20-grain WSM projectile will strike just 2.6 inches low at 200 yards. That makes the 6.8 Western a legitimate elk and moose cartridge and also makes it suitable for hunting sheep at long range without being so abusive that its overkill for whitetails and antelope. The 6.5 140gr bullets really retain their velocity. The best long-range rounds are flat shooting, feature long, aerodynamic bullets and have enough power to go the distance. Run those numbers on JBM. Want to run your own ballistics numbers? +Nick Strother, he TOLD you right up front he was only including cartridges that can be found chambered in most any rifle. Not a lot of difference in drops between the cartridges though; you need accurate yardage readings to get your drop correct. Know your trajectory curve and nail the shot distance with a range finder and you can offset huge rates of drop. It started with the .30/30 and continued with the .30/06 and .308 and right up to todays .300 Blackout. The 220 Swift would be my pick for coyotes, rodents, and probably pronghorn if it werent for the wind deflection issue. So lets roll with this! 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. Sweet Scents of Gun Solvents and Oils: 12 Perfumes for Firearms, 10 Great .22 Mag Bolt-Action Rifles Right Now, 11 Top Hunting Rifles Chambered in .350 Legend, Mossberg Patriot Long-Range Hunter Bolt-Action Rifle: Full Review, 7 Top .17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire) Rifles, How to Clean a Rifle Barrel the Effective and Harmless Way, 6.5 PRC (Precision Rifle Cartridge) is another Hornady creation, The new 6.5-300 Weatherby is the sole belted magnum, 6.8 Western cartridge offerings from Winchester, Kimber Hunter Pro Desolve Blak - A Lightweight Heavy Hitter, Browning BLR Lightweight '81 Stainless Takedown Lever Rifle, Mossberg Patriot Predator 6.5 PRC Rifle Review, Review: Springfield Armory M1A Loaded Rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor, RCBS ChargeMaster Lite Review: Not 'Lite' on Ability, Remington Model Seven SS HS Bolt-Action Rifle Review. Like the 26 Nosler, the 28 is based on the 404 Jeffery case and will remain supersonic out past 1,750 yards. If so you're at the right place. AR-15 Calibers And Cartridges: What Should You Chamber Your Carbine? Berger today made the best long-range bullets enabling .300 Norma Mag to stay supersonic out to 1,640 yards. It will push a 55-grain E-Tip bullet to 3,300 fps, which is more than sufficient for deer hunting. Nor could most of us scrape up a good excuse for owning one. This excellent .25-caliber round was the first wildcat to have been based on the .30-06 Springfield cartridge preceding the development of much more popular the .270 Win round. Faster velocities mean flatter trajectories. Noslers first proprietary cartridge is basically a steroid-monster 6.5 Creedmoor. . With the same zero, the flattest shooting 22 LR ammunition will drop three times that much at 200 yards. However, with this high performance comes added cost. You can compare these numbers with your favorite cartridge using Backfires own table of flat shooting cartridges and you will see that the numbers indicated are in the absolute upper tiers. No exotics just yet, theyll come later. Id consider a base of: Among these cartridges, the 25-06 offers the highest MPBR (Mean Point Blank Range) or the max distance that you can adjust a scope to and be +-3 with the most common bullet weights per caliber. Have fun hunting! Its like a shorter, beltless version of the .300 Winchester Magnum. Mag. 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. My grandkids have a poem for this photo: Cartridge cartridge on the table, choose the flattest if youre able. Released in 2007 by Hornady's team, the 6.5 Creedmoor is named in honor of the oldest shooting competition in North America, the Creedmoor Match. Velocity, drop, energy and the use of bullets with their own factors which create their ballistic coefficients all should be considered. Though of modern design, the Noslers first proprietary cartridge was based on the old beltless .404 Jeffery case and retained the same length as the .30-06, so it will fit into standard-length actions. Here's a chart from my Popular Hunting Cartridges Compared article. 6.5 PRC vs 6.5 RPM What You Need to Know, .45-70 vs .450 Bushmaster Cartridge Clash. The 55-grain Ballistic Tip at about the same speed is ideal for varmints, coyotes and such. Volquartsen UltraLite Semi-Auto Rimfire Rifle - Best Competition .22 LR Rifle. While many authors describe it as a 6.5 Creedmoor on steroids, the .26 Nosler wasnt designed as a long-term target cartridge because of short barrel life and more noticeable recoil. The current 6.8 Western cartridge offerings from Winchester and Browning have BCs over .600, and when you combine that with velocities of 2,835 for the 175-grain Sierra Tipped GameKing load and 2,960 for the 165-grain AccuBond LR load you can see why this cartridge has the potential to take even the largest game at extended distances. Handgun Caliber Comparison [2022 Guide] - Reload Your Gear 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. Lets start by acknowledging we can minimize our search by ignoring all cartridges within each caliber that dont produce maximum velocity in that caliber. Weatherby currently offers six loads for the 6.5-300 ranging from 127 to 156 grains. Hornady's Precision Hunter 145-grain ELD-X at 2,950 fps is the flattest-shooting .270 . It's clearly the best varmint cartridge of the new millennium. 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. But you wouldnt want to hunt with it. A highly accurate, easy to shoot rifle with a flat trajectory will make for confident hunting. It seems a bit odd to consider a .22-caliber cartridge of any design suitable for long-range hunting of . Meantime, lets enjoy our deeper dive into flat shooting hunting cartridges (hand carried and shoulder fired. Its not all hype. Another caliber with the best accuracy at 1,000 yards belongs to the newer generation of the large family of 6.5mm cartridges and bears the Nosler name, highly respected US ammo manufacturer. Thanks gundata.org has done all this for you already. Other than that, excellent site! Just hoping my bad experiences might inspire you to avoid some of your own. My take away on all this number crunching? Appropriate hunting bullets may not reach these levels of B.C. Hornadys Precision Hunter 145-grain ELD-X at 2,950 fps is the flattest-shooting .270 Winchester load. Thank you for the time it took to work all this data up in an easy to absorb article, where are you getting your information for the bullet drop? Mag., according to Noslers Handloading Guide 9. bullet. Its also based on the 220 Russian/7.62x39mm Russian cartridge, but unlike the Valkyriewhich uses a 0.223-caliber bulletthe Grendel is yet another 6.5. Excellent work!! But a reputation for burning out barrels ultimately doomed the cartridge. unfair comparison, Hornady makes a 139 grain BTSP for the 7mm mag very flat shooter, Great info, thanks for your difficult work. Every rifle is different. For good reason. Flattest Shooting Hunting Calibers | The Hunting Gear Guy Utilizing the heavier, slender and more aerodynamic bullets than the .223 Rem, the Valkyrie best performs outside 500 yards. Subscribe to my channel: http://bit.ly/RonSpomerOutdoorsSubscribeLinks:Website: https://ronspomeroutdoors.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ronspomerout. Barnes Vortex | .300 Winchester Magnum. At the time, "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza," "The Rifleman," and dozens of Western films were celebrating horses, lever-actions, and revolvers. Some rely on characteristics that helped make the Creedmoor popular, but other popular new rounds strayed from the Creedmoors recipe and still managed to carve out a niche in the rifle market. The .308 Winchester will win no ballistic awards; its simply a shorter version of the time-tested and beloved .30/06. With the ability to handle more aerodynamic bullets than the .270 Winchester or the .270 WSM, the 6.8 Western and its 1-in-8 twist rate allows this cartridge to outperform both at distance. But the 220 Swift is not a legal big game cartridge in many states and the 40 . Dear Ron: What's the flattest shooting rifle? 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. 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. 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. MPBR with a 150-grain spire point from a 308 Winchester might extend to 317 yards on an 8-inch target while a 300 RUM might push that same bullet to 373 yards. A 3 mph breeze at the shooter can become a 20 mph roar in the canyon halfway to the target. throwing a 55-gr. The cartridge headspaces off its 30-degree shoulder, and since Hornady has designed cartridge drawing with tight tolerances accuracy is extremely good. 270. With those thoughts in mind, it is easy to see why the 26 Nosler, 28 Nosler and the 6.5300 Weatherby Magnums are the best flat-shooting cartridges offered to rifle shooters today. These days, with the explosion of long-range shooting interests, many newbies and more experienced shooters strive to achieve tighter groups at 300+ yards using a standard production rifle and typical hunting or service cartridges.