Once in a while someone will ask me, “What’s the best hunting cartridge ever developed?” That can be a tough question but in reality there are quite a few that are really quite good and do a lot of things well.
For most of our hunting conditions in this state, there is available today a whole bevy of suitable choices.
The cartridges that can do it all, meaning being capable of taking deer, bear and the occasional moose cleanly are many.
The first of this fine bunch of cartridges is the .270 Winchester, followed by its younger cousin the .280 Remington. Even on moose size game, either one of these two rounds will produce impressive results and do its job nicely as long as you do yours.
Next in this bunch is the 7mm-08 Remington, for its case size, its simply an over achiever as I’ve seen several bear and moose cleanly harvested with this fine offering from Remington arms company.
The .308 diameter cartridges that are available are the .300 Savage, the .308 Winchester and the 30-06 Springfield, followed up by the .300 Winchester magnum and the newer .300 Winchester short magnums.
Winchester has come out with a whole cast of their new short magnum cartridges. They include the 25, 270, the 7 mm, 300, and 325 WSMs. I personally don’t have any experience with any of these, but looking at the ballistics chart on these “hot burners” is very impressive. Their only downfall is the price of the firearms they are produced in and the factory ammunition, as both are very highly priced.
So what get’s my nod? Without a doubt, it would be the .308 Winchester or the 30-06, they both do so many things well with so many different bullet weights, not to mention the vast availability of factory ammo almost anywhere you should happen to be.
So if you happen to have a good old .270, a 7 magnum, or a nice 30-06, feel good about it, you’ve made a good choice.
Until next time, shoot straight and be safe.
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