The .223 Remington will easily take care of any varmint out to around 500 yards, but at extreme distances loses its punch. I know its a great round, but its by a long shot the best selling rifle chambering of the last several years. . Your email address will not be published. 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. Clear enough? If the 300 RUM surprises you, know that it surprised me, too. It's not until you get farther out that BC starts making a big difference. I\d be curious to know what the minimum cost is for just the rifle or a quality budget build. The 27 Nosler bests the .270 Winchester by about 400 fps with 150-grain bullets. The Government .45-70 can give you the perfect hunting experience as it is one of the top calibers used by hunters. It really is the best all-around hunting rifle caliber. . Do we compare the fastest factory loads or top end handloads from select handloading manuals? The .308 Winchester round shoots pretty flat out to 200 yards when it starts to drop. Hey there from Melbourne, Australia. Im going to set a restrictive definition on common and only include cartridges that can be found chambered in most any rifle. bullet faster than did the larger volume 30-378 Wby. 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. This should be recommended reading for all shooters learning to shoot long range shots. Now I have some facts for my creedmoor pal to chew on. 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? 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. 1.5" high at 100, would be dead-on at 250, and only drop 30" at 550. It seems a bit odd to consider a .22-caliber cartridge of any design suitable for long-range hunting of even smallish big game. Must be true since it was posted on the internet. Save big on firearms, accessories, tactical gear, clothing, and ammunition from now until March 29. Twenty years ago, Winchester introduced the .270 WSM (Winchester Short Magnum). The 220 Swift would be my pick for coyotes, rodents, and probably pronghorn if it werent for the wind deflection issue. Well, theres really only one option in .22-caliber and thats the .224 Valkyrie. 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. That kind of long-range accuracy comes at a hefty price with this model starting at $11,700 from the manufacturer. For good reason. Enforcermj, Im not sure if your comment is sarcastic or not. Noslers first proprietary cartridge is basically a steroid-monster 6.5 Creedmoor. If not. This is the darling diameter for American big-game hunters. 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. Kind of underwhelming, right? All three cartridges also offer ample case capacity, allowing enough powder to send bullets at drag-defying velocities. This is about an alternative to a .308 for those snipers who will likely never even see a 100-yard deployment and do not need the overpenetration or down range effect. But lets have a round of applause for our antiquated 220 Swift, just 0.2-inch off the record! The rifle has five caliber offerings . Is it possible to show those on your web site list? The new Federal Premium, 130-grain Terminal Ascent load with a muzzle velocity of 2825 fps shoots flat and the bullet is tough enough to handle up close impacts while still delivering good. He just never made it official. That's pretty dang flat. It makes for easy reading in an \all in one place\ comparison, rather than spending time trying to find this data all over the internet. (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. The .204 will work quiet well at 500 yards with good shot placement. All in all, here are six bonus cartridge, all highly capable of reaching way out there. With the popularity of this cartridge due to America's favorite rifle, the AR15, more and more people are stretching the . spitting a 100-gr. . Know your trajectory curve and nail the shot distance with a range finder and you can offset huge rates of drop. Now, one manufacturer specializes in fast, powerful, ridiculous cartridges, and thats Weatherby. inherent in 6.5mm (.264) caliber bullets. A relatively flat-shooting cartridge, hunters with skill regular make shots out to 400 and 500 yards with the cartridge on small gamesome hunters even farther. I too am a huge fan of Ron Spomer. As magnums go, the .257 Weatherby is a mild kicker, and it's a great long-range cartridge for deer, pronghorn, sheep, and the like. What caliber rifle shoots the flattest? bullet. Hornady's ELD line of bullets is considered the most precisely made, and the flattest shooting for any specific caliber. .25-06 AI with a Berger 115 VLD that's moving 3,600 fps That should be pretty close to flat. Please, keep up the great work! He is a well-known entrepreneur, having started many successful online brands, and lives in St George, Utah. A 100-grain .243 bullet with a G1 ballistic coefficient around .400 at a muzzle velocity of 2,960 carries just over 800 foot-pounds of energy at 500 yards. What a great tool that you have built. Barrel length will change MV. Mag. Swifts 150-grain Scirocco at 3,036 fps delivers outstanding terminal performance. . A benefit of that, you can fing .308 ammo off-the-shelf for any practical application. The article has really peaked my interest. Still, by using G1 across the board, we are on a level playing field. For a moose and caribou combo hunt, it's certainly an easy choice..270 Winchester - Like the 30-06, this is a classic caliber that can take on any of North America's big game species. Your email address will not be published. Meantime, lets enjoy our deeper dive into flat shooting hunting cartridges (hand carried and shoulder fired. And that light recoil not only makes you a better shot in the field; it also makes practicing more fun and productive. Accuracy, knowledge of your rifle and its drops at different ranges, and knowledge of the conditions will dictate your very long range shots. 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. drops 6.7 inches at 300 yards and just under 20 inches at 400 yards. At 500 yards even the flattest shooting rounds are going to be dropping somewhere around 30". Impeccable analysis here. The quicker it gets to 200 yards the less time gravity has been working on it and the less it will drop. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Great information you have come up with. Time of flight impacts bullet drop more than anything else. Forums. Backfire LLC owns and operates this website. 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. Bullets of this diameter are easily configured to have extremely high ballistic coefficients. In your question about Flattest shooting caliber in a Lever Gun, Winchester 1894 shooting a .25-35 caliber bullet. Fantastic information. Choosing the proper ammunition and knowing your own capabilities at those distances is most important. All the following data was computer generated as if all loads were fired from a (simulated) dead flat (level) barrel, so these are pure drops. The 6.5 PRC can remain supersonic out beyond 1,600 yards or so, but ammunition options are limited. With a muzzle velocity faster than 3000 fps, it offers great external and terminal ballistics. For example, the 7mm Weatherby Magnum will shoot the same bullet as a 7mm Remington Magnum, but it will do it about 10 percent faster. The 257 Weatherby Mag. 260 Rem What bullet weight did you select for the .270 Winchester? By way of comparison, the .270 Winchester (based on the .30-06 Springfield) offers a case capacity of 67 grains. = 3002 inches = 250 foot = 76m above target at 1000 yds now thats a challenge ! So dont assume that youll be shooting the worlds flattest rifle cartridge and bullet until youve verified your MV and bullet B.C. How hard would it be to add a 223wssm to the mix. As you can see, one of our gold standard flat-shooting cartridges (.270 Winchester) does not compare favorably with either of the Noslers or the Weatherby Magnum. At 500 yards, 5.56 will have roughly 339 ft-lbs of energy which drops to roughly 75 ft-lbs at 1,000 yards. Since this article originally went live, several excellent long-range big-game cartridges have it the market. Take another look. Does it matter if there are -30 of drop or -40 of drop if the answer is simply to spin the turret a few extra clicks? 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%. I was once hunting plains game in Africa when my PH told me, holding a rangefinder, that the wildebeest was 155 yards away. The wildly overbore 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum wins or places near the top of the flat-shooter podium at most ranges to at least 1,000 yards. Just dont try to enumerate its downsides to anyone who knows anything, because there arent any that matter. For bigger game, I could easily hunt with either the 240 or 6.5-300 Weatherbys. I believe the 6.8 SPC is that alternative. Copyright Ron Spomer Outdoors document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) I asked around a few years ago and found 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum as the most overbore commercial cartridge. Nosler Trophy Grade Long Range, 150-grain AccuBond Long Range at 2,930 fps. Nosler Trophy Grade with a 150-grain Nosler AccuBond Long Range at 3300 fps. . Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 223 Wylde chambered, 20" barreled rifle. But you did such an awesome job with this data. Thank you for the great content you provide. I blog often and I truly appreciate your content. Why is the 7 MM Ultra Mag also called the 7RUM not on your lists? Weatherbys As much talk as there is about the .270 Winchesters ability to shoot flatly, it does not compare with these three flat-shooting options. 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. The 50 BMG is still supersonic past 1200 yards. But what are the flattest shooting rifle cartridges? Its clear that flat shooting is directly proportional to overbore. Just hoping my bad experiences might inspire you to avoid some of your own. Once again great effort appreciated. Like the 6.5 Creedmoor, the .280 Ackley Improved can remain supersonic out to 1,400 yards. I stopped there because few hunters are going to tolerate the recoil or rifle weight needed to operate a flat shooter above 338-caliber. It will push a 90-grain Fusion bullet to 500 yardswhich is probably the limit for . With their Vanguard line you can do it for less than $900. First, some boundaries. After Weatherbys 6.5-300 Magnum did not win as many hearts and minds as theyd hoped, Weatherby rethought the 6.5mm cartridge and developed the 6.5 RPM (Rebated Precision Magnum). Great chart, I appreciate all your work on this. Most of the calculators out there show larger drop rates then your table. Richard Mann modifies results at some point. Flattest-Shooting Cartridges Ever Backfire 641K subscribers Subscribe 4.2K 173K views 1 year ago The flattest shooting rifle cartridges are listed in this video to help shooters determine. For example , the chart I used showed about 67-70 drop for .270 at 600 yd.. I would think this data is slightly skewed unless the bullets are shot out of the same length of barrels and the same practices of reloading. Brownings 175-grain Sierra Tipped GameKing load has an advertised muzzle velocity of 2835 fps and a very high ballistic coefficient. Unfortunately, the .223 WSSM has fallen by the wayside in recent years. The .22-250 is accurate, fast and delivers devastating performance at long ranges. At 300 yards, the hold over (assuming a 250 yard zero) is only 2.6 inches. If you are looking for the flattest shooting caliber to 500 yards, you should read anything else. Well placed shots seem to work and poorly placed shots tend to fail. Flattest Shooting Cartridges by Caliber Ron Spomer Outdoors 1.1M views 1 year ago Worst and Best Way to Sight a Rifle! Its just physics. This cartridge existed in a cloak of obscurity for a long time; only recently have hunters began to see the potential it offers. .45-70 shoots like a Rainbow compared to even a Win 30-30. Another one or two probably should have made the original list. Its really tough to spot impacts with that much recoil, and thats becoming increasingly important for shooters. Zeroing for 100 yards or farther will change drop significantly. . You can't go wrong with a .308 for a 500 yard rifle. 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. The issue with the Nosler cartridges is barrel life. 6.5 CM The 6.5 CM is a newcomer to the shooting world. Despite its relatively low B.C. The 6 mm ARC flattens the curve, and as a 2020 introduction, it could be nicknamed the "Corona Cartridge." . Shooting a 180-grain bullet (.507 G1 BC) at 2,960 fps and sighted in 1.5 inches high at 100 yards, the .300 Win. Both are of course bolt-action rifle cartridges. Velocity, drop, energy and the use of bullets with their own factors which create their ballistic coefficients all should be considered. Caliber Flattest Shooting Load BC; 7mm R Mag: Hor 139 gr InBd HvMag.480: 270 WSM (1) Fed 130 gr Nosler BT.428: 300 Win Mag: Hor 150 gr InBd . 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. Thank you. Somehow stumbled onto this article. The .17 HMR is based upon the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire casing, necked down to .17 Caliber. Not to mention the different variations in grains in each individual caliber,Ogive and BC.