 |
||||||
| HOME | PRODUCTS | ARTICLES | TROPHY ROOM | VIDEOS | CONTACT | ABOUT |
|
|
||||||
| HOME | PRODUCTS | ARTICLES | TROPHY ROOM | VIDEOS | CONTACT | ABOUT |
It seems like just about every month, some manufacturer or alliance of manufacturers is introducing a new cartridge with claims of improving performance in one regard or another. This is adding quickly to an already numerous list of chamberings. For the handloader, the list grows even further with wildcatting spawning many more specialized cartridges. Over the years, the list has become mind boggling.
My quest for the perfect hunting rifle combined with an acute case of Contenderitis has left a long list of chamberings that I have personally experimented with and adopted at one time or another. Here is a list that I have personally worked with and a few notes that come to mind.
As it is the journey that I enjoy, I’m not seeking a conclusion, but I can offer a simple opinion for anyone that wants to forego the experimentation and simply buy a rifle and go hunting. For big game (excluding large bears), get a .270
My fascination with the .270 was inherited from my Grandfather. It was my first big game rifle. It has served my so well that I ha
ve never had any reason to experiment with other big game rifles. The .270 is inherently accurate, flat shooting and hard hitting. Recoil is manageable so I shoot it well. I have used this caliber to take animals ranging from jackrabbits to elk. Having personally taken in excess of 100 big game animals with the .270
I began using the .222 Remington in a quest to find a centerfire cartridge that could be used on grey fox without causing a lot of fur damage. It worked very well on coyotes and bobcats, but surprisingly, the .222 Remington was too large for the little 8lb grey fox. Fur damage was unacceptable. I mostly used varmint style bullets loaded to mid-range velocities. I now believe a harder, less explosive loading is the way to go. In addition to a 22” rifle, I experimented with the .222 Rem in a 10” Contender barrel. I found that the .222 Remington worked very well in the short barrel. Muzzle blast was moderate, not excessive. Velocity was around 2500ft/s which I thought was exceptional for such a short tube. This is also an inherently accurate cartridge. I owned a 24” heavy barreled
nI can think of no better predator or varmint chambering than the .223 Remington. It is very close to perfect. Terminal performance on coyotes and bobcats is perfect. Accuracy is excellent with even inexpensive rifles often capable of sub-MOA performance. Velocity is excellent so 300 yard shots on coyotes are a piece of cake as long as the shooter is up to the challenge. Economy is exceptional. Powder goes a long way and the brass is free. One of the best things about the .223 is that it is one of the few predator/varmint rounds that is commercially available in semi-auto rifles. Years of experience predator hunting has lead me to prefer semi-automatic rifles for predators. The only problem with the .223 that prevents me from calling it perfect is that it is too much gun for hunting grey fox. Since I spend several months every year hunting greys, I’m still trying to find a loading that allows me to shoot grey fox with minimal fur damage. In the upcoming season, I will be experimenting with 65g Sierra big game bullets. Assuming these bullets expand slightly, but pass through without tearing a huge exit hole, the .223 Remington will see even more service.
This is simply th
e best cartridge that I have ever used on grey fox. Fur damage is minimal. As a rimfire, ammunition is not reloadable, but it is fairly inexpensive to purchase with 50 rounds of premium ammunition going for around $8. When using the .22 Magnum for predators, I recommend sticking with the 40g hollow points or pointed soft points. The lighter, faster bullets are generally intended for varmints. I have seen a few of these faster bullets fragment on the outside of fox and coyote. I have shot enough coyotes with the .22 Magnum to come to the conclusion that the .22 Magnum is not a coyote cartridge. Multiple hits to the vitals are usually required to bring down a 30lb coyote within sight. Last season, I began using Remington’s 40g pointed sof point load. This load penetrates, but expands sufficiently to kill grey fox quickly. I expect this load to work better on coyotes and bobcats, but I haven’t had the opportunity to see actual performance on larger predators. On Grey Fox, performance is excellent. Weighed against the 82 killed last season, only two fox were wounded and not recovered. However, sometimes tracking was required. On occasion, I have used my .22 Magnum as a small game rifle taking both rabbit and squirrel. It of course makes a quick kill. To minimize loss of meat, I try to make head shots. I have also used slow heavy 50g bullets intended for small game with minimal loss of meat even with body shots. Currently, my Remington 597 semi-automatic .22 Magnum is my fox gun of choice. For small game, the 22LR is king.
What can I say
that hasn’t been said. Everyone needs a .22 LR. I have several. My favorite firearm out of my entire collection is a Ruger Mark III .22LR pistol. It shoots less than an inch at 50 yards. Hitting Abert Squirrels at the top of a Ponderosa Pine tree is seldom a problem. Since I spend a lot of time hunting big game with Contender pistols, I also have a 10” match chambered .22LR barrel that is used primarily for target practice. It of course works great for hunting too, but I prefer to carry the Ruger pistol. The recoil of the .22LR Contender is so slight that it helps me observe little bad habits that are often hidden by the heavy recoil of my big game calibers. For this reason, I go through lots of .22LR cartridges each year. Its cheap. It’s great practice. With the .22LR I have found that all ammo is not created equally. Accuracy is generally acceptable, although some ammo is really accurate. High velocity hollow point bullets are very fragile and tend to cause lots of meat damage, while round nose solids can be so hard that little or no expansion occurs (requiring follow up shots). Experimentation is probably required here as barrel lengths will cause velocities to vary. I have found good success following the manufacturers recommendations for ammunition that is intended for small game hunting.
Even before I purchased my first Contender, I was aware of the wonderful reputation of the 7x30 Waters in short barrels. Simply put, I
consider the 7x30 Waters the best cartridge for the T/C Contender. I have owned several 7x30 barrels. All were capable of 1.5” groups at 100 yards. My 14” barrel is capable of 1.5” groups at 200 yards with a muzzle velocity of 2550 ft/s. My favorite barrel is a 11” 7x30 made by T/C’s custom shop. It gives me 2400 ft/s with a 120g Nosler bullet. With a max load of AA2460 I have taken many Whitetails and antelope. Although terminal performance was a little lacking at this extreme distance, I have taken Antelope at 225 yards. Federal commercially produces brass, but 7x30 can easily be formed from common 30-30 brass. Forming is as simple as resizing 30-30 brass in a 7x30 die. Fireforming completes the process, but I have found accuracy is fine even with fresh brass that has not been fireformed. For bullets, I recommend Nosler 120g ballistic tips. I will be experimenting this season with Sierra 120g Prohunter bullets. As you will read, I have tried many contender barrels in all kinds of cartridges. After several years of experimenting, I am nearly cured of Contenderitis. In the end, I will stick with the 7x30 barrel for deer sized game.
For game larger or tougher than deer and antelope, I will be turning to the .375 JDJ. I have a 12” SSK barrel that is quite accurate. It propels a 270g Hornady bullet at around 2050 ft/s. It’s a heavy hitter. Recoil is just shy of the maximum that I want to tolerate. For this reason, I don’t use it unless I need the power. Also for this reason, I haven’t actually taken any game with it yet. With a little luck and some good performance on my part, I trust it will take a bear this spring in
Although over shadowed by the exceptional performance of the .375 JDJ, the .357 Herrett is an excellent cartridge for large game. After all it was developed specifically for hunting with the T/C Contender. This cartridge played a big role in the evolution of handgun hunting. Following in Herrett and Milek’s footsteps so to speak, I had to give it a try. Accuracy and power were wonderful with the 12” barrel. Recoil was painful. I loved the .357 Herrett cartridges. They looked so cool. They were perfectly balanced. They looked like a rifle cartridge designed for a handgun should look. Indeed, this is a very efficient cartridge with the case capacity well matched to the powder that could be burned in a 10” barrel. Unfortunately, I saw no reason to use it in the field. In the end, I sold it to someone who would use it more than me. I considered it a niche cartridge without a good home. It isn’t the mild but effective performer that the 7x30 Waters is and it isn’t as powerful as the .375 JDJ.
The first handgun that I ever purchased was a Smith and Wesson Model 686 .357 Magnum with a 6” barrel. It turned out to be a wise
choice. Even with open sights, this is one accurate firearm. 25 yard groups were under 1.5”. Scoped, this level of performance is carried out to 50 yards. It was with this handgun that I started my love of handgun hunting.
Now we are talking. I love the 44 Magnum. Awesome cartridge! For revolvers, I consider this the perfect cartridge. I have taken a quite a few deer, an antelope, and a Javeli
na with the 44 Magnum. In all cases, terminal performance was very good. At first, I thought it might be too much gun for game the size of Javelina, but there is nothing to found this belief on. I shot one Javelina with it at 2 yards right through the shoulder with minimal meat damage. Handgun cartridges, just don’t seem to damage meat the way big game rifles do. Today, there are more powerful revolver cartridges, but none of them fit into a large frame revolver. In my opinion, the X-frame which is required for the 500 S&W and the 460 S&W is too big. I don’t want to carry it. I doubt I could shoot it accurately without a rest. The 480 Ruger is somewhat interesting to me as it does fit into the Ruger Super Redhawk, but I really have no need for a little more power. I own two 44 Magnums, one is a S&W 629 with a 6.5” barrel and the other is a Ruger Super Redhawk with a 7.5” barrel. Both are capable of 3” groups at 100 yards from a solid rest. Plenty of power! Plenty of accuracy! The only limitation seems to be the skill of the shooter. To maximize velocity, give Hogdon’s Lilgun a try. It works great in magnum revolver cartridges as well as in the 22 Hornet.
During my quest for the ultimate fox rifle, I had a brief interest in the 22 Hornet. I purchased a 20” barrel for my Contender. I thought that it would be perfect. After all, it was slower and less powerful than a .223, but more powerful than a .22 Magnum. It worked ok on fox. With factory ammunition, exit holes were the norm. However, the exits were usually an inch or so and fairly easy to sew shut. The real problem came in reloading. The brass stretched on every firing and required trimming. Brass life was much shorter than anything I had experienced in many years of reloading. In less than a single season, I had sold the barrel.
22 K-Hornet
This dinky little sucker is amazing. It is petite, even cute, but it packs a big punch. Loaded with a maximum charge of Hogdon’s Lilgun, it can get a 50g bullet humming along at nearly 3000 ft/sec. It can propel a 35g VMAX even faster. This is nearly the performance of the .223 Remington using half as much powder. I have a fascination with efficient cartridges and this is one of them. However, accuracy is the reason I still own this barrel. My 20” bull barrel reliably shoots under 0.5” at 100 yards. The 22 K-Hornet is basically a 22 Hornet with a much
improved shoulder. This increases case capacity slightly, but more importantly for me, it greatly slows the stretching of the neck. It probably enhances accuracy by allowing the cartridge to headspace on the shoulder. Forming brass is as simple as loading an factory hornet cartridge into the chamber and firing. In other words, this chambering fires either 22 Hornet or 22 K-hornet loads. Any firearm chambered for 22 Hornet can be reamed out to 22 K-hornet by a competent gunsmith. If you own a 22 Hornet, you should seriously consider the conversion. Regardless, this has proven to be a very nice fur gun. It has taken countless fox, coyotes, and bobcats. My only regret has nothing to do with the cartridge, but with the single-shot limitation of the T/C Contender Carbine. Hunt long enough with a single-shot and it will cost you fur. Sure enough, a few have gotten away because I couldn’t reload fast enough without alerting the predators. Bolt actions are the minimum. I prefer semi-auto. Regardless, this is one of the most efficient cartridges ever invented. This carbine rifle is one of my prized possessions.
30 Herrett (handgun)
The 30 Herrett has a lot going for it, but it still isn’t enough. What it has going for it is efficiency. This cartridge is perfectly tuned to perform in a 10” Contender barrel. It can get a 125g bullet going 2050 ft/s with only 22.0g of powder. This is nearly the power of the 7x30 Waters (already an efficient cartridge) which requires 35g to gain its 200ft/s advantage. Another thing going for the 30 Herrett is that Speer makes a 100g plinker solid (half jacket) bullet that can be used for small game. This makes the 30 Herrett one of the few true dual purpose loadings that I have ever worked with . Unfortunately, the 30 Herrett can not compete with the 7x30 Waters. It isn’t as good of a deer cartridge and the improved efficiency isn’t enough to sway my support. Accuracy from the T/C factory barrels that I have owned has not been impressive. The throats tend to be very long, which is probably part of the limitation. I seldom get groups better than 2” at 100 yards. Then again, this is surely minute-o-deer at all reasonable ranges. I still own a barrel chambered in 30 Herrett, but I often consider selling it. It’s a cool little cartridge, but there are better.
7mm TCU
The 7mm TCU is a cartridge that I want to like, but I don’t like it. I doubt I will ever own another one. I like it because it looks really cool. It is created from readily available .223 brass. It is accurate. Recoil and muzzle blast is relatively mild. It’s a great cartridge for silhouette shooting. However, it can’t compete with the 7x30 Waters in terms of energy. The 7x30 is 150 ft/s faster than the TCU given the same bullet. When I head into the field to hunt deer, the 7x30 Waters would always be picked over the TCU. It’s a no brainer, so I don’t own a 7mm TCU any longer.
This is an awesome deer cartridge for the expert marksman. It has everything going for it.
Mine is accurate. Recoil is very light. It simply doesn’t kick. The cartridge itself is very efficient. Energy is adequate for deer and antelope as long as the bullet is placed correctly. Initially, I bought my .243 as a coyote rifle. It did a good job of putting fur in the truck, but it frequently produced monstrous exit holes. I soon moved on in pursuit of the ultimate fur gun. Since then, I began using the .243 for deer. As I recall I used it for about one season before my wife and I traded. She had a nice new .270 with a featherweight barrel which kicks impressively. It was truly more gun than she could stand. The .243 is perfect for her. I have seen a lot of deer killed with the .243. My wife is an excellent shot. However, very few of them have gone right down. Most were shot perfectly through the heart and lungs. Yet, most made it at least 75 yards before piling up. This is why I say the .243 isn’t the perfect deer caliber. It doesn’t give a lot of energy to spare. It works as well as the shooter, but not any better. For this reason, I only recommend the .243 for small shooters or others that would not shoot a .270 as well because of the additional recoil.
.17 Remington
The .17 Remington holds my record for the most money invested in a project that ended up getting me absolutely nothing but frustration. I wanted the ultimate fur gun. A gun that could take coyotes, fox, and bobcats at all reasonable ranges without causing any fur damage. The .17 promised to fit that impossible goal. To some extent it is the ultimate fur cartridge. The tiny little .17 bullets hum along at an amazing 4000 ft/s. When everything works correctly, the bullet enters the critter and simply disintegrates in a couple of inches. No exit and the entrance is really hard to find. However, I had a lot of problems with the bullets blowing up on the skin. In the worst of my examples, I hit a bobcat three times in the shoulder and still didn’t recover the bobcat. I also had problems with some bullets throwing their jackets and ripping apart about 20 yards down range. At the range I could see tiny carbon trails next to the bullet hole. I knew the jackets were ripping, but it was impossible to diagnose at 4000ft/s. I returned the gun to Remington who decided it was ok. I re-barreled it with a
Here is super efficient cartridge that seems to do more than its size suggests. It is the one
cartridge that I would consider in lieu of the .270
My interest in the 10mm Auto is based on the assumption that this is one of the only cartridges chambered for an automatic pistol that is capable of reliably taking deer sized game. Based on range performance, I have no doubt that the 10mm will reliably bring down deer at all reasonable ranges (60 yards and less based on accuracy). I was thrilled to find that accuracy is excellent. I found a couple of loads that average under 1.5” at 25 yards. A maximum load of AA#7 is generating 1380 ft/s with a 180g Hornady XTP (6” barrel). With a little more experimentation, I’m certain I will find load that produces in excess of 1400 ft/s. This places the 10mm Auto somewhere between the .357 Magnum and .41 Magnum in terms of energy. Since the 10mm produces a larger .40 caliber hole, I believe it has a slight advantage over the .357 Magnum. Then again, it’s a long way from a 44 Magnum. I will eventually hunt deer and antelope with a it, but I will be sure to get very close and place my shots carefully. However, its primary use will be as a backup gun when predator hunting. Because it is small and relatively light, it is constantly with me in the field. I used it on four different occasions last season while hunting Grey Fox. It performed perfectly from point blank range out to 60 yards ( I wanted to recover a wounded fox, but I had run out of rifle bullets after shooting several fox on that stand. Yes, it was a luck shot).
I guess every red blooded American firearm enthusiast must own at least one 1911. This certainly was the case with me. And of course, it is chambered in 45 ACP. The 45 ACP is certainly battle proven. Then again, the goal of combat isn’t necessarily a quick clean kill. It is capable of fine accuracy in a quality firearm. My Taurus PT 1911 averages around a 3” group at 25 yards with open sights. Certainly adequate at close range, but there are many 1911s that can cut that group in half. I have never hunted with this cartridge so I can’t give a first hand account of its performance on game. Obviously, it would work well on small and medium sized game animals assuming the gun and the shooter work well together. If one looks at the energy, it would be a poor performer on big game. The 45 ACP simply isn’t a powerful cartridge. Then again, it makes a big hole and a well hit animal would certainly bleed to death as long as penetration was sufficient. For this reason, I assume it would work well on deer. I would choose a hard cast semi-wadcutter bullet to cut a clean hole while maximizing penetration. However, I don’t plan on hunting big game with the 45ACP. The 10mm Auto is a stronger candidate. The 44 Magnum is a much better choice. For now this is simply a plinker and an occasional carry gun.
I guess I bought into all the hype associated with the introduction of the 6.8mm SPC thinking that it might become the next NATO standard issue cartridge. I think I wanted to believe in a cartridge born in the trenches so to speak. Then again, maybe it was just my love of the .270 caliber that raised my curiousity. Regardless, I had to give this cartridge a try. Relatively speaking, it was a lot to invest. I had to get a barrel, brass, dies, and even bullets. Although the caliber is the same as the .270 Winchester they really don't use the same bullets at all. The 6.8mm SPC performs most optimally with lighter bullets and most loading data is specific to 100g to 115g loadings. This is where my interest in this new cartridge started to fade. There really aren't that many hunting bullets available yet. I loaded up a few and headed to the range. The session was rather uninteresting. Sure the 14" barrel shot fine. My first attempt grouped inside of 1.5" at 50 yards, but it was kind of a so what. Lots of Contender barrels shoot fine. The cartridge really offers nothing new to the handgun hunter. At this stage, I'm still holding onto the barrel, dies, and brass, but I have no plans to use them during the upcoming hunting season. I think the 6.8mm SPC is kind of like the 7mm TCU in that the 7x30 Waters is better in the Contender. However, I'm very fond of AR15 sytle rifles and I believe the 6.8mm SPC is well matched to that platform. It is probably one of the best deer cartridges available for this platform if one considers a compromise in terms of power vs. speed. While I expect to sell the Contender barrel. I'll be holding onto the brass and the few bullets I have purchased, because I could easily see myself using the 6.8mm SPC as a deer cartridge. Probably not in the Contender.
As I said at the beginning of this article, there really is no conclusion for me. I do see myself tending toward the readily available middle of the road performers in each class of firearm (big game, predators, small game) , but I have no plans to stop experimenting at the range or in the field. If I’ve gained anything from the experience, it has been some shooting skill and the knowledge that I am experimenting for my entertainment not necessarily with the goal of actually finding the perfect cartridge.