Thread: Looking for a good all around rifle

Originally Posted by gimp

If you test it and the bullet gets reliably into the vitals and works, I would say go for it.


Evidence would suggest that it won't. External ballistics are a bit unreliable too.


Evidence does however indicate that small-to-moderate centrefire cartridges with good bullets do work, tremendously well, and a heavier cartridge e.g .300WSM as suggested in the post I replied is absolutely not necessary and counterproductive

Aha @gimp in september we will see which of us is the sloppier shot !
Ive had excellent success with less than ideal placements using my 7mm08 and Nosler Ballistic Tips. Shots that drop them in a few paces would have resulted in 30-50m runaways with the 303 and 150gr Sierra Pro Hunter. Bullet choice is very key but you can only do so much experimenting yourself.

Broadly speaking, the volume of tissue disrupted is proportional to the kinetic energy delivered. More ft.lb allows more margin for error which we all need. It occurs to me that the larger volume can include more blood vessels even for a good hilar chest shot, which helps in earlycollapse.

Another point I was trying to make is that kinetic energy falls off quickly specially in the first 200m of flight and this can be more pronounced in medium or light for calibre bullets like say 80gr 6mm due to a lowish ballistic coefficient. Wind error is also more with lighter bullets, and that is hard to overcome.