Monday, December 22, 2008

I have recently taken an interest in comparing different rifle loads with some thought toward identifying an ideal deer rifle. I have a .223 rifle for my children to use deer hunting that started this blog series. I ended up using it this past season to kill a young buck that was pictured in the previous post. However, it appears that there are a couple different cartridges that I did not consider. A list of possible cartridges that I might have considered are the 6.8mm Remington SPC, 30 carbine, 45 colt, 7.62 x 39 soviet, and the .357 magnum.

The relatively new 6.8mm Rem SPC (.277") has about 11% less recoil than the .243 that my son had rejected. When loaded with a 130 grain bullet it has a sectional density of .242 that will positively punch a nice size hole all the way through a deer.

The old 30-30 winchester and the 7.62x39 soviet have the same recoil as the 6.8 Rem SPC and are well respected woods deer cartridges. The bullet diamater of .308 and about that for the 7.62. This will put a bigger hole in the deer at the cost of a little less velocity when compared to the 6.8.

The 45 colt is a revolver round and again has the same recoil as the 30-30, 6.8, and 7.62x39. Unfortunately it's velocity is so low that for the same recoil the 30-30 and 6.8 are ranked as the better deer rounds. The 45 has only about 57% the effectiveness of the others according to the Optimum Game Weight (OGW) formula.

Of those the .357 magnum seems to have been a missed gem that I might have gone for. Normally this is a revolver cartridge. But when fired through a rifle it achieves a higher velocity but one that is still very moderate compared to regular rifle velocities for low recoil. It's recoil is the same as a .223 which is 66% of a .243. At it's max loading a 180 grain bullet will exit a rifle at 1,550 fps. At 100 yards it has a speed remaining of 1,280 fps. At this speed it has about the same performance as the .223.

As I was doing a little more research on the .357 I came across the following article that gives some additional thoughts.
http://www.gunblast.com/Winchester-Ranger357.htm
It appears that cor-bon makes some higher powered loads that can up the normal max velocity for a .357 used with a carbine rifle. Also, Jeff Quinn mentions that youth can also practice with more mild and less expensive .38 special ammunition that fit the same rifle. Plus Jeff recommends what looks like a very nice Winchester lever action rifle.

So I think that I might have gone for a .357 carbine if I was making the same choice now

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