What are your favorite rifle calibers?

[Wise1]

9mm Sub 2000 and my Glock 19 share the same magazines ... I reload 147 grain jacketed hollow points which will knock either a scumbag or a White Tail on their butts. Why make simple complicated?

 

[Joe Link]

9mm Sub 2000 and my Glock 19 share the same magazines ... I reload 147 grain jacketed hollow points which will knock either a scumbag or a White Tail on their butts. Why make simple complicated?

Those Sub 2000's have gained quite the following. I take it you like yours?

 

[Havasutom]

My favorite caliber to shoot now is the .204 Ruger. I have 3 rifles chambered in it and have been impressed by the low recoil and excellent accuracy. Last trip to the range saw 10 factory Hornady rounds fit under a nickel at 100 yards with a stock Savage rifle.
Before this it was the standards : .308, .223, .22LR, and for protection in bear country the forgotten 350 Remington Magnum in a Remington 673.

 

[Wise1]

Yes Joe, In fact I have 2 of them (2 19's, 2 26's also) To me it make sense to carry twice the ammunition for which ever gun I will be shooting in magazines that fit every gun I own. I realize 9mm is considered by some, not to be a long range shell, but I can hit anything that's as large as a man with every gun I own out to 100 yards. After that, yeah, I'm under gunned. Best part of the Sub2K's; folded they carry in a regular back pack with room for as many Glock mags as I can hoist. For an old guy like me 5 or 6 "Happy Sticks" is the perfect load-out.

 

[Joe Link]

Yes Joe, In fact I have 2 of them (2 19's, 2 26's also) To me it make sense to carry twice the ammunition for which ever gun I will be shooting in magazines that fit every gun I own. I realize 9mm is considered by some, not to be a long range shell, but I can hit anything that's as large as a man with every gun I own out to 100 yards. After that, yeah, I'm under gunned. Best part of the Sub2K's; folded they carry in a regular back pack with room for as many Glock mags as I can hoist. For an old guy like me 5 or 6 "Happy Sticks" is the perfect load-out.

Great, thanks to you the Sub 2000 is back on my list!

I'm also a big fan of 9mm.

 

[Havasutom]

Great, thanks to you the Sub 2000 is back on my list!

I'm also a big fan of 9mm.

Sorry guys, but a 9mm just doesn't rise to a rifle caliber.

 

[Joe Link]

Sorry guys, but a 9mm just doesn't rise to a rifle caliber.

Not even under 100 yards? I don't know enough about ballistics, I just like the idea of having a handy rifle that accepts the same magazines as my sidearm for hiking, camping, etc.

 

[Havasutom]

Not even under 100 yards? I don't know enough about ballistics, I just like the idea of having a handy rifle that accepts the same magazines as my sidearm for hiking, camping, etc.

While a 9mm carbine can be all the things you state, I just don't think it belongs in "your favorite rifle calibers". When I hiked I would only carry one firearm for the reasons of weight. Under 100 yards a 9mm carbine should work since the carbine would have about a 200 feet per second advantage over a pistol. In the long run, it's whatever you enjoy shooting— have fun.

 

[Wise1]

I'm reminded of the Crocodile Dundee line... "that's not a knife" .... "this is a knife"....
My favorite rifle caliber is 147 grain jacketed 9mm loaded +P... Cycles Sub2K and G19 equally well.

 

[Havasutom]

I'm reminded of the Crocodile Dundee line... "that's not a knife" .... "this is a knife"....
My favorite rifle caliber is 147 grain jacketed 9mm loaded +P... Cycles Sub2K and G19 equally well.

No wonder Texas is getting overrun with wild pigs! If you shot one with that 9mm you would really piss him off.

 

[Joe Link]

While a 9mm carbine can be all the things you state, I just don't think it belongs in "your favorite rifle calibers". When I hiked I would only carry one firearm for the reasons of weight. Under 100 yards a 9mm carbine should work since the carbine would have about a 200 feet per second advantage over a pistol. In the long run, it's whatever you enjoy shooting— have fun.

That makes sense.

No wonder Texas is getting overrun with wild pigs! If you shot one with that 9mm you would really piss him off.

 

[JOE TRUMP]

cmmg 9mm 31 round glock mags....the funnest gun ever to shoot , I need to get a glock though....I wish my Sig took these mags !
Favorite rifle round is 308 though

 

[Ura-Ki]

Fav Rifle round, 6.5X55 Swede, you can do almost every thing with them, and the Swede run by their own rules for reloading! About the most fun you can have with a rifle and still be legal! Fav pistol round, any thing in a 1911 and in 10 mm auto! About the most versatile pistol round you can get, and about the most powerful semi auto in a practical size frame to hold it!

 

[marcbejerano]

I'm on my third Marlin in .45-70 and it's still my favorite rifle cartridge.

Great for elk, moose, bear, large animals.

 

[curtmini14]

for my ar its now 6.5 grendel its a do all cartridge light recoil and a lot of smack down on the other end.

 

[Kruejl]

6.5 Creedmoor. Low recoil, flat as a board and really gets out there when needed.

 

[nvshooter]

My .358-caliber elephant gun. It's my own design: What the .35 Whelen would look like if it was built on a magnum case. 250-grain bullets atop 60-some grains of medium-rate powder is a genuine kick in the head. Will kill anything on dry land short of elephant, rhino and hippo. I'll never hunt in Africa, so I'm just guessing it won't kill these species. Maybe it will; I have no idea. I built it to get 4,000 foot-pounds of muzzle energy out of it. I can get that KE by propelling that 250-grain bullet to 2684 fps. The recoil is vicious. I'm done with it for the day by about a dozen rounds. I like it so much because it's only good for about 300 yards. I doubt it has much power left beyond that distance. It's a hunting rifle (0.005" neck clearance and we're not using MatchKing bullets), so I'm not tearing myself up in looking for quarter-minute groups from it. Five bullets into an eight-inch circle at 300 yards is good enough to kill a huge elk, moose or caribou. What more could you want in a nine-pound rifle?

The rifle is built on a stainless Remington M700 action, a stainless 24-inch "hunting contour" Lilja barrel, its gunsmith-massaged stock trigger (a Timney is in the offing) and a Boyd's lefthand stock for a righthand action. Has a Vortex 4-12X scope on it, the name of which I cannot now recall. My friend JR said it was a beautiful rifle when he first saw it. It is if a simple, no-nonsense rifle lights your board. It is simple, but it's elegant as well. It's well-executed, but not gaudy. I'm happy with it, and that's all that matters to me.

I also like the .223 Remington. It's cheap to reload and doesn't offer-up much in the recoil department. I have a great deal of components on-hand to do the reloading, so buying factory ammo is something I will most likely never have to do.

 

[Havasutom]

My .358-caliber elephant gun. It's my own design: What the .35 Whelen would look like if it was built on a magnum case. 250-grain bullets atop 60-some grains of medium-rate powder is a genuine kick in the head. Will kill anything on dry land short of elephant, rhino and hippo. I'll never hunt in Africa, so I'm just guessing it won't kill these species. Maybe it will; I have no idea. I built it to get 4,000 foot-pounds of muzzle energy out of it. I can get that KE by propelling that 250-grain bullet to 2684 fps. The recoil is vicious. I'm done with it for the day by about a dozen rounds. I like it so much because it's only good for about 300 yards. I doubt it has much power left beyond that distance. It's a hunting rifle (0.005" neck clearance and we're not using MatchKing bullets), so I'm not tearing myself up in looking for quarter-minute groups from it. Five bullets into an eight-inch circle at 300 yards is good enough to kill a huge elk, moose or caribou. What more could you want in a nine-pound rifle?

The rifle is built on a stainless Remington M700 action, a stainless 24-inch "hunting contour" Lilja barrel, its gunsmith-massaged stock trigger (a Timney is in the offing) and a Boyd's lefthand stock for a righthand action. Has a Vortex 4-12X scope on it, the name of which I cannot now recall. My friend JR said it was a beautiful rifle when he first saw it. It is if a simple, no-nonsense rifle lights your board. It is simple, but it's elegant as well. It's well-executed, but not gaudy. I'm happy with it, and that's all that matters to me.

I also like the .223 Remington. It's cheap to reload and doesn't offer-up much in the recoil department. I have a great deal of components on-hand to do the reloading, so buying factory ammo is something I will most likely never have to do.

 

[Havasutom]

Your .358 Whelan on a Magnum case has been around for over fourty years. It is known as the .350 Remington Magnum. It has been my elk hunting rifle of choice since the sixties in a Remington 660. In the eighties I got the last edition of the .350 Remington Magnum in the Remington model #673. Lightweight to carry and only needing one shot to drop the largest bulls in northern AZ. That is good since the recoil is significant.

 

[nvshooter]

Your .358 Whelen on a Magnum case has been around for over forty years. It is known as the .350 Remington Magnum.

Really? Well, I'll be jiggered. Let me check my reloading manual for the case length of the .350 Remington Magnum...

OK; according to the Nosler Number 8 reloading manual on Page 652, the .350 Remington Magnum has a case length of 2.170 inches. My .358 Sierra Stomper has a case length of 2.494 inches, which it shares with the .35 Whelen. The .350 Rem Mag is belted; my case is not. Other considerations are that the volume of my case requires I multiply .350 Rem Mag loads by 1.124 to get a load for my mildcat round. The shoulder angle of the Remington is twenty-five degrees. The shoulder angle on my .358 is 17 degrees 30 minutes-- the same as is found on the .30-06 Springsteen and the .35 Whelen. The volume of my case to its mouth is 89.0 grains of water. My Lee Precision reloading manual (the larger-format edition; reprinted 2015) provides the usable volume of the Remington to be 4.04 cc, which is 62.3 grains of water. I was behind the door when God handed-out the brains, but I'm fairly certain 89.0 is a greater number than is 62.3. I can get more than 62.0 grains of IMR-4320 into my case, and seat a 250-grain bullet into it. Allow me to post a picture of this mystery .358-caliber round.



The case volume of the .358 Sierra Stomper is about sixteen percent greater than that of the .35 Whelen. And, it has a nice shoulder upon which the cartridge can perch in the chamber.