James B

I enjoy Simpsons writing and while I don't always agree 100 percent with him, I think his list is pretty close to what I might have picked. There are many great cartridges and trying to cut them down to 12 picks is tough. He is a writer for a living and thus will stir some emotion. In his own words in some cases he picked popularity over merit. The 6MM Rem is a superior round to the 243 as he said however because it started out with the wrong twist rate, it lost the populatity battle. I also totally agree that the 257 Roberts and the 250 Savage are better deer rounds than the 6MM's but there again they are not as popular. The 25-06 is clearly superior as a deer round to the 6MM's and smaller 25's and thats one that would have been on my list. However what would I bump to keep it to a dozen? In my case the 6MMppc would have to go. This though it probably is the most accurate round ever developed and is well on its way to proving it.

gorse

It hardly matters whether someone's favorite cartridge "made the list". The list in question is not necessarily a list of the "best" cartridges overall - from a technical point of view. I am sure that the criteria centred on popularity...with some consideration of flexibility, accuracy, etc. (technical issues)....but, popularity probably given the most weight. So what.

The "best" cartridge is ALWAYS the one that fits an individual shooter's needs, does the job at hand, is most comfortable in use (for that particular shooter), is most accurate (again, for that particular shooter)...etc. I know not about others opinions on this, but I care nothing for the popularity of this or that cartridge. All I am concerned with is whether it is the "best" choice - for MY uses (and that includes the intangible consideration of whether I "like" the cartridge). That is why my current favorite is the 8mm Mauser. This cartridge will do anything the .30/06 will do (properly loaded)....and is, in terms of popularity, the ".30/06 of Europe". However, all I care about is that it works for me. I enjoy it, in part, because it is not so popular here. You see though, that eventhough this cartridge is the technical equal (in most all respects) of the .30/06...and eventhough it has been very popular in other parts of the world - more popular than the vaunted .30/06.... it did not receive even a mention, in the list.

The point of this is simply that, while enjoyable reading they may be, lists of "the greatest" cartridges serve little real purpose - other than providing interesting reading for enthusiasts of the shooting sport. They prove nothing. Whoopee.

Rebel Dog

Yeeaaa....Baby The old 30 nawt 6

JagMagMan

You are right, it is tough to make a list like that, and please everyone! There are so many good calibers out there! It doesn't matter to me if mine is on someones "favorites" list or not! As long as someone is using enough gun to get the job done, its a good caliber!
Speaking of guns and authors, I like an article written a few years back, by J.R. Sunders, (I believe it was him!)
It was entitled "30-06, jack of all trades, master of none." He pegged my sentiments exactly! I have to say that the '06 IS the gun of the century, and if I owned one gun it WOULD be the '06! It does most all things well, but for specific purposes, you can usually find a better cartridge!

48thguns

I was shocked the 7x57 did not make his list after all it is the mother of the modern cartridge and has taken more elephants than all the big magnums put together. The '06 is stiill the king after 100 years...the swift is the cartridge that the varmit guns are measured by, the 375 is the grandpa of the big magnums, the 243 set the table for the 6mm crowd as remington's big 7 did for the 7mm. The PPC doesn't belong and the 300 WBY mag?????.....nice round, however, just a 300 win mag on steroids....like all copycat weatherbys. The 308 is just a refined '06.....but the most accurate of them all.

My list would have included the 7x57, 6.5x55 and the .17rem and the ppc, the 2 other big mags would be gone and I would replace the wby with the win.

All in all a pretty decent evaluation. Regards, Rick.

zrexpilot

I just dont understand your reasoning
The 6mil superior ? jeez guy it's a 150 fps faster, thats it!
But the .243 is more accurate. has a lot better selection of bullets, dont need to handload, hell you can put a descent load in the .243 and it will surpass the 6 mil. And how can you call the .250 savage better, it shoots a 100 gr bullet slower, has less energy, and drops faster ? WTF ?
Man I try and follow you when you say a bigger bullet is better but now the same size bullet which is traveling slower, has less energy, etc is also better ? WTF ? How can you say it's better ?
same with the .257, it has to be handloaded just to compare to the .243.
Dude you are biased big time!
And the 25-06, you aint gonna like it but it's the biggest overbore POS to be made.
Damn thing needs to be handloaded just to get any accuracy out of it, it has to have a 26" barrell to achieve those numbers too. The .243 is just as good in the killing department, with half as much powder, it's more accurate too. Compare both with 22" barrels and the .243 wins in the ballistics department too. The .243 off the shelf will shoot sub MOA with factory loads, everytime. I doubt any of the above will do that without handloading.

duramaxlt

3 of mine made it 30-06 338 & 300 WBY

Muddyemms

Only two of mine made it, but, then again, I really only use three rounds: the '06, the .308, and the "thutty-thutty."

Virginia7

Hey Muddy,
That's an odd combination [:-] Not knocking your choices, they're all really good ones, but I just found it odd, all yours' being 30cals. Sort of a velocity progression? What's next, the 300Win.Mag. or a 300H&H. How did you come to choose these three? No 7mms, no 270Win., or 243Win., etc. Just curious.

James B

I reload everything. I don't buy ammo unless I absolutely have to. I owned the 6mm Remington, 243, 250 Savage, 257 Roberts 257 Weatherby and 25-06. The 25's have always done a much better job on deer for me. You can call my guns a POS if you choose, I won't stoop to your level. For me the 243 didn't work very well for deer so I retired it to varmits. It doesn't need my support since you have it on a pedestal. The 6MM worked fair. but I shot round nose bullets in that one. Always got 150-200 fps more velocity from the 6MM, more powder capacity. I never loaded it as hot as I could have. The 25's are my minimum for the Mule deer that I hunt. I am not partial to any of the calibers that I use. I just don't like the 243 for big game. I don't use it but you sure can. Nice little rifle.