List your favourite underrated cartridges

pete dobinson said:
My pick for an underrated cartridge is the 284 winchester, basically 280 rem performance in a short action. Its too bad Winchester didn't chamber it in a bolt action rifle from the get go, instead they brought to market in the M88 lever rifle, so it never really caught on. Light weight rifle builders realized the benefit of the 284win, Nula chambered it and it was the most popular cartridge for them. Precision shooters also noticed the potential of the cartridge and many rifles were chambered for it and its little brother the 6.5-284. Anyway I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it.
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It was the parent case for 450 bushmaster and Rem 30ar, which are even more underrated
 
Gatehouse said:
And I am still not buying the listing of the very popular cartridges as underrated. :)

There has been literally thousands of articles and chapters written about how great popular cartridges like 270, 30-06 and 30-30 are. Any discussion on CGN about popular cartridges will have dozens of posts telling us how great they are. If anything, they are overrated. :)
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Agree to disagree, taking the .270 as an example it’s one of the hardest rifles to sell on the EE in my experience due to being seen as old hat and boring. There’s a perception it’s saddled with poor BCs and antiquated case and bullet design compared to a 6.5. Problem is on game the .270 is probably the most effective round I’ve seen, as clients shoot it well due to the mild recoil, and it has the speed to kill dramatically. At all reasonable mountain hunting ranges the 6.5s BC advantage hasn’t shown up yet. Popular and underrated are not at all exclusive concepts, they often go hand in hand. Happens with vehicles, recipes, and tools too.

WhyNot? has mentioned several times he’s seen more moose drop dead on the spot to a .270 than any other round and that it has outsized effect, I’ve seen the same of the .270 and 7 Mag when the 160s and 175s are avoided.. I don’t even own a .270 presently and haven’t for awhile, but it’s top of my list for the next client loaner rifle as I just sold the loaner 7x57. If you want a fringe popularity round to fit a different definition of underrated, .257 Weatherby is it for me. Outfitting taught me to appreciate speed, and I went in as a die hard heavy bullets and moderate guy. What I saw was clear cut however, speed helped bullets not only kill effectively but also find the right spot more easily.

So maybe that’s really my point? Fast and light for caliber bullets, and cartridges designed for that recipe, are underrated.
 
The virtues of the 270 winchester have been regaled in print for close to 100 years, hardly underrated! Its kinda to the point of, yeah yeah we heard it all a 100 times already....boring...time to move on.

The same with the 6.5 Creedmoor....I think if a shooting sports writer wrote something negative on this round he/she/zee would be down the road looking for another job.

As boring as the 270 is and as the 6.5 Creedmoor is going to be. I do have 2 examples of each in the safe with no plans to sell any of them....:)
 
I've said it before, but around here before Al Gore invented the internet, when grizzly and moose tags were over the counter, the 270 was considered to be a big gun.
 
I would agree with Ardent... when I think of "underrated," I am referring to cartridges that would not generally be recommended today at the average gun counter, and cartridges that may be considered "outdated" in campfire and gunshop conversations in 2019... there is a perception that the .30-30, .270, .45/70 etc... are inferior to the point of significantly reducing your ability to kill game. Sure they are "All-Time" best sellers, but certainly not in 2019... hence the underrated label.
 
For me, underrated and unpopular due to ignorance often go hand in hand!
The .303 gets bashed every day by people who have either never used it , or shot it in a worn out Enfield, but in a rifle in good condition it is a great cartridge.
I get asked " why??" on a regular basis at the range when someone asks why my favorite hunting rifle is chambered in .303, and the response is always " Why not?":cool:
Cat
 
iron cat said:
For me, underrated and unpopular due to ignorance often go hand in hand!
The .303 gets bashed every day by people who have either never used it , or shot it in a worn out Enfield, but in a rifle in good condition it is a great cartridge.
I get asked " why??" on a regular basis at the range when someone asks why my favorite hunting rifle is chambered in .303, and the response is always " Why not?":cool:
Cat
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Agreed... the .303 British is a very good example, rim and all.
 
20x138B

Not enough people using this cartridge any more. Perfectly suitable for deer and other similar animals. Cost is a bit of an issue, hard to find ammo, but you'know... sometimes good things are worth the wait.
 
Ardent said:
.270 Winchester and .243 Winchester.

The former in particular is popularly discounted by the “in” crowd / 6.5 people, however the .270 remains a modest recoiling, flat shooting game hammer that by its very recipe (light bullets) has resisted the market push to heavy monos. It’s retained it’s bang flop aspects better than most as a result, and is available in every good rifle, and on every hardware store shelf.

The .243 is just a 75% scale .270, and is to the .308 what the .270 is to the .30-06. Another sweet shooting, quick, readily available and disproportionately effective round that was doing the mild but flat shooting thing long before the fancy options came along.

Getting away from readily available, the .250 Savage as the OP mentions, the 257 Roberts, and .257 Weatherby are all inordinately effective and light recoiling. The .30-06 is considered old hat but yet arguably the best rounded non dangerous game round in existence.
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Couldn’t agree more!
 
Lately i shot my old stock new ( bought it 25 years ago ) BLR 81 358. This is an amazing caliber with 200 grs bullet.

It shoot like a 308 with a NOS, i am gonna tailor a load for it this winter
 
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303 british .In the day 300 yard head brain shots elephants wasn't a problem until soldiers where wounding the animal . Hence 375 H H. The 303 is all you really need.
 
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MiG25 said:
I've said it before, but around here before Al Gore invented the internet, when grizzly and moose tags were over the counter, the 270 was considered to be a big gun.
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I recall my dad telling me a story when he went for a moose hunting trip in the north and they hired some local guide. This would have been about a dozen years post WW2. My Dad was a lefty and had a Remington semi auto in 30-06 and the guide was very impressed, said "You with the BIG GUN, you shoot the moose, it won't stand a chance!" :)

270/30-06 class cartridges are actually at the upper limit for what most new shooters can handle and shoot accurately.
 
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