Most all my kills have been by way of a 180 grainer out of a .30-06, but second place goes to the .25-06 I had a few years ago. That thing was my favorite caribou gun and I was confident in shots beyond 300 yards on a good day. Anyhow, my other successful gun calibers that took one of more game animals were: .243, .30-30, .444 marlin, and a single kill of a medium black bear with a .35 remington. I tend to stick with the .444 these days, as with the red dot sight, it hits everything I point it at. And the thwack you hear is great.
What do you use for a "Non-Magnum?"
- Thread starter ErikT
- Start date
CptnBlues63
Regular
- Location
- Northern Alberta
I hunt with a .308. My good friend and hunting partner uses a .300 Savage and so does his son who also hunts with us.
My hunting partner's father uses a 7mm mag now but hunted with a .300 Savage most of his life. He started using the magnum when it became too much for him to stalk and sneak game. This way he can make longer shots...like the moose he dropped at over 600 yards a few years back.
Our other partner uses 6.5 and his friend who joined us last year for the first time is buying a .300 Savage also after hunting with one last fall when it turned out the scope on his .303 was borked.
Between us all, we've successfully hunted everything from deer on up to Caribou, Moose and Elk with the aforementioned calibres.
It's not the size of the cartridge/bullet that matters so much as where you put it......
My hunting partner's father uses a 7mm mag now but hunted with a .300 Savage most of his life. He started using the magnum when it became too much for him to stalk and sneak game. This way he can make longer shots...like the moose he dropped at over 600 yards a few years back.
Our other partner uses 6.5 and his friend who joined us last year for the first time is buying a .300 Savage also after hunting with one last fall when it turned out the scope on his .303 was borked.
Between us all, we've successfully hunted everything from deer on up to Caribou, Moose and Elk with the aforementioned calibres.
It's not the size of the cartridge/bullet that matters so much as where you put it......
I have good results hunting with a 30-30, 303 Brit and a 308 Win. These days I lug around a 35 Rem and sometimes I bring a 7.62X39 as spare rifle.
I have finally gave up this year and bought a model 70 (limited edition 2008 featherlite) in 300 wsm, only because I really wanted one and they were sold out of .308 at the time. I'm not even sure if I'll ever need her for a hunt, but she sure is purdy!
I have finally gave up this year and bought a model 70 (limited edition 2008 featherlite) in 300 wsm, only because I really wanted one and they were sold out of .308 at the time. I'm not even sure if I'll ever need her for a hunt, but she sure is purdy!
I wonder who the person/firm/advertising agency was, that coined the completely meaningless term "Magnum," as referring to firearm ammunition, and changed the shooting world forever?
It originally meant a 1.5 litre wine bottle.
One would be hard pressed to think of a more useless term, designed purely as a sales gimmick.
Just think how the lack lustre 220 Swift could have dominated the 22 centre fires, if only it had not been developed in the 1930s, before anyone had thought of the term magnum. Could anyone resist the, "220 Swift Super Magnum?"
It originally meant a 1.5 litre wine bottle.
One would be hard pressed to think of a more useless term, designed purely as a sales gimmick.
Just think how the lack lustre 220 Swift could have dominated the 22 centre fires, if only it had not been developed in the 1930s, before anyone had thought of the term magnum. Could anyone resist the, "220 Swift Super Magnum?"
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Johnn Peterson
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Chemainus B.C.
I don't know when the term "magnum" came to be associated with the world of firearms but it would be interesting to find out as it has been for quite some time. A check of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, and one of the two definations is definately firearms specific.
"a a cartridge or shell that is especially powerful or large. b (often attrib) a cartridge or gun adapted so as to be more powerful than its calibre suggests. [Latin. neuter of magnus great]
Holland & Holland?
The .375 H&H magnum started life as the ".375 Belted rimless express" or something similar. At one point it got changed to "MAGNUM"
Yes, exactly!!!!!!!
Why everybody looks at names instead of facts?????
I had 220 Swift on my mind all the time when I was reading this thread.
Glad somebody mentioned it.
It's so hot, it is a guaranteed barrel killer.
Untill 1950's or so, almost NO bullets on the market could hold
at the 220 Swift max loads because they were desintegrating in flight.
Though, it is not considered a 'magnum"
What about 22-250? Is it not powerfull enough for you?
Ok, ok, the military cartridges
have been discussed ad nauseam on the internet.
Untill ww2, the fashion was that everything military had to be powerfull.
Somebody mentioned here 30-06 as the original magnum,
(a very interesting idea in itself).
At least thinking in terms of conception, this is true,
as we know the original idea of the 30-06
was inspired from the 7mm Mauser,
but the US wanted bigger case and bigger bore
(to compensate for their small, ... you know).
What about the wildcats?
Anybody notice that very few people developing wildcats
have the tendency to use the word "magnum" in the name of the new cartridge?
Let's take 257 Roberts. Is it not powerfull enough to be a magnum? Huh?
As said already in the thread, the word 'magnum" has lost its meaning.
Do yourself a favor and choose your cartridges
looking at the numbers, effects and results, not names.
The term "Magnum," does go back a long way, a lot further than I thought.
It looks like Weatherby probably started it. Cartridges of the World state the first Weatherby designed, contray to popular opinion, was the 270 Weatherby Magnum, and that was in 1943.
The 7mm Weatherby Magnum was designed in 1944, based on the 300 H&H case.
Remington designed their 7mm Magnum in 1962.
The similar 7x61 Sharpe and Hart came along abut the same time, in a shorter case.
If you don't think the word, magnum, sold rifles, just look at what lived and what died.
The 7mm Remington, in the peak of health, while the neater 7x61 can't get out of its death bed. (Sorry, Johnn!)
The 340 Weathearby Magnum drives a 250 grain bullet at up to 2862 fps.
The 35 Newton at one time, had a 250 grain bullet driven at 2975 fps and muzzle energy of 4925 fps. More than the 375H&H.
I can't find the speed of the 30 Newton, but the 35 N is just the 30 N necked up. Must have been a pretty potent 30 caliber.
Excellent calibers for todays world, but not magnums, so dead, gone.
Actually, Newton designed the 22 Savage Hi Power and the 250 Savage.
It looks like Weatherby probably started it. Cartridges of the World state the first Weatherby designed, contray to popular opinion, was the 270 Weatherby Magnum, and that was in 1943.
The 7mm Weatherby Magnum was designed in 1944, based on the 300 H&H case.
Remington designed their 7mm Magnum in 1962.
The similar 7x61 Sharpe and Hart came along abut the same time, in a shorter case.
If you don't think the word, magnum, sold rifles, just look at what lived and what died.
The 7mm Remington, in the peak of health, while the neater 7x61 can't get out of its death bed. (Sorry, Johnn!)
The 340 Weathearby Magnum drives a 250 grain bullet at up to 2862 fps.
The 35 Newton at one time, had a 250 grain bullet driven at 2975 fps and muzzle energy of 4925 fps. More than the 375H&H.
I can't find the speed of the 30 Newton, but the 35 N is just the 30 N necked up. Must have been a pretty potent 30 caliber.
Excellent calibers for todays world, but not magnums, so dead, gone.
Actually, Newton designed the 22 Savage Hi Power and the 250 Savage.
The term magnum was first used in the booze industry - a bottle (52 oz.) that holds twice as much as a regular bottle (26 oz.). Using that analogy one can only conclude that "magnum" in the firearms industry equals "sales ploy". JMHO --- John303.
I do believe what you say and I aknowledge it.
But in the same time,
I'd say that the stupidity of the brain-washed consumers is to be blamed.
That is not different than putting spinners on a Ford Pinto.
Look no farther than the "Black and Green Rifles" forum on this website.
How many people choose a lower receiver over another
because it sez 5.56 NATO instead of 223 Rem???
And because the "magnum" word has run out of breath,
they came with all the "ultra-mag", "short-ultra-mag" and the rest of the herd.
As you always do H4831 you bring good insight and much food for though to this thread!
Your thoughts on Magnums remind me of Dodge trucks with the new 'HEMI' in them.......it's nothing but a ridiculous marketing ploy! Hemi used to be shorthand for 'hemispherical head', now it means 'I'm a dodge truck with HEMI written on the side, buy me', despite the fact that it's not even close to a hemispherical cylinder head anymore.
Your thoughts on Magnums remind me of Dodge trucks with the new 'HEMI' in them.......it's nothing but a ridiculous marketing ploy! Hemi used to be shorthand for 'hemispherical head', now it means 'I'm a dodge truck with HEMI written on the side, buy me', despite the fact that it's not even close to a hemispherical cylinder head anymore.
Johnn Peterson
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Chemainus B.C.
You do know how to hurt my feelings. Concerning the 7mm 'family' you've mentioned, you're quite correct on the dates for the coming about of the 7mm Weatherby Magnum and the 7mm Remington Magnum. My poor 'downtrodden' 7x61 S&H's entrance to the shooting world however predates the 7mm Remington Magnum by about nine years. To attempt to keep pace with the Remington newcomer, Schultz & Larsen and Norma changed the metallurgy of the 7x61 S&H brass and some of the internal case configuration. These design changes to improve the brass and to increase case capacity were an effort to compete with the 7mm Remington Magnum. This later production run of improved brass was designated the 7x61 S&H Super.Bruce, while on this non-magnum topic, what would you say your top three favorite non-magnum big game calibers are?
- Location
- Ft. Mac. Alberta
6.5X55 is what I use mostly, and a few 308's , and of course a .303 Brit!
Cat
Cat
Mystic Precision
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Summerland, BC
All the deer I have shot that didn't walk off were shot with a 303 Brit and 150gr SST's.
Then I went bigger and got me a '06. All the game I shot, went from a few yards and quite a bit. Used it to get my biggest deer and introduced me to LR hunting and how little I knew then about shooting beyond 200yds.
So I gots me a 30 Gibbs (love this case by the way). Use it once, took one shot, dead on its feet but what the heck - rolled it over with another.
Only deer I ever lost was with a 270. When deer flip over with 4 legs in the air, one tends to think it is quite dead - NOT!!! Second deer I shot (2nd biggest deer of my career), 2.5X3" hole going in, about 3X4" hole coming out. Shot at 100yds diagonaly through the chest cavity starting from behind the near leg. Still this animal ran off some 50yds.
I worked up a 300RUM, and 7RM to hammer something in another time zone but never saw anything and have since given up.
I think I will try a 7-08 or 260 next. I am having way too much fun with these cals.
Jerry
Then I went bigger and got me a '06. All the game I shot, went from a few yards and quite a bit. Used it to get my biggest deer and introduced me to LR hunting and how little I knew then about shooting beyond 200yds.
So I gots me a 30 Gibbs (love this case by the way). Use it once, took one shot, dead on its feet but what the heck - rolled it over with another.
Only deer I ever lost was with a 270. When deer flip over with 4 legs in the air, one tends to think it is quite dead - NOT!!! Second deer I shot (2nd biggest deer of my career), 2.5X3" hole going in, about 3X4" hole coming out. Shot at 100yds diagonaly through the chest cavity starting from behind the near leg. Still this animal ran off some 50yds.
I worked up a 300RUM, and 7RM to hammer something in another time zone but never saw anything and have since given up.
I think I will try a 7-08 or 260 next. I am having way too much fun with these cals.
Jerry
