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Caliber Battles
Is the 6.5 Creedmoor or the .308 Win. better for long-range hunting? How powerful is the .300 Win. Mag. really, and what’s the best straight-wall cartridge? Whether those questions make your blood boil or you’re more confused than ever, you’ve come to the right place. Caliber Battles cut through the noise to answer the hottest cartridge questions—and hopefully teach you something you didn’t know along the way.
Is the 6.5 Creedmoor or the .308 Win. better for long-range hunting? How powerful is the .300 Win. Mag. really, and what’s the best straight-wall cartridge? Whether those questions make your blood boil or you’re more confused than ever, you’ve come to the right place. Caliber Battles cut through the noise to answer the hottest cartridge questions—and hopefully teach you something you didn’t know along the way.
Firearms
Caliber Battle: 300 PRC vs. .300 Win. Mag.
When Hornady describes the 300 PRC as an “intelligently crafted 21st century magnum cartridge,” it’s hard not to read that as a dig at .300 Win. Mag. fans.
As perhaps the most popular .30-caliber magnum of all time, the Win. Mag. is the PRC’s direct competition. But it’s not a 21st-century creation...
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Firearms
.300 Win. Mag. vs. 7mm Rem. Mag.
When someone contacted me recently to suggest this Caliber Battle matchup, I couldn’t believe we hadn’t done it before. If you ask your average American hunter which big boy caliber he uses, the .300 Win. Mag. and the 7mm Rem. Mag. are the two most likely candidates. And the data backs that up...
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Firearms
.270 Winchester vs. 6.5 PRC
It seems like whenever anyone mentions one of the sexy new 6.5mm cartridges, someone else brings up the .270 Winchester and argues that it’s just as fast, hard-hitting, and flat-shooting as any of those newfangled whipper snappers.
You can’t get much more sexy or newfangled than the 6.5 PRC. We’ve...
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Featured Gear
Firearms
.300 HAM’R vs. .30-30 Winchester
When Bill Wilson began developing the .300 HAM’R in the early 2010s, he wanted to create a .30-caliber cartridge that could be chambered in AR-type rifles and would “at least equal the legendary and time-proven .30-30 Winchester in terminal performance.”
If the Wilson Combat website is any...
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Firearms
7mm-08 Remington vs. .25-06 Remington
There were three popular write-in votes when the MeatEater audience selected The Greatest Whitetail Cartridge of All Time earlier this month: the .270 Winchester, the 7mm-08 Remington, and the .25-06 Remington.
Many of you argued that these three cartridges deserved a chance to compete in the...
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Wired To Hunt
The Greatest Whitetail Cartridge of All Time
The people have spoken. According to the MeatEater audience, the .30-06 Springfield is the Greatest Whitetail Cartridge of All Time. The ‘06 spanked the .243 Winchester in the championship matchup by a resounding 49-vote margin: 70 to 21.
Springfield supporters made one simple argument: the .30-0...
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Wired To Hunt
October Madness Championship: Mark's .30-06 Springfield vs. Tyler's .243 Winchester
For Whitetail Week this year, we’re picking the best whitetail cartridge… ever. And by “we,” we mean “you.” Vote for your favorite cartridge by commenting below. We’ll tally up the votes from this championship round at 11:59 pm MT on Sunday, October 8. The cartridge with the most votes will be...
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Gear
October Madness: Clay’s .300 Winchester Magnum vs. Spencer’s .308 Winchester
UPDATE: We have a winner! Spencer's .308 Win. pulled away from Clay's .300 Win. Mag. by a commanding 179-62 vote. Most voters who supported the .308 mentioned the .308's lesser recoil and more-than-adequate power for deer. Spencer's .308 is slated to go up against Mark's .30-06 in the next round, so...
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Gear
October Madness: Garrett’s 6.5 Creedmoor vs. Tyler’s .243 Winchester
UPDATE: We have a winner! Tyler's .243 Win. edged out Garrett's 6.5 Creedmoor on a 104-83 vote. Voters who picked the .243 mentioned its low recoil, solid ballistics, and fond memories of their first deer rifle. Many also picked the .243 because "it's not the 6.5 Creedmoor." Now Tyler's .243 is...
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Firearms
.357 Magnum vs. .45 ACP
If you asked a random group of hunters to name big-bore handgun cartridges, I’d stake a not-insignificant amount of money that the .357 Magnum and the .45 ACP would be at the top of most people’s list. They aren’t the most powerful, but they’ve been around for a solid century and they remain widely...
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Firearms
Caliber Battle: 6.5 Creedmoor vs. 6.5x55 Swedish
When the 6.5 Creedmoor began gaining popularity in the early 2010s, one criticism stood out among many others: “Hornady’s new cartridge is just a copycat of the much older 6.5x55 Swedish.” Six-and-a-half millimeter cartridges have been popular among European hunters for decades, and like sweet-and...
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Firearms
Caliber Battle: .458 Lott vs. .416 Rigby
If you were inspired to take an African safari after listening to last week’s episode of the MeatEater Podcast, join the club. Roger Hurt and Morgan Potter’s stories were enough to inspire anyone to burn two weeks of vacation time chasing Cape buffalo on the plains of Tanzania.
While this kind of...
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