Caliber Battles

A few weeks ago, I published an article highlighting the 10 best modern hunting cartridges. My intention wasn’t to hate on older cartridges, just to provide a list of some of the best new offerings of the last 25 years. Still, some commenters felt compelled to defend their favorite cartridges (an...

It’s tough to be the new kid on the block. Just ask the 6.5 Creedmoor. Now, the Fudds have another Hot New Thang to dismiss with a wave and a grunt: the 25 Creedmoor. Announced late last month, the 25 Creed has garnered a healthy amount of praise along with its fair share of cold water. It’s early...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Update: We have a winner! Tyler's .243 Win. squeaked out a victory against K.C.'s .30-30 Win. on a 68-60 vote. Many voters who picked the .243 did so due to its superior range, and its ability to take whitetail on a variety of landscapes. Now, Tyler's .243 Win. will face off against Mark's .30-06 in...

Update: We have a winner! By a comfortable 115-89 vote, Mark's .30-06 defeated Spencer's .308 Win. in this semi-final matchup. Supporters of the .30-06 liked its extra power and range, and many had fond memories of taking deer with this classic caliber. Now, Mark's .30-06 will face off in the...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Billed as the most powerful 7mm cartridge on the market, the .28 Nosler made quite a splash when it hit gun stores in 2015. Nosler promised that its new offering would modernize the 7mm category by taking advantage of all the latest and greatest in firearm and bullet technology, and now several...

Spend any time in the Wonderful World of Firearms™ and you quickly discover that gun debates are really debates about tradeoffs. Do you want an ultra-powerful cartridge or one that’s comfortable to shoot? Do you want a lightweight handgun or one that can carry 21 rounds? Do you want a super-accurate...