Fashionable cartridges come and go but those which continue to win their place on scuffed shelves are no different in their quiescent clockworking: smooth-lined cases, sensible speeds, and bullet weights that will get you to shoot in the real world on your knees, over the pack, off-angle and in awkward positions more predictably.
Practice will be more frequent when the recoil and muzzle blast are not too intense. That is important, since the location of the shots remains the lowest common denominator regardless of what the headstamp is on the brass.
1. .338 Federal
The .338 Federal attempts to answer the real-life question by a very simple cartridge computation: take a .308 Winchester shell and neck it to a .338. The payoff is a short-action round that has a bigger frontal diameter and does not transform into a magnum length rifle or an exercise in recoil. That compact packaging can be important in even thick cover and fast shooting windows, as much or more than trajectory.
The range of most hunting loads is 185-225 grains. The weight class lends that mulesiness to the cartridge, that it is reliable in penetration, it will grow in controlled fashion at honest distances, not by relying on extreme velocity to accomplish the task. Stated differently, it is more likely to be tolerant of a shot that must be fired off a less-than-good field position, particularly in combination with bullets designed to be retained and propel in a straight direction.
2. 7mm-08 Remington
The 7mm-08 reverses the parent-case concept to the reverse by reducing the.308 to 7mm. It gained its reputation because it was simple to shoot: it has a light recoil, the powder burns well, and the bullet assortment is suitable to a great variety of hunting tasks.
Normal hunting bullets and projectiles are between 140-150 grains or so, and can be made to work between 100-175 grains. That spread is allowing hunters to fine-tune to lighter loads carried by the deer or to step up to heavier and more difficult bullets as shoulder angles become steeper. It also glides in light and short-action rifles, which are frequently the ones that are in fact carried throughout the day, and does not propel shooters into the region of flinch.
3. .35 Whelen
The archetypal bigger hole, standard action is the .35 Whelen: a 30-06 case that was opened up to 358. It has remained current as it has been used in the transfer of heavy types of bullets at very rapid velocities, which are normally well behaved with the construction of hunting bullets over the typical ranges.
The field strength of the cartridge is straight line performance. Bullets of heavy-caliber do not lose momentum and the increased diameter is generally sufficient to create a strong channel through tissues with no magnum velocity necessary. The focus here is on bullet integrity, and it only takes one line to sum up the correlation between cartridge selection and results: your bullet is your only real link with the game you are hunted. If it fails, you fail. In a Whelen, that means selecting a bullet that both swells reliably and also penetrates at an angle other than optimum.
4. .280 Remington
The.280 Remington has never been deprived of its own ability, it merely fell into an already overcrowded locality. It is constructed around the .30-06 base and uses 7mm bullets in the middle ground between the.270 Winchester and the .30 standard.
Designed-wise, its benefit is that it can handle heavier 7mm hunting bullets, up to 175 grains, without even firing into magnum recoil and blast. That opens up to the possibilities of high sectional density and focuses on penetration and uniform performance over an increased number of shot angles, yet still retains the cartridge in the shootable enough to practice range of many hunters.
5. .257 Roberts
It is the .257 Roberts that tends to require an introduction before it can be respected. It was designed on efficiency: handy velocity, light recoil and practical range to hunt deer and pronghorn-range style in which field shooting is important: based on the 7×57 Mauser case and shooting 0.257-inch bullets.
There is even a technical footnote which suggests its long-standing identity crisis. The only rifle cartridge to have an official +P designation is the .257 Roberts, and the SAAMI upper pressure was changed to 58,000 psi. That fact resembles the extent to which performance has ever been built into the design, particularly when combined with modern bullets, which tend to expand predictably at middle-of-the-road impact velocities and remain with recoil manageable.
These cartridges work equally well: after assisting the hunters in shooting in the real world, one allows the bullet building to do the rest of the work between the vitals. After all, the quiet capable rounds are not by far the loudest on paper, but one that continue to make sense when the shot is fired out of a cold barrel, the unsound position, and a tight schedule.
