Welterweight
The choice of cartridges in each of these classes is highly subjective. There are no rules, but opinions flow freely. We regard the Welterweights to be the larger 6mm (.243”) rounds, up through all of the 6.5mms. As hunting rounds, it is our opinion that they fall short of being reliable for elk, but he same can be said of the lower-powered end of the Middleweight Class. Rifles for elk, thinking in terms of a mature bull, are probably the most carelessly chosen of all rifles for any game on the planet. Some hunters apparently have daydreams of success with whatever rifle they already happen to own, which in recent years has been as small and incapable as the highly popular 6.5 Creedmoor. Clearly, there needs to be responsible limitations imposed for elk.
The Welterweights are a sweet group, as recoil of all but the larger 6.5mm magnums is pretty tolerable for the average man. The 25s, such as the .250 Savage, .257 Roberts, .25-06 Remington, and .257 Weatherby Magnum are all a joy to shoot, but have been steadily losing favor to the 6.5mms. Perhaps it’s time for we Americans to find our way back to a home-grown caliber.
240 Weatherby Magnum
If it was important to drive 55- to 60-grain 243-inch-diameter bullets at 4000 feet per second, then the 240 Weatherby Magnum fills the bill. However, I think it's far more important to be able to comfortably drive a 100-grain bullet at 3200 fps. Comfortably; at less than sizzling pressure. There's not a lot to say about this cartridge, other than it's extremely accurate when the hand loader hits on the right combination. That combination (formula, if you prefer) should not include large rifle magnum primers, because the 240 is a magnum in
257 Roberts
Here's a cartridge that has been around for about 80 years, and it started as a "wildcat" (home rather than factory developed). Ned Roberts came up with the idea of necking the 7X57mm Mauser down to 25 caliber (.257-inch bullets), but he reduced the shoulder angle of the Mauser round to a sloping 15 degrees. Remington liked what they saw; a rifle with light recoil that was very capable of taking deer. They added it to the cartridge lineup for their
25-06 Remington
The 25-06 Remington has a long history. I'm not so sure that cartridge history is particularly important, because it's usually a hand-me-down from a previous victim of not-entirely-correct information in the first place. Cartridge design, even in the "wildcat" stage, is often credited to the most well-known individual involved, as long as
260 Remington
I’ve been a mixed-feelings fan of the 243 Winchester since the late 1950s. The rifles I had chambered for it were usually pretty accurate, particularly in the older days when the common twist rate was one-in-ten inches. I preferred shooting lighter bullets, especially the 75-grain Sierra Hollow point, so a 12" twist would have been just fine. Now, in recent years, the common twist for many makers is closer to one-in-nine inches. Count me out, because I don’t regard the 243 Winchester to be a
264 Winchester Magnum
When the 264 and 338 Winchester Magnums were introduced in 1958, I was just 16 years old. In my mind, living in Iowa but regularly daydreaming about the West, it was the Model 70 Westerner in 264 that caught my attention. I pictured myself on endless plains, hunting the pronghorn and mule deer. And somehow, possibly inspired by an article or two on that rifle, the thoughts rolled
270 Winchester
I don't think there's much doubt that deer of one kind or another constitute the most popular and most widespread game animals in the United States, and that continues on into Canada. The caribou is also part of the deer family, but then again so are elk and moose. For the purposes of most of this discussion, elk and moose are
280 Remington
The 280 Remington was introduced in 1957. Most gun writers and shooting magazines around at that time found fault with it. However, performance wise, it was superior to the 270 Winchester when it came to ballistics with heavier bullets. The basis for both the 270 and 280 is the 30-06 case, with minor differences that set each of them apart just a wee bit. For example,