I wanted to share this spreadsheet I created comparing many of the common cartridges found today. I made this list while trying to decide on what caliber I should choose for a 1000yd target/500yd deer & antelope rifle. It started out as a few cartridges (.308. 6.5 Creed, 6.5 PRC) but I was curious how cartridges on each end of the power spectrum would compare and I ended up with this. Hopefully this helps others to better understand these cartridges. All of the choices can definitely be overwhelming.
A couple notes:
A couple notes:
- These are sorted by the distance when the bullet velocity drops to roughly 1800fps. This is a general minimum velocity for proper expansion on many hunting bullets. I chose to sort them this way because I figured it really doesn't matter how much energy a bullet has at a given range if it doesn't have the velocity to properly expand.
- The majority of these cartridges are based off of factory Hornady Precision Hunter Ammunition firing their ELD-X bullet to get a fair comparison between them. If the Precision Hunter wasn't available in that cartridge I'd choose another heavy for caliber bullet in Hornady's line. If Hornady didn't have that cartridge then I'd either go with Nosler or Berger.
- All of the ballistic data comes from Shooterscalculator.com
- All cartridges are zeroed for 200yds
- The cost column is based on current November of 2021 prices which is obviously higher than usual.
- .338 Edge & 7LRM are not "factory" cartridges. I just recently read about them and threw them in for the fun of it.
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