I think pnw gator nailed it—this is nothing more than a popularity contest until you define the range capability and bullet/wound you want.
A 6.5creedmoor and a 6.5prc are 100% identical—not similar, but IDENTICAL—at a certain range for each, when shooting the same bullet. The velocity is the only difference…when your minimum velocity occurs at your max range, theres your minimum. Ditto for a .308, 3006, 300winmag, prc, rum, etc. So it makes zero sense to differentiate between them until after youve defined what bullet/wound and range.
Once you define the range and wound you want, that will define a list of cartridges and loads for your min/max, and from there you can choose a middle ground based on other factors, objective or subjective.
I think you’ll find that there is a very wide range of performance you can get from nearly all of these simply by choosing different bullets in any cartridge, and finding the middle is simply a matter of placating your emotional biases, what you already own, etc. Which is totally legit to me.
Ex, as a mostly short range deer hunter I was destroying deer shooting a 3006 with nosler ballistic tips or sst’s. To me that was beyond maximum. I went looking for a solution. My solution was to shoot lighter weight copper monos to reduce the wound channel, but from the same cartridge. I could also have accomplished +\- the same thing with much less recoil by going to a 223 shooting highly damaging bullets. A middle ground would probably not include any long-action or magnum cartridges since velocity is not my bottleneck, but I might choose middle of the road bullet weights between 110-150gr, and voila, I have a pretty extensive list of options that all sit squarely in the middle.
haha.
