ONE OF THE THINGS HUMANS DO TOO WELL UNFORTUNATELY, IS STORE FACTS IN THEIR MEMORY IN LITTLE CATEGORIES AND DON’T LET THEM MIX.....
Why
is it that we don’t compare things that are the same and see the facts of those comparisons....the big bitchy bite that I always take and you are probably tired of hearing...is gun writers that call leveractions ‘brush guns’. They also at times call them underpowered.....interesting terms that keep leverguns locked in certain believed levels of performance....psychologically this is known as BSUYA...or....blowing smoke up your a&&!!!!Taking the reloading data from the newest Speer reloading manual we see the 220 grain .308 Roundnose bullet can be safely pushed at 2600 fps with 58 grains H4350....good load....big game load....giving just a shade over 3300 ft.lbs of power. Given a 3 inch high at 100 yrds it will be down 12 inches at 300...38" at 400 yrds. My...my very impressive. Really it is....
I, and any one else that wants to, can push a 250 grain bullet from a 444 Marlin lever gun at near 2500 fps with almost 3500 lbs of punch...but you say the drop figure are bad!!! Not as good as a slim .308/220 grainer...but wait...the 250/44 is down 18 inches at 300 yards....and fifty inches at 400 yards...about 1/3 over the 30-06. So what, with a good scope that’s not a problem. But lets go to the 300 grain 44 jacketed bullet....from the same Marlin I can push this beast of a bullet at 2341 fps (52 gr.ReL#7) and 3651 lbs of muzzle energy.....by actual shooting again it is down 16 inches at 300 yards and 46" at 400.... Now which would I rather shoot a brown bear with...220 gr .308 or the 300 gr 44????
Jack O’Connor the famous gun writer and critic of Elmer Keith...because he was the high velocity light bullet man and Keith was the big bullet moderate velocity advocate....killed just about everything in the Americas with the 270 Winchester...model 70 bolt action. He was great for killing elk and grizzles with the 130 grain bullet. Going back to my Hodgdon’s reloading manual from the early 1960s I find that 60 grains of 4831 pushes that 130 grainer at 3213 fps....with today’s powders and bullets it can be loaded much higher. But the point is at this velocity or near it O’Connor hunted everywhere...and very large thin skinned game...
I have a 7mm rifle that pushes a 130 grain bullet at almost 3000 fps.....now that’s so close to O’Connor’s old ballistics and his 270 it is statistically the same. Yet mine is called to this day a brush gun...short ranged and no power. What is this pitiful rifle and caliber?...My Winchester 7 Waters XTL with a 24 inch barrel. With 38 grains of ReL#15 this boat tailed bullet at 2971 fps with a 3 inch high at 100 yards is still 1 inch high at 200 yards and down only 6.5 inches at 300 and a little over a foot at 350 yards.....my...my Paco, that can’t be right everyone knows it’s only a hyped up 30-30......that’s my point everyone DOESN’T know.
I can push a 150 Remington spitzer soft point .358 bullet at 2939 fps over 46gr of 4198 in the 356 case fired from a 20 inch barreled Big Bore Winchester...with 2877 ft. lbs....or the 180 grain Speer bullet at just under 2800 fps with 49 grains of AA2015 and 3134 ft.lbs....goodness we are back in 30-06 country again...but with a 20 inch barrel, in a neat and easily carried levergun. With the same 3 inch high at 100 yards the 180 grain bullet is down 10 inches at 300 yards....and near 26 inches at four hundred....and I put five into a six inch group at 400 yards......the 150 grainer is down 5 inches at 300 and 19 inches at 400 yards.....carrying the power of a heavy loaded 44 magnum handgun’s muzzle energy at 400 yards.....and that’s a 20 inch barrel. Now you know why I get bitchy over short range and brush gun labels.
Write
to Paco
He won't gripe at you
(unless you call a levergun "shortranged"
or "underpowered")