I was looking up an article from Deer and Big game Magazine annual buyer's guide from 2001 today. I came across an article entitled, "Are Magnums Worth The Cost" by Wayne Van Zwoll who was one of my favorite writers at the time. He was down to earth and made a lot of sense.
He had a chart in the article comparing bullet drop at 300 and 400 yards based on a 200 yard zero for all rifles. Some of these cartridges of course are not as popular as they were then and some are pretty much a hand load proposition.
The comparison still had REAL WORLD merit:
Rifle and Load FPS 300 yard drop 400 yard drop
.270 Winchester, 130 grain bullet at 3100 6.3 18.5
.270 Wby. Mag, 130 grain bullet at 3300 5.5 16.0
.280 Rem, 150 grain bullet at 3000 6.6 19.3
7MM Mag, 150 grain bullet at 3200 5.8 16.7
30:06, 180 grain bullet at 2700 8.5 24.4
.300 Win Mag, 180 grain bullet at 3200 6.5 19.1
.338-06,25 grain bullet at 2600 9.3 26.7
.338 Win Mag, 225 grain bullet at 2900 7.2 21.0
.35 Whelen, 225 grain bullet at 2500 10.1 29.4
.358 Norma mag, 250 grain bullet at 2700 8.6 24.8
You can draw your own conclusions. For me, I have personally never been bothered too much by recoil. I owned a .300 Win Mag in Ruger Mdl 77 MKII persuasion for a few years and shot it a lot at the bench and off hand and never developed a flinch with it. It had a muzzle brake that one could take on and off and I shot it both ways on different occasions. I also have a Marlin Model 1895 45-70 that I have shot with heavy loads from Buffalo Bore and other manufacturers with no ill effects or flinch developing. I also took the majority of my whitetail deer with an Ithaca Deer slayer 12 GA shotgun with slugs in it. I put a lot of slugs downrange over the years out of that and other shotguns with rifled slugs etc.Some might think of the old adage, "No sense, No feeling".
That being said, I do not know anyone who relishes loud noise and hard kicking rifles. (What did you say...............? Can you speak a little louder....?)
The gist of the article was that in most cases in the real world the extra cost for the rifles themselves and the ammunition in addition to the recoil and muzzle blast is simply not worth it.
I would add to that that most of us have no business taking shots at big game animals over 300 yards, except on very rare occasions. LOOK at the difference at the 300 yard mark between the 130 grain .270 Win and the 7MM mag and you will find a whopping 1/2 inch difference in drop in favor of the 7MM Mag. Take that out to 400 yards and it is still only 1.8 inches difference in trajectory.
Yes, we can argue that we are comparing a 150 grain bullet to a 130 grain bullet, increased muzzle energy etc. however if the game being hunted is whitetails or mule deer, it simply isn't needed. I have NO Problem with anyone wanting to own and falling in love with the 7MM mag. I almost bought one myself years ago. I knew a friend that used one for woodchucks. At that time I was shooting a Sako .222 and not missing woodchucks on N/E farm fields very often out to 250 yards or a little farther. I crawled into position on my belly for a lot of farmland wood chucks and would not have relished shooting a 7MM mag from a prone position in a t-shirt.
In my opinion the ergonomics and handling qualities combined with the shorter bbl and lighter weight of the .270 Win make it much easier to carry all day and to bring into action faster in a tree stand or ground blind or even while still hunting. Where I hunt, 200 yards is a LONG shot and I don't want to put up with the muzzle blast and extra weight and recoil of the 7MM Mag as an example to take whitetails.
In any event it is a hobby of mine to compare ballistics of different rifles and loads, and speculate on the "Killing Power" advantage of magnums (vs.) everyday plain Jane vanilla cartridges and loads.
I would be more confident on a brown bear hunt with a .300 Win mag with 180 grain premium bullets than I would be a .270 Win. I would be even more confident yet with a .338 Win mag with a 225 grain premium load. Unless I win the PCH grand prize on 4/30/2015, an Alaskan brown bear hunt is not in the cards right now. IF I do win and decide to go on such a hunt, I will likely buy something heavier than what I currently own.
Dan
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