Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Australia Rank top five popular cartridges for hunting.

You folks that live and hunt in Australia what do you think are the 5 most popular centerfire cartridges for hunting? Big game.
S.

223, 22/250, 243, 270, 308

The 308 is far more popular i Australia than the 30/06 and I suppose being the military cartridge being the reason. Of the five I listed I would think the 22/250 would be last and by a fair way.

While very common I left out the rimfires and 12 gauge but they are very common.

They probably wore out all their 303's by now.

Judging by what I find laying around in the bush, I'd say just the three - 223, 243 & 308. Of the five mentioned above I only have the 308, but have some others.

Hi Mike. Do you think the 270 is more popular than the 30-06?
S

I would say by a very large margin. However, in some parts of the country and especially the sate of Victoria where a lot of Sambar deer are shot the30/06 would be in front. Actually I would say the 30/06 is one of those calibres that is far more common on say Australia's biggest guns/ammo forum than out in the bush or rifle ranges or gun shops.

Many years ago the 270 was more popular than the 308 in the more expensive rifles like the M70 and Sako and often paired with a 22/250 and the 308 was mostly in Howa and Ruger and often paired with the 223.

Of the magnum cartridges it would be 300 Winchester but I would not be surprised if in new rifle sales the 300 WSM is higher and 270 WSM ranks high in magnums. 7mm Remington up there but behind the 300 Winchester. Leaving lever actions out of the equation the 338 Win and 375 would totally rule the over 30 calibre.

With Wby calibres the 257 and 300.

My guess is it is very similar to America with the exception of the 30/06. Another big difference is the 223 would be used regularly on much bigger animals than would be the case in America. Plenty of shooters would only have a Howa 223 and factory ammo and shoot everything with that rifle.

here in America top 5 are probably 223/556 ,243,270 Win.,308 Win.or maybe 6.5 Creedmoor ? >and for sure 30-06 - top 2 magnums > 300 Win. mag , 7mm Rem. mag

I figured the 222 and not the 30/06 OR the 308 OR the 223, due to them being military cartridges, the larger two replaced by the 243, 270 and the like.

So true on the 223. Much of this is because American hunters don’t have the exposure of hunting lots of big game animals. You do see it use though on big game. Basically you have one side that says using a 223 will be the worst decision of your life, then spout off figures and theoretical scenarios and then you have the other side that posts pics of successful hunts every year with their 223.
The 243 is a solid caliber as well.

Define big game?

This is an interesting conversation. So far, seems Aussie's and Yank's favour pretty much the same cartridges.

In the States, the top 5 selling rifle cartridges are in ranking order:

1. 223 Remington
2. .308 Winchester
3. .30-06 Springfield.
4. 30-30 Winchester
5. .270 Winchester

II would be curious to see what the top 5 are in Europe.

In Germany I imagine, it'd be something like

1. .308 Winchester
2. .30-06 Springfield
3. 8x57J(R)S
4. 7x64
5. .223 Rem

with 1 and 2 being interchangable.

This is a totally non-scientific answer, but ammoseek.com has a list of their most popular selling cartridges.

Today they are, in order of most popular:

1. .223/5.56
2. 7.62x39
3. .308
4. 300 Blackout
5. 6.5 Creedmoor

30-06, 300 mag and .270 come close after. My fave, the 7mm-08, is something like 16th.

Someone missed the 5.6 x 52R for European use.

308,7mm08,270,223,280ai

I live on the mainland of Australiana, and my local range did a survey of the shooters for a few months where everyone had to write down what chamberings they were shooting that day, and at the end of it the .308 had been entered 50% of the time. And its mostly all individual hunters sighting in rifles, not target shooters or club people etc. So its a clear win for the .308 over here. Of the other 50% the 7mm08 led,, and then after that was the .270 and .243 neck and neck followed by everything else.

There is not many people using .303's any more, you will see about as many old 6.5x55's as you will old .303's, and then it seems to be just old guys dragging it out for a shot for old times sake, rather than people who seriously hunt with them.

The Tikka T3 changed the game, opened the doors to other manufacturers making cheap plastic bolt actions, and the price for a decent shooting rifle came down. Ruger, Savage, Howa etc. It mean that all those guys who would have used their Dad's old .303 could afford to go and buy Savage Axises and Ruger Americans instead. In .308.

carlsen, interesting about 7mm 08. Sounds like your specific range has a lot of enthusiasts maybe? Its almost unheard of where I am, in fact I cant remember the last time I have seen one.

OP, I asked the local gunstores here what the biggest movers were( apart from 22 and 12ga)

It went 223, 308, 30-30, 243, 303. Thats just my region though. We have the worlds largest volumes of pigs, hence 30-30 still being popular as its the fastest repeat firepower available for hitting groups.

303 not so popular for hunting anymore, but ammo sales particularly onset of covid showed how many people still have them( maybe buried in the backyard or hidden under the bed lol).

We take about 150 hunters every year, for Exotic's, White Tail, Pigs, and they shoot a bunch at our range, 308, 243, 270, 300 Win Mag.are the most popular, we see a few 6.5 creed, 1 or 2, 7-08, as long as I can remember I have seen 1 25-06, very few hunters reload, we pick up their brass, mostly 308,243,270, very informal survey here. Rio7

In 2006 to 2014 out of more than 11.000 reports for Germany the answer is:

.30-06 31 %
.308 12%
8x57IS 11%
7x64 9%
9,3x52 8%

Source https://www.hnee.de/_obj/85DD11C1-3...ine/FWWJ_Endbericht_09HS023_25.02.14.pdf (In German) pg. 32

Is 22lr not available down under???? Or just not used.

Not being an Aussie and all!