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!

Of course it is available. The question was about centrefire cartridges.

For sure it depends on locale.

Local Louisiana Cajuns, easy answer...

.22 WMR, it's the candlepowder that's the variable....

But, they may not always be hunting when the sun is shining....

But, they eat good...

DF

Thinking a large portion of 223 Rem is for blasting at the range in AR's or hoarded for the Apocalypse. No doubt the 223 gets hunted but doubt it ranks number one out of those five if adjusted for other uses in the U.S.

I mentioned in my first post on the thread that I had left out the 22 and 12G. They are very common and I think the various rimfires as a group would be the biggest sellers.

Australia's largest guns/hunting forum (extremely active) I think is like American ones in the sense they are not representative of what you find in the bush. They leave the impression that the 300 Wby and 375 etc. are behind every second bush. I think a much higher percentage of Australian shooters reload than Americans and especially for any of the magnums, Wbys, 375 and 458 etc but also the stuff like 270 etc. I think two reasons are cost of ammo here and also the large volume of shooting.

We also favour faster expanding bullets (people on forums are often not that way) so 130 grain common in 308 and 100 - 110 grain in 270. A local bullet maker here (not Woodleigh) make 30, 303, 358, 375 and 45 and all ar big hollow point quick expanders.

The calicivirus knocked the rabbits back big time 20 odd years ago. They still pop up in patches but the big numbers are gone forever now. The .22s are still around but not much to shoot them at with the decline of the rabbits.

With regard to the five cartridges, I'd go .223, .243, .270 .308 and .30-06. Of the hunters I've met in the bush over the past few years.the 30-06 was the most commen cartridge they were carrying. Probably because they want to, or do, go sambar hunting. Some of the old classics like .222 and .303. are not as popular anymore as they once were. I still prefer the little .222 for foxes over the 223 but the .223 is miles (or kilometres) ahead these days. The .300 magnums are also pretty popular with a lot of blokes choosing one now over the .30-06, especially the .300WSM.

But I still like my oldies like the .222, .250 Sav, .257 Roberts x 2, .257 Ackley, .25-06, 6.5x55, 6.5x57, 7x57, 7x64, .30-06, .303, 8x57, .35 Whelen and 9.3x62.

But I am moving with the times and actually have a 6.5 Creedmoor and a 6.5x47 very soon.

However, my Ruger Number 1A in 7x57 is the one that I keep coming back to after I've played with most of the others. It will be the one that I will keep to the end.

I agree with Mike Mcguire bout greater use of positive expanding bullets in Australia. Americans more likely to class a bullet a failure if it loses a few grains or cant penetrate 36"of ballistic gel+ 6" pine boards on a youtube video. In big game calibres I used to like the older style hornadies and even the .416 calibre woodleighs. Unfortunately the owners at these companies read enough of the same magazines the average gunowner does and they toughened the jackets back in the 2000's.

My theory is as Aussie hunters can shoot a lot more game if they want (being 95% of our game is plague proportion pest animals with no seasons or bag limits) they figure out by necessity stuff falls over okay with cheap bullets. Americans maybe spend more time planning that special hunt which involves a bullet handling any angle that presents.

A bit off tangent but since we are comparing preferences between the countries I will say the yanks are superior meat utilizers. All those guys into skinning, field dressing, trophies, packing meat out. Some Aussies are still into this but most game being pests usually rots where it lays.

One other random observation is the awe given to hogs by Americans Here they are considered just another thin skinned game for a 243 or 357 carbine, 223 with well placed shots, or in my region , dog and knife...

On a US forum though a discussion on hogs often devolves into "battling tusk-zilla with a 338 win mag or 44 mag with hardcasts". Strikes me as funny since Americans have 3 types of bears which can outrun, outswim, outclimb a man(or hog!) and eat you too Now that is a scary animal in my opinion. And yanks think nothing of camping around them or shooting them with handguns and bows and arrows.

Well written sir. Your finely tuned bullschidt detector is working 100%.

Those are very astute observations and well written.

Hogs will definitely eat a dead man. 😳

Where I live, Darling Downs of Queensland, which is Red Deer country 270 Win is pretty popular.

223
257 Roberts
264 win mag
300 Weatherby
338 Win mag

Reckon there would be a lot of new rifles sold in 6.5 Creedmore these days. Agree that 308, 243 and 223 rank up there in the top 3.

If you took out ex army people and farmers that cull the 3006 would be the most popular by far , a range survey is always going to lean towards the 308 , a lot of ranges have a very tight calibre restriction which would never really show what people have or prefer to use , that’s for Vic anyway nsw and Queensland may have slightly smaller preferences as a lot mainly shoot pigs not deer, i love my 270wsm and 35sambar, as for the 223 it’s very popular but I wouldn’t rate it as a big game calibre , mine gets used a lot for culling and works fine for head shooting sure , but I never take it out for fun

I'm always curious to see what calibers other people have chosen to hunt with. For a totally unscientific sampling, my mates (to use the Aussie term) in the US south used these during the last season:

243, 6.5x55 Swede, 7mm-08, 270, 300 Win Mag, 35 Whelen plus one guy who only hunts deer with his favorite 44 Magnum lever action.

What animal are you asking about. I believe that in the US there are thousands of hunters that use multiple calibers depending upon species and location. An elk hunter on the west coast may use a different cartridge than a plains hunter. For Elk the 300WM has been the most popular for several years, followed by the 7mm magnums, the 30:06, 270 and possibly the .308 win. Many use the same for big whitetails and mule deer. Antelope I would guess the 270 win., 7mm mag and a number of smaller caliber cartridges.

.22 hornet
.223 rem
.243 win
.30-06 sprg
.300 win

I wonder how many people that are listing the top 5 cartridges live and hunt in Australia?

22 lr
243
30-06
300 win mag
458 win

A lot of people appear to be putting up their favourite calibres.

You don't need to be Einstein to work it out: Those who have been hunting a lot would use a .270, those that hunt their biggest deer would use a .30-06, those that can't stand the recoil of a .30-06 and "think" a .308 is nearly as good would use a .308, those that like European things and nostalgia would use a 7 x 57, those that want a higher bc bullet than what a .308 gives would choose a 7-08, those that are a bit frail would use a .243, those that don't have lots of money and just do a little bit of shooting or do professional culling would choose a .223, those that are new to hunting and are swayed by advertising or "dream" that they are going to be hunting game at 600 yards or are a bit effeminate would choose a 6.5 CM.

.22r
.223
.243
.308
12g.