best cartridge between .223 and .308?

[jason41987]

hey everyone... ive been wondering if there are any good, suitable .30 caliber cartridge somewhere between the size, weight, and performance of the .308 and .223?... something hovering around 2,000FPE?... its ballistics would be identicle to the old .30-40 krag which ive never heard anyone complain about, and my impressions of the .30-40 krag is its rather soft on recoil, packing quite a punch.. seems like the best tradeoff between the .223 and .308... so i was wondering if there are any cartridges out there, rimless of course, thats comfortably between the .223 and .308 in physical size, powder capacity, and pressure?

the ballistics of the .30 remington AR are very, very close, and a good candidate so far, but its a rather fat cartridge obviously designed for the soul purpose of being crammed in an AR-15 action.. so i was just wondering if theres something else out there that would be similar?

 

[MrDig]

.243 is the first that comes to mind nice flat trajectory and enough punch to drop Deer

 

[Rail Driver]

Sounds to me like you're describing 7.62x39 It hasn't got the range or velocity of the .308, but it'll hit harder than .223 within its effective range. The x39 has always seemed to me as a fair compromise between .308 and .223

 

[TurtlePhish]

6.8 SPC sounds just about right.

 

[Balrog]

'''

 

[jason41987]

6.8 and 7.62x39 hover around 1,500ft/lbs of energy, .223 is around 1,400, .308 is roughly 2,600... the .30-40 krag was about 2,000, no one complained about stopping power, and with modern powders i was just curious if they made something with the same performance in a rimless case that was shorter than a .308...

seems the .30 remington AR is sufficient though, roughly the same base diameter as a .308, trimmed down to the same overall length as a .223... reading more on it i guess it has a suitable case capacity to comfortably fill that gap... i think ill have to shoot something chambered in that soon

 

[FM12]

7mm 08

 

[RyeDaddy]

260 Remington, better wind resistance than anything else mentioned with recoil like a 243. Medium game and long range target perfection. Around 2300 lb/ft at the muzzle.

 

[montanaoffroader]

How about a plain old .30-30?

Seems to me that it is real close to the numbers you want when firing a cartidge loaded with a 150 grain bullet.

 

[wlewisiii]

1) 7x57
2) .30-30
3) .257 Roberts
4) Do I really need to continue this?

 

[ugaarguy]

6.8 and 7.62x39 hover around 1,500ft/lbs of energy, .223 is around 1,400, .308 is roughly 2,600... the .30-40 krag was about 2,000, no one complained about stopping power, and with modern powders i was just curious if they made something with the same performance in a rimless case that was shorter than a .308...

If the criteria are simply case length closer to .223, rimless cartridge, and muzzle energy of approx 2,000 FPE, with no restriction on bore / bullet diameter, then .458 SOCOM and .450 Bushmaster are right there.

 

[Longrifle2506]

Number 1 goes to the 25-06
with .243 being a close second.
Many people might pick the .270;

 

[Leanwolf]

MONTANAOFFROADER - "How about a plain old .30-30?"

You bet. I would not be without my old Marlin 336 in the very utilitarian, and effective, .30-30 WCF.

L.W.

 

[vaupet]

I would think 243
On the other hand you could take a look at the old 6.5x55

 

[Bushpilot]

ive been wondering if there are any good, suitable .30 caliber cartridge somewhere between the size, weight, and performance of the .308 and .223?... something hovering around 2,000FPE?... its ballistics would be identicle to the old .30-40 krag which ive never heard anyone complain about, and my impressions of the .30-40 krag is its rather soft on recoil, packing quite a punch.. seems like the best tradeoff between the .223 and .308... so i was wondering if there are any cartridges out there, rimless of course, thats comfortably between the .223 and .308 in physical size, powder capacity, and pressure?

Best for what, low recoil, deer? Suitable for what? I'm not sure exactly what you mean by a ".30 caliber cartridge between the size (length ?), weight (bullet weight or overall weight) and performance (lethality or trajectory) of a .308 and .223. There are LOTS of cartridges whose performance is between .223 and .308, which is a pretty broad range. I've never heard many complaints about the 30-40 Krag either but then again there aren't that many of them out there and fewer yet that get fired on a regular basis. Why does it need to be rimless? If you're really just looking for a rimless 30 caliber cartridge that is less powerful than a 308 win but has at least 2000 foot pounds of energy there are 2 that quickly come to mind. The 7.62x39 (which is actually something like .311). And there is the 300 Savage which is rimless and less powerful then a .308 win but not by much. Oh, and by the way a 30-40 Krag only has about 1 pound less recoil energy than a 308 when shooting the same weight bullets in similar weight rifles which is pretty insignificant.

http://http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm

 

[dak0ta]

6.5x55 SE

 

[Gunner11]

I agree the 6.5x55 is the pick. I dumped my 308 when I got my m38 husquvana.

 

[valnar]

If it must be a .30, the two most popular are 7.62x39 and .30-30

If you want something dead center between the two, you can't go wrong with a 6.5x55 Swede. Great ballistics and not a barrel burner. Look up 6.8SPC for autos.

 

[Cemo]

+1 with Bushpilot, what are you trying to accompolish?

 

[Nikdfish]

I'm surprised the 300 AAC Blackout hasn't been mentioned yet. It is a SAAMI approved round with numerous sources for barrels, components, reloading tools & ammo. It can be had in single shot, bolt guns or AR's.

If you already have a AR15 lower you could get away with just an upper (but most would recommend adding a BCG & charging handle with it). You can get proper function out of a properly configured AR platform with barrels from 9" to 16" with both sub-sonic & supersonic loads, suppressed or unsupressed just by changing the ammo fired.

Ballistics very similar to 7.62x39 or 30-30, but still uses the same magazines & bolt as a .223. You can form brass from .223 cases, or buy primed virgin Remington brass pretty cheap ($0.27 each in quantity 100). It can accommodate .308 bullet weights from 110 to 240 grains in a 1 in 8 twist barrel, including surplus .308 pulls. 300 BLK rounds are typically good for ranges out to about 300 yards. Remington 115 grain practice ammo is at Midway for about $12 a box of 20 (but you can build practice ammo pretty cheap if you reload).

I'm currently waiting on an upper that should show up sometime today...

Nick

 

[Art Eatman]

jason, start a new thread on this, speaking more about what you intend to do with your cartridge. As is, there is more confusion than utility.