What is the most powerful, commonly available, short action cartridge?

[Podmonkey]

I say commonly available as the most powerful short action round full stop 8s the .475 Bishop which throws a 390gr pill @ 2,500 fps.
I want to know is what's the most powerful short action that you could find in a reasonably well stocked gun shop? One of the Winchester Short Magnums? 375 Ruger is out as that is a standard length cartridge.

 

[thughes]

357 Gunner.

 

[Bustedknees]

2.75" (short action) 12 gauge slug.

 

[Jmac00]

you need this:

 

[S&W Fan]

My vote would go to the 7mm-08 . I’m not sure that it’s the most Powerful short action cartridge out there but it certainly ranks right up there with a pretty powerful shot action cartridge that can be found stocked at any good gun store.

 

[Podmonkey]

My vote would go to the 7mm-08 . I’m not sure that it’s the most Powerful short action cartridge out there but it certainly ranks right up there with a pretty powerful shot action cartridge that can be found stocked at any good gun store.

Any of the Winchester Short Magnums fit in a short action znd they are all proper magnum cartridges, equalling their longer cousins.
I'm wondering if there is a rifle cartridge that sits between, say the .325 WSM and the very boutique .475 Bishop. I'm just curious as I am not a hunter, if I were to do some hunting I would setup a hybrid hunting/target rifle on a Tikka action in 6.5 Creedmoor. I'd wager there isn't anything the 7mm-08 could do the 6.5 Creedmoor couldn't.

 

[Xae289]

I'd say the .300 WSM. You can find more power in the WSSMs or the .325 WSM, but they aren't what I'd call commonly available. The .338 Federal is neither as powerful as the .300 WSM, nor is it as available. Even the .300 WSM isn't something I'd expect to find in most NY or PA gunstore shelves and will mostly be an online order deal, but I wouldn't be surprised to find it in a store, where I would be surprised to find the other ones stocked.

 

[Podmonkey]

I'd say the .300 WSM. You can find more power in the WSSMs or the .325 WSM, but they aren't what I'd call commonly available. The .338 Federal is neither as powerful as the .300 WSM, nor is it as available. Even the .300 WSM isn't something I'd expect to find in most NY or PA gunstore shelves and will mostly be an online order deal, but I wouldn't be surprised to find it in a store, where I would be surprised to find the other ones stocked.

I thought the WSSMs were all defunct due to a lawsuit? In any the 3 WSSM cartridges I'm familiar with (I did research prior to posting this thread) merely duplicate longer cartridges. The .223 WSSM is equivalent to the .220 Swift, the .243 WSSM is equivalent to the .243 Winchester and the .25 WSSM is similar to the .257 Roberts none of which are near to the .300 WSM which duplicates the .300 Win Mag.
Incidently the .475 Bishop is right alongside the .458 Win Mag and was designed to be the most powerful round an AR-10 platform can take. For when you are defending against multiple T-Rexs at once.

 

[FP1201]

I say commonly available as the most powerful short action round full stop 8s the .475 Bishop which throws a 390gr pill @ 2,500 fps.
I want to know is what's the most powerful short action that you could find in a reasonably well stocked gun shop? One of the Winchester Short Magnums? 375 Ruger is out as that is a standard length cartridge.

I do like my .376 Steyr, but you're not going to find that on very many shelves either.
For Short Action that's readily available I'm going to say the .308 Winchester, now if you drop the availability requirement, then the .358 Winchester packs a hell of a thump.
The Winchester Short Mags have it in spades over the .308. 7mm-08, and .243 but they too have gotten to be difficult to get, course that could change in the years to come, reloading might be an option....if you really want kick-ass the Lazzeroni Cartridges are smoking hot.

 

[Tisto]

Hands down, the most available cartridge would be the .308 Win. You can buy .308 ammo at EVERY gun store, and half of the gas stations you pass. It's not the most powerful, but it's certainly capable of taking any animal that walks this region. With bullet weights ranging from 110gr to 220gr, the cartridge truly is a "does it all" selection.

There are more powerful choices available, but none are as universal as the .308

 

[Far king]

Hands down, the most available cartridge would be the .308 Win. You can buy .308 ammo at EVERY gun store, and half of the gas stations you pass. It's not the most powerful, but it's certainly capable of taking any animal that walks this region. With bullet weights ranging from 110gr to 220gr, the cartridge truly is a "does it all" selection.

There are more powerful choices available, but none are as universal as the .308

Of the readily available short action cartridges and I am referring to standard short action as opposed to short magnum action, the 308 wins out hands-down and has a power advantage othe 7 mm 08 in that it can handle heavier projectiles.
As an aside, l never cared for the short mag cartridges and considered their popularity as a short lived fad ( and it was ) with false claims that a short fat powder column burned more effectively and that the rifles chambered in them were considerably shorter and lighter.
basically it was a ploy to sell more rifles and ammunition to those who had to have the newest and bestest thing out .
one more thing, those fat rounds reduced the mag capacity.

 

[Xae289]

I thought the WSSMs were all defunct due to a lawsuit? In any the 3 WSSM cartridges I'm familiar with (I did research prior to posting this thread) merely duplicate longer cartridges. The .223 WSSM is equivalent to the .220 Swift, the .243 WSSM is equivalent to the .243 Winchester and the .25 WSSM is similar to the .257 Roberts none of which are near to the .300 WSM which duplicates the .300 Win Mag.
Incidently the .475 Bishop is right alongside the .458 Win Mag and was designed to be the most powerful round an AR-10 platform can take. For when you are defending against multiple T-Rexs at once.

I didn't realize the WSSMs are dead by lawsuit and that the .300 WSSM was always a wildcat.

But yea, going by the "commonly available" criteria, I still maintain the .300 WSM. It will be in some gun stores and will be readily available online. The next ones up would be the .338 Federal, 7mm SAUM and 6.8 Western, I think. I don't think they're as available as the .300 WSM. After that, I'd say the .308 in power, which is hands-down the winner in availability.

 

[FRANKIE]

On the shelf at decent gun stores. 7mm-08.
Walmart (on a lucky day), .243

 

[Podmonkey]

I didn't realize the WSSMs are dead by lawsuit and that the .300 WSSM was always a wildcat.

But yea, going by the "commonly available" criteria, I still maintain the .300 WSM. It will be in some gun stores and will be readily available online. The next ones up would be the .338 Federal, 7mm SAUM and 6.8 Western, I think. I don't think they're as available as the .300 WSM. After that, I'd say the .308 in power, which is hands-down the winner in availability.

I can't recall the specifics nor the names of the guy but I do remember reading that a fellow went to Winchester with a series of cartridge designs that were extremely similar if not identical to what would become the WSSM cartridges with in the hope that Winchester would adopt and produce them from which he wanted to collect royalty fees. Winchester offered a one time lump sum fee and there was some back and forth with the individual which ultimately came to nothing. Then shortly after this Winchester released the WSSM line and thus guy takes Winchester to court and he won his case and after that Winchester discontinued the WSSM line, presumably to avoid paying royalty fees. Or so I read. I imagine that since that family of cartridges wasn't achieving anything new in a ballistics sense that they were gonna take off anyway.

On a side note I do think there is a market for updated, beltless versions of traditional magnum cartridges, which is kinda whar we are seeing with some of Hornady's PRC cartridges. The 6.8 Western is also an interesting cartridge being a modified version of the .270 Winchester Short Magnum. It's is specifically altered in a way to accept very heavy for caliber bullets and uses a fast twist rate in the barrel for long range precision fire. Incidently the 270 WSM is tge ballistic doppelganger of the 270 Winchester but in a form factor that fits a short action, as is the case with all the WSM cartridges.

On a further side note I read once that the 6.5 Creedmore is ballistic doppelganger of the venerable 6.5 Swedish and after a bit of research I found this to be indeed true. Both cartridges launch tge same bullet weights at the same velocities, the Creed does so with a smaller case loaded to higher pressure. The Scandinavians have been successfully using the the 6.5 Swede to take game as large as moose.

The 6.5 Creedmores parent case is the .30 Thompson Center which is kind of like an optimized .308 case in much the same vein as the Ackley improved cartridges. The goal of the .30 TC was to get 30-06 Springfield performance out of a .308 Winchester sized cartridge which it succeeded in doing, the 30 TC achieves the same velocities at the same bullet weights as the 30-06. Therfore I say the 6.5 Creedmore, again which is based on the .30 TC, is probably the best all around short action cartridge though the precision competition scene favors 6mm cartridges.

In the end after further research it would seem there really isn't anything between the .300 or 325 WSM and the impressive, in both performance and cost, 475 bishop. The latter being a really gonzo cartridge.

 

[Xae289]

I looked into the WSSM lawsuit stuff. I had no idea. At the end of the day, those never interested me. Too many weird issues with such a fat, short case.

As far as the 6.8 Western and .270 WSM, they're both a bit more powerful than the .270 Winchester, unlike the .300 WSM, which is a bit less powerful than the Win Mag. Not by much in either case.

When I was really dwelling on my lack of a short-action bolt rifle, I was pretty set on a .300 WSM. The .338 Federal seemed cool, but most .338 bullets are made for way more powerful rounds, so I doubt their performance out of the much less powerful .338 Fed. Plus, I doubted that I'd have a good source of brass in 10 years. But even with the WSM, I decided against it figuring that there are benefits to using the WSM in a long-action. It gives you the option to load those long-for-caliber, high-BC bullets.

That .475 Bishop is a cool looking round. Looks pretty brutal to shoot out of a light, short-action rifle. The .450 Bushmaster and .350 Legend in a short action are where I'm leaning more towards these days for a short-action rifle. They don't have good long-range ballistics, but both are perfectly fine for the max 75 yard hunting and max 200 yard target shooting I do. Plus, downloading the .350 Legend with 9mm bullets and using them for light plinking and small game sounds fun.

 

[Vapor]

.338 federal. Not the best but up there