223 Rem.

Shortly after the introduction of the .222 Remington experiments began to make a similar cartridge for military use. The advantages were obvious as a soldier naturally can carry many more rounds of a much smaller and lighter cartridge. Drawbacks was the reduced long range potential of the smaller bullet and its lesser penetration. The first .223 appeared in 1957 and was mainly the work of Robert Hutton of Guns & Ammo and Gene Stoner of Armalite. One of the requirements for the new cartridge was that it could retain a velocity exceeding the speed of sound at 500 yards. This was not possible with the .222, but with its slightly longer case and a 55 grains boattail bullet the .223 met the demands. The cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1964 and used in the Vietnam war. Since then it has been adopted by NATO as a standard military cartridge, but with a heavier 63 grains bullet which demands a quicker twist (1 in 7”) than used in most sporting rifles for the civilian market (1 in 10, 12 or 14”).

6,5 Creedmoor

This 6.5mm variant is quite a new development, created in 2007 by a cooperation between Hornady and Creedmoor Sports and was designed as a long range target shooting cartridge. The 6.5mm bullet has long been known to be an excellent long range bullet, as the projectiles have good sectional densities and ballistic coefficients and the 6,5 Creedmoor has become very popular for long range hunting. The case is on the shorter side so it can be chambered in a short action rifle.

300 Win. Mag.

Introduced as late as 1963 this cartridge was soon to become the most popular in the line of .300 magnums. Unlike the predecessors .458, .264 and .338 Winchester Magnums it has a longer case and a rather short neck (.264”) in order to increase the case capacity. As a rule of thumb the neck of a cartridge should be equal to the caliber or preferably a little longer, but experience has shown that the .300 Win. Mag. has not really suffered in this respect. It can still be used in a standard-length bolt action but this means that the heavier bullets must be seated rather deep and hereby occupy some of the powder space. Like the other .300 magnums it is at its best for hunting larger species like moose or elk at long range. The recoil is heavy, but most shooters will be able to handle it after some practice and handloads with lighter bullets are a good choice for this purpose.