What is the best short action cartridge is a question that most hunters have asked at one point, in this video, we use data to compare several of the most popular cartridges to finally answer the question What is the best short action rifle cartridge?

00:30 Cartridge requirements
01:42 Cartridges being evaluated
02:52 Comparing the cartridges with a baseline Nosler Partition
09:37 Cartridge trajectory with baseline Nosler Partition
12:50 Initial cuts to top 3
17:50 How do the top 3 stack up with a high BC bullet?
25:45 Final Decision

When it comes to looking at the best short action cartridge, we are evaluating several rounds including the 6mm Creedmoor, 243 Winchester, 257 Roberts, 257 AI, 260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm08, .308 Winchester, .338 Federal, and .358 Winchester. All of these rounds have great capabilities, but for us it ultimately comes down to how well we can expect to have hunting performance on game up to Mule Deer size out to 400 yards. While any of these can be successful, we evaluated the ballistic coefficient, sectional density, and muzzle velocity of the 6mm Creedmoor, 243 Winchester, 257 Roberts, 257 AI, 260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm08, .308 Winchester, .338 Federal, and .358 Winchester to identify which provides the best maximum point blank range (MPBR), best cross wind performance, and holds energy the best.

While the 6mm Creedmoor, 243 Winchester, 257 Roberts, 257 AI, 260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm08, .308 Winchester, .338 Federal, and .358 Winchester are all great hunting rounds, the .338 Federal and .358 Winchester lack the trajectory compared to other rounds we evaluated. The 6mm Creedmoor and 243 Winchester lack the frontal area relative to the other rounds and don't provide enough trajectory improvement to make up the difference. The 257 Roberts and 257 AI lack availability to take the top spot, but are definitely contenders. And the 260 Remington is too close to the 6.5 Creedmoor, but falls short on velocity. This means our comparison ultimately means we need to look at the 6.5 Creedmoor vs 7mm08 vs 308 win.

When we compare the 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm08, and 308 win we see that the rounds stack up very close on velocity and trajectory when using traditional hunting bullets such as the Nosler Partition. When we also evaluate using Hornady's factory ELDX we discover the efficiency gains of using the 6.5 Creedmoor compared to the 7mm08 and .308 Winchester. We talk through the effect of bullet diameter, bullet profile, and sectional density play to help achieving ballistic coefficient as well.

Ultimately, we find that the conversation comes down to the 6.5 Creedmoor vs the .308 Winchester and we choose the 6.5 Creedmoor based on its slightly improved trajectory, ability to use high BC bullets while maintaining a solid trajectory, and overall availability. None of the three top cartridges are choices to shy away from.