Do Modern Cartridges Actually Give Hunters An Advantage?

Are modern hunting cartridges better than proven classics? Do they actually shoot more accurately and kill better? Let’s dig past the marketing hype and see if we can uncover the practical truth.

According to Hornady, Browning, Federal, Winchester, Nosler and the other cartridge companies that have introduced new hunting cartridges in the past 15 years or so, these modern rounds are more accurate than traditional cartridges. They are more efficient. Being more efficient, they drop less and drift less at extended distances—which seems counterintuitive to some folks. Allegedly they also hit harder at long range. And for those that care, they have better barrel life than many traditional cartridges.

Let’s unpack these various characteristics, and either myth-bust or prove them out.

Tighter Tolerances

How about an increase in accuracy? Modern cartridges are said by many to be inherently more accurate than older cartridges. Candidly, I was initially a skeptic about this claim. A legendary gunwriter once wrote (paraphrasing) there’s no such thing as an inherently accurate cartridge—just well-built rifles and properly assembled ammunition.

However, starting with the 6.5 Creedmoor, the practice of creating cartridges spec’d out with only a thousandth or two of space around the case neck and inside the chamber leade has undoubtedly resulted in more consistently accurate cartridges. This is particularly true when using factory ammo in production-grade rifles.

In the past, as a result of the need for combat reliability, plus the greater variability in hunting ammunition, cartridges were spec’d with much greater tolerances. There was room for dust and mud and maybe even a little blood inside the chamber. For a traditional cartridge to match the accuracy potential of modern cartridges with tight tolerances, you have to have a custom rifle built with a min-spec chamber.

Confirmed: With standard factory ammo fired in off-the-shelf rifles, modern cartridges are more inherently accurate than traditional cartridges.

Faster Twist

Only four or five decades ago, rifling that was “too fast” was feared. Shooters suspected that if you overspin a projectile, it would be stressed and become less accurate. That’s been thoroughly debunked. Yes, rifling can be cut with such a fast twist that it makes bullets behave erratically, but it’s got to be pretty extreme.

Classic cartridges typically have conservative (slow) rifling twist rates. For example, the .30-06 and .300 Win. Mag. are SAMMI spec’d with 1:10 twists, meaning the bullet rotates one full turn for every 10 inches it travels down the barrel. Modern cartridges almost invariably are spec’d to have rifling twist rates that—by traditional standards—are fast. The modern .300 PRC is spec’d with a 1:8 twist. That’s an increase of 20 percent.

Why is this important? Because today’s super-bullets are long, sleek and heavy. Traditional twist rates won’t stabilize them. Like a children’s top, a bullet must be spun fast enough for it to have gyroscopic stability. The longer the bullet, the faster it must spin to achieve that.

Confirmed: Without fast-twist rifling, the downrange edge held by modern cartridges would not exist.

Modern Hunting Bullets

Here’s the most tangible difference in modern cartridges. Current cutting-edge bullets (both hunting and target) are a much different beast than traditional bullets. They are highly aerodynamic thanks to speedboat-like profiles and heavy-for-caliber weights. As a result, they hold on to velocity much better than traditional bullets. More velocity downrange results in shorter flight time to target. Shorter flight time means less bullet drop and less drift in the wind.

Just as importantly, that high velocity maintained downrange means bullets impact with greater speed. More impact speed means more reliable bullet expansion and much more energy delivered into your buck or bull.

The best of this type of bullet is actually too long in the nose to work with traditional cartridges. They have such sleek, fine-entry ogives (the part of the bullet from the tip to where it’s full diameter) that if you seat one deeply enough to fit in the magazine of a classic cartridge, the case mouth will hang over the curve of the bullet.

As a result, most old cartridge designs simply can’t shoot the best modern hunting bullets. There are some exceptions, and of course you can always have a custom rifle built with a longer-than-spec magazine for your favorite classic cartridge.

In order to be compatible with the best bullets, modern cartridges are all designed with plentiful head height, which is the characteristic we’ll unpack next.

Confirmed: We can definitively say that cutting-edge bullets fired from modern cartridges drop less, drift less and hit faster and harder downrange. In other words, they kill better than classic cartridges.

Plentiful “Head Height”

Modern bullets, more than modern cartridges, are the actual gamechanger. But to shoot the best modern bullets you’ve just about got to use a modern cartridge with adequate head height.

Head height refers to the distance between the cartridge case mouth and the tip of the bullet. Historically, head height was made as short as possible so as to maximize the powder-holding portion of the cartridge case. It was thought that the speed gain of greater powder capacity overcame the disadvantage of short, steep-nosed bullets.

Inside 300 yards or so, that’s partially correct. More speed means less drop, initially. But at extended distances a long-nosed, fine-entry projectile fired a bit slower trounces a blunt-ish bullet fired fast—and does so in all categories: Less drop, less drift and more impact speed and energy.

Nope, it’s not myth: Modern cartridge cases are built with lots of head height, enabling them to utilize the super-bullets offered by cutting-edge companies such as Berger, Hornady, Federal, Nosler and so forth. It’s another characteristic that makes modern cartridges technically superior to traditional cartridges.

Maximum Efficiencies

Another important piece of the modern-cartridge puzzle is efficiency. It’s more subtle and more nuanced than most of the other features but is nonetheless crucial.

Cartridges that burn more gunpowder than can comfortably and efficiently combust and flow through the bore are called “overbored.” Traditionally, all our high-performance cartridges were overbored. Classic early examples are the .30-378 Weatherby and .257 Weatherby. More recent examples are the .300 RUM and the .28 Nosler.

Overbored cartridges offer spectacular velocity, and for some hunters, that’s exactly what they want. But these cartridges come with a lot of baggage.

Overbored cartridges are finicky about accuracy. There’s so much vibration, action flexion, barrel oscillation and heavy recoil that it’s typically difficult to tune for accuracy, and to maintain accuracy once tuned.

Such cartridges are super hard on barrels. I’ve seen .28 Nosler barrels show significant throat erosion after just 80 rounds. That’s not a big deal if you only shoot 10 or 20 rounds a year, but today’s riflemen like to practice.

Modern cartridges are generally engineered with propellant capacity that’s inside the cusp of being overbored. In other words, they’re efficient. Some, like the 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.8 Western, are very efficient. Even those that ride the edge—such as the 6.5 PRC—are still barely overbored. As a result, they’re much less finicky about accuracy. This is another reason that modern cartridges tend to be inherently accurate.

Modern vs. Traditional Cartridges

Min-spec cartridge case designs. Tight chamber tolerances. Super-aerodynamic hunting bullets that hold velocity, minimizing drop and drift and maximizing impact effectiveness. Fast rifling that adequately stabilizes those modern bullets. Cartridge cases with efficient propellant chambers and generous head heights. Moderate recoil, maximum efficiency.

I’m a biased observer. I love classic cartridges such as the 6.5x55 and .300 H&H. The more retro they are, the better I like them. But I’m constrained to admit that modern cartridges are more inherently accurate and carry more clean-killing authority downrange.

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