Caliber Battle: The Best New-School Whitetail Cartridges

Your old man may have killed deer with a .30-06 or .30-30 Winchester, but you’re charting a new course. Whether you’re choosing a trail cam, a pair of bibs, or a rifle cartridge, you’re looking for the latest and greatest that will give you an edge in the field.

If that describes you, you’ve come to the right place. My colleague Adam Moore has already broken down some of the best classic whitetail cartridges, but we’re putting the old ways behind us. In this article, I’m pitting three of the best new-school cartridges against one another–and you get to choose who comes out on top.

These aren’t the only good whitetail cartridges to be released in the last 20 years. Far from it. But they are some of the most popular, and these three cover a wide range of ballistic capabilities and in-the-field applications.

So, without further ado, check out the info below and then cast your vote in the poll at the bottom. The winner will face the victor fromAdam’s articlein the definitive matchup between classic and new-school whitetail cartridges. Be looking for that on Friday.

Happy Whitetail Week!

Ballistics

These cartridges are in three different classes, ballistically speaking. The one you think is the best will depend on how you hunt, where you hunt, and whether maximizing velocity and energy is most important.

7mm PRC

For anyone wanting the ability to make a shot beyond 400 yards, the 7mm PRC is the clear winner. It launches a 175-grain bullet 3,000 feet-per-second (fps) and stays above 2,000 fps out to about 600 yards. That velocity means it only drops 41 inches at 500 yards and with a 10mph cross breeze, only drifts 12 inches. That’s incredible performance for any cartridge, but especially when compared to the other two on our list.

6.5 Creedmoor

The 6.5 Creedmoor has earned a reputation as a long-distance killer, but you can see how that reputation might be overblown when compared to cartridges like the 7mm PRC. At 500 yards, that 140-grain projectile has dropped 32% more than the 7mm PRC (54 inches). With a bullet going over 2,000 fps, it’s still perfectly capable of killing a deer at that distance. But its greater drop and wind drift (15 inches) introduce more variables.

350 Legend

The 350 Legend was never designed for long-range shooting, so it’s not fair to compare it to the 7mm PRC and 6.5 Creedmoor in that respect. It has other advantages, which you can read about below, and I think it’s one of the best straight-wall cartridges, which is why it’s on this list.

And if we’re honest about the distance we’re most likely to shoot a deer, it still offers plenty of performance. At 200 yards, it only drops eight inches and is still cooking along at 1600 fps. Pushing it out to 300 yards might be a stretch–both for reliable bullet expansion and bullet drop/accuracy–but at the ranges most deer hunters actually take a shot, the 350 Legend can get the job done.

Bullets Used: 7mm PRC –175g ELD-X; 6.5 Creedmoor – 140g Platinum Hunter; 350 Legend – 165g FTX

Shootability

“Shootability” describes a cartridge’s recoil and cost/availability. It’s my favorite Caliber Battle category because it’s so often overlooked, but it largely dictates our experience using any particular cartridge.

7mm PRC

You’ll be unsurprised to hear that the 7mm PRC is the least “shootable” of these three new-school options. It doesn’t have “magnum” in its name, but it probably should. It hits with about 29 foot-pounds (ft.-lbs.) of energy, depending on the load you use and how heavy your rifle is. That’s a little more than the 7mm Rem. Mag. and a little less than the 300 Win. Mag.

Online retailers list the cheapest 7mm PRC cartridges for about $2.40 per cartridge while the most expensive clock in around $5.50. The good news is that the 7mm PRC has become an incredibly popular cartridge among hunters, so it should be available at your local sporting goods store. It’s also a dedicated hunting cartridge, which means pretty much anything you find on the shelf will be good for whitetail.

6.5 Creedmoor

The 6.5 Creedmoor is famously pleasant to shoot, and certainly more so than the 7mm PRC. It hits with about 15 ft-lbs of energy, which is nearly half the 7mm. Compared to a .308 Win., the 6.5 generates about 25% less felt recoil, depending on the weight of the rifle.

As one of the world’s most popular hunting cartridges, the 6.5 Creedmoor is also relatively cheap and available almost anywhere. Cost-per-cartridge ranges from $1 for cheap plinking ammo to $5 per round for souped-up loads from bougie manufacturers. But you can find high-end loads,like these Platinum Hunter pills from Sig Sauer, for $2.60 per round–which equals the cheapest 7mm PRC.

350 Legend

The 350 Legend might not be able to take down a deer at 500 yards, but it’s more pleasant to shoot than the 7mm PRC or the 6.5 Creedmoor. It only hits with about 10 ft-lbs of energy, making it the easiest-shooting rifle in this matchup. That’s comparable to the .30-30 Win. fromAdam’s classic cartridge comparison, and far less than other common whitetail cartridges like the .308 Win. or .30-06.

Cost is excellent, with the cheapest options costing less than $1 per round and good hunting ammo available for less than $2 per round. But it struggles in the availability category. It’s become a popular option for whitetail hunters in the east and midwest, but it hasn’t taken the world by storm like the 6.5 Creedmoor. It’s readily available online, but you might not find it at a small local sporting goods store.

Versatility

In a standard Caliber Battle, “versatility” means the range of game animal species a cartridge can reliably take. Since that’s not a factor here, we’re using this category to talk about the range of landscapes on which each cartridge can hunt deer. All threecouldhunt whitetail anywhere in the country, but some are more suited to certain areas than others.

7mm PRC and 6.5 Creedmoor

Obviously, the 7mm PRC and the 6.5 Creedmoor would be better choices for open landscapes where a longer shot is more likely. Those superior ballistics aren’t a disadvantage in the Big Woods, but they do require a barrel that measures, at minimum, 22-inches.

350 Legend

The 350 Legend, on the other hand, only needs a 16-inch barrel to maximize velocity. You might be able to squeeze a few extra fps out of a 20- or 22-inch barrel, but the data I’ve seen suggests that 2200 fps is perfectly attainable with a 16-incher. That makes for a short, maneuverable rifle, perfect for following narrow deer trails or swinging in tight blinds. The legend also uses a .223 Rem. as its parent case, so it’s easy to find lightweight AR-platform rifles in this cartridge.

So, What Do You Think?

The 7mm PRC offers whitetail hunters superior ballistics–there’s no question about that. The question is: do you need that kind of ballistic performance to hunt deer? Are you looking for maximum velocity when you head out into the whitetail woods, or are there other factors that matter, too?

That’s the question, but I’m not going to answer it for you. Cast your vote below for the best new-school whitetail cartridge, and let us know in the comments why you made your choice!

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