Note: For a much expanded version of this table showing a great many more cartridges and loads including British, European, wildcat, obsolescent American and proprietary calibers, see the Expanded Optimal Game Range Table.

If you use the Lyman Reloading Manual, 47th Edition or the BigGameInfo ballistic calculator program on the Internet you have probably noticed that there is a column that lists "Optimal Game Weight." This optimal weight goes down as the range increases and energy and momentum decrease. I thought that it might be interesting to make a chart showing the (theoretical) optimum range for some common loads on animals they might typically be used to hunt. I hope that this table will prove helpful in helping to select a caliber and load appropriate for the game to be hunted at the range anticipated.

Edward A. Matunas developed, and the Lyman Reloading Manual, 47th Edition published, the formula used to determine the optimal game weight, which BigGameInfo programmed into their ballistic calculator. The mathematical formula can be found on their web page or in the Lyman Reloading Manual. I used the online ballistics calculator, rather than work the formula for myself out of my copy of the Lyman Reloading Manual, to develop the data for the table below. My thanks and sincere appreciation to BigGameInfo for making this job easy!

Listed below are the longest ranges at which a selection of common rifle cartridges are considered optimum for shooting animals of five different weight classes in terms of theoretical killing power. Some of these numbers seem fairly conservative to me while others seem pretty liberal, which suggests that although everyone's experience is different, in general the numbers are probably not far off.

Here is how to interpret the table, using the 30-30 Winchester as an example. If the 30-30 shooting a 150 grain bullet at 2390 fps is an optimum mule deer caliber at 205 yards, it is more than sufficient at shorter distances. Conversely, this does not mean that the 150 grain 30-30 bullet will not kill a 200 pound deer at 225 yards; it just means that it is past its optimum range for that size game at ranges beyond 205 yards. If most of your anticipated shots at deer will be between 50-150 yards, with maybe an occasional long shot out to about 200 yards, the 30-30 with the 150 grain bullet would be an excellent choice. But if the majority of your anticipated shots will be around 200 yards, with occasional opportunities at considerably longer range, another caliber might be a better choice.

For the purposes of the table below I selected the following weight classes as representative of commonly hunted animals:

Other animals of similar weight can be substituted for those named above. For example, a large whitetail deer might weigh about 200 pounds, a large black bear might run 400 pounds, and a zebra is about as heavy as an elk.

Please note that the optimal ranges in the table are based only on the mathematically computed killing power of the cartridge and load. Other crucial factors such as trajectory, bullet design, and bullet placement are ignored. But in the real world they cannot be ignored. Use this table for informational and comparative purposes, not as a guide to how far you should shoot at game animals.

Many cartridges are limited by their trajectory rather than their killing power. For example, the .45-70 (300 grain bullet) has the power to humanely kill pronghorn antelope at 400 yards, but in reality its trajectory limits this combination to shots within about 162 yards. To introduce a dose of reality into the situation, the last column in the table below shows the Maximum Point Blank Range (MPBR) of each load, as taken from my "Rifle Trajectory Table" (also on the Rifle Information Page). This also reveals that for a few calibers, particularly the centerfire .22's, their MPBR far outstrips their killing power.

In this case the maximum point blank range is the distance at which the bullet falls 3 inches below the line of sight for a rifle with a telescopic sight mounted 1.5" above bore. Between the muzzle and the distance given as the MPBR, the bullet never strays more than 3 inches above or below the line of sight. See the "Rifle Trajectory Table" for more information about MPBR.

In the table that follows the first column shows the cartridge followed by the bullet weight and muzzle velocity of the specific load (Wb@MV). The second column (Bullet BC) shows the ballistic coefficient of the bullet. The next five columns show the maximum optimal range for the five selected weight classes of game. The effective range has been calculated in yards and, in most instances, rounded off to the nearest 5 yards. The maximum range listed for any cartridge is 400 yards, since 400 yards is beyond the point blank range of every cartridge shown. Adequate killing power at longer distances is indicated by the notation "400+." The notation "n/a" means that the cartridge is not applicable (lacks adequate killing power at any range) for hunting animals of that size. The last column shows the maximum point blank range (MPBR) of each load. To convert yards to meters, multiply the distance in yards by .9144.