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: