Some calibers look good in a magazine ad or sound good when someone’s selling you a rifle—but they don’t hold up once you take them hunting. Maybe the recoil turns out worse than you expected. Maybe ammo’s impossible to find or costs more than you’d spend on a tank of gas. Maybe it doesn’t hit like it should, or it’s a pain to reload. One way or another, most hunters have bought a rifle in a caliber they swore off after a single season. These are the ones that leave you wondering why you didn’t just get a .308 and call it a day.
.300 Remington Ultra Magnum
The .300 RUM delivers big numbers on paper, but it’s more cartridge than most hunters want to deal with. Recoil is punishing, barrel life is short, and the muzzle blast turns heads at every range.
You’ll feel every shot in your shoulder and sinuses. Factory ammo is expensive and not always easy to find. And unless you’re taking game at 600 yards, it doesn’t offer much real-world gain over a good .30-06 or .300 Win Mag. A lot of hunters pick one up thinking it’s the ultimate elk round—then put it back in the safe after a couple trips.
.270 Weatherby Magnum
The .270 Weatherby is fast and flat, but most folks give up on it after a season or two. Ammo availability is poor, factory loads are expensive, and the recoil is snappy enough to make follow-ups tough.
It’s hard to justify the extra velocity when standard .270 Winchester loads already perform well with less punishment and lower cost. Unless you’re hunting in wide-open country and reloading your own rounds, the Weatherby doesn’t offer much advantage. Plenty of hunters try it once for mule deer or antelope and then quietly trade it for something easier to live with.
7mm Remington Ultra Magnum
On paper, the 7mm RUM looks like the king of long-range hunting cartridges. In the field, it turns into a headache. Recoil is heavy and sharp, and it eats barrels fast. Most rifles in this caliber end up with fouled throats and gummed-up actions after less than 500 rounds.
Ammo is hard to find and costly when you do. If you’re not a dedicated long-range shooter or reloader, this cartridge feels like more trouble than it’s worth. Most guys who buy one wind up saying it shoots great—right before they list it on consignment.
.338-378 Weatherby Magnum
This cartridge was built to reach across canyons and hammer big animals, but it does so at a price. Recoil is brutal, muzzle blast is unreal, and rifles chambered in it aren’t exactly light.
Most hunters find out the hard way that it’s too much for 90% of North American game. Add in sky-high ammo prices and limited availability, and it becomes something you shoot twice a year—if that. Unless you’re chasing brown bears or booking hunts in Alaska, it ends up being a conversation piece, not a hunting tool.
.17 Remington
The .17 Remington is fast, flat, and fun—until you take it beyond the range. Wind pushes it all over the place, terminal performance is unpredictable, and fouling builds up fast in that tiny bore.
You’ll spend more time cleaning it than shooting it. It’s also picky about bullet choice, and factory ammo is far from common these days. Most hunters who pick one up for coyotes or varmints end up going back to .22-250 or .223. It’s a neat cartridge, but it’s not worth the fuss for most field work.
.264 Winchester Magnum
The .264 Win Mag had a small fanbase in its day, but it’s known now more for burning barrels than tagging game. The long throat and overbore design mean accuracy fades fast without careful handloading.
Recoil is manageable, but ammo is scarce and expensive. You’re stuck reloading if you want any consistency. A lot of guys bought it thinking it would outrun the .270 or match the 6.5s in modern platforms—only to find out the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. It’s a caliber you buy once, shoot for a season, then quietly sell off and forget.
.358 Winchester
The .358 Winchester looks good for short-range woods work, but the reality is it’s hard to feed and harder to find a rifle for. It hits hard, but that doesn’t make up for the limited range and sluggish trajectory.
Most hunters don’t reload, and factory ammo options are slim to none in most stores. A few folks hang onto it for nostalgia, but the average deer hunter moves on quickly after seeing how tough it is to keep ammo stocked. It does the job, but there are easier ways to get it done.
5.7x28mm
The 5.7x28mm has its place in PDWs and lightweight carbines, but most hunters who try it for varmints or small game find out fast it’s not built for serious use. Ballistic performance is closer to a hot .22 Magnum than a centerfire rifle.
Ammo can be expensive and inconsistent, and most rifles chambered for it are better suited to plinking than fieldwork. It punches through light material well but lacks energy for clean kills on anything tougher than a rabbit. A lot of folks try it for novelty—then go back to a bolt gun in .223 before the season’s out.
.35 Remington
There’s nothing wrong with the .35 Remington in theory—it’s been around a long time. But today, ammo’s getting harder to find, rifles are dated, and trajectory is an issue past 125 yards.
A lot of hunters who buy it do so for a vintage Marlin or Remington pump. After a couple seasons and some ammo price shocks, they start wishing they’d picked up a .30-30 instead. It’ll knock down a deer if you hit it right, but the limited ammo and dated ballistics make it a one-and-done caliber for most folks.
.244 Remington
The .244 Remington was supposed to be Remington’s answer to the .243 Win, but it stumbled out of the gate. It came with a slow-twist barrel that didn’t stabilize heavier hunting bullets well, and the reputation stuck.
Even with improved rifles later on, it never recovered. Most hunters found ammo hard to source and accuracy inconsistent with anything over 90 grains. Some folks handload for it, but if you’re looking for easy performance and off-the-shelf availability, the .244 is more hassle than it’s worth. You’ll likely end up wishing you’d picked a .243 or 6mm Creedmoor instead.
.300 WSM in lightweight rifles
The .300 WSM is a solid cartridge—but not in ultralight rifles. A lot of hunters buy into the short magnum promise and throw it into a six-pound mountain gun. Then they flinch their way through one box of ammo and give up.
Recoil is sharp, fast, and downright unpleasant in lightweight setups. Accuracy suffers because you can’t stay on the gun, and muzzle blast is often worse than a full-length .300 Win Mag. The cartridge itself isn’t the issue—it’s how people try to use it. Once you’ve been kicked in the jaw by one of these setups, you’ll think twice before loading it up again.
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Calibers That Shouldn’t Even Be On the Shelf Anymore
Rifles That Shouldn’t Be Trusted Past 100 Yards
*This article was developed with AI-powered tools and has been carefully reviewed by our editors.
