We all love top 10 lists, but there’s a problem when it comes to determining the “best-selling” cartridges: Ammo manufacturers don’t like to share sales data, and who can blame them. When it comes to picking the top-selling cartridges, we’re forced to rely on other factors, like how long a cartridge has been around, how many rifles have been chambered for it and how popular those rifles are, inventory rankings from retailers, industry surveys, search demand data, and more.
So I asked ChatGPT to give me a list using the best data it could find, and it spit out the following list (but rest assured, the expository information is mine, not AI-generated). If I had been asked to come up with a list off the top of my head based on my best guess, it would have looked pretty much exactly like this, at least until we got to the end—a lot of these choices are obvious to hunters. That said, there’s no way to guarantee that this list is 100 percent accurate or in perfect order by volume, but it’s a good best estimate. It also lines up pretty darn well with this 2014 list of sales data from Federal.
1. .30-30 Winchester
Ask any old-school hunter what cartridge has taken the most deer in North America, and they’ll probably guess the .30-30 Win. There’s good reason for that: It’s been around forever, introduced in 1895 as the first smokeless powder cartridge in the U.S. That gave it a big head start over any other cartridge, and it’s still popular today. Millions of lever-action rifles like the Winchester Model 1894, Marlin 336 and Savage 99 were produced for the .30-30 Win., and this round pretty much dominated deer hunting for a big chunk of the 20th century.
2. .30-06 Springfield
Introduced as a military cartridge in 1906 (hence the name), the .30-06 caught on with hunters and has since been offered by every major ammo manufacturer in a wide variety of weights and loadings. That variety makes it one of the more versatile, do-anything cartridges we have to this day, and it consistently ranks right behind the .223 Rem. and .308 Win. in total rifle sales (those two dominate because of their military applications and use in AR-platform rifles).
3. .308 Winchester
The .308 Win. was developed in the 1950s for shooters who wanted a short-action .30-cal. round. It has most of the versatility of the 30-06, and both are still among the top-selling hunting rifle cartridges every year—but the ’06 got a 50-year head start on .308 sales, which probably explains its higher ranking.
4. .270 Winchester
The .270 Win. was introduced in the 1920s and gained popularity thanks to its mild recoil and flat-shooting trajectories. When Outdoor Life writer Jack O’Connor began to wax eloquent about it and champion its use, its popularity only grew. It became a classic and has a large, devoted fan base today.
5. .243 Winchester
This is where we start crossing over from deer into varmint cartridges. The .243 Win. is suitable for both—it’s an ideal deer rifle for small-framed shooters who want minimal recoil and who are dedicated to careful shot placement (as we all should be anyway). It was developed in 1955 to bridge the gap between .22-cal. varmint rifles and bigger deer rifles, and it still does that beautifully.
6. .223 Remington/5.56 NATO
This is almost indisputably the best-selling center-fire rifle cartridge of all time, but it doesn’t hit at the top of this list because much of its sales are for military/recreational purposes. But the .223 is a very popular and capable varmint cartridge that can even take deer with appropriate ammo at reasonable ranges (my daughter shot her first deer at age 8 with an AR-15 chambered in .223). With the AR-15 widely considered the most popular rifle in America, even popular for hunting, it’s no wonder this one makes the list.
7. .22-250 Remington
Developed in the 1930s and standardized and commercially introduced in the ’60s, the .22-250 was created as a flat-shooting, high-velocity cartridge for varmint hunting. It’s fast and effective, and it’s still popular today among the sea of varmint options on the market—one of the fastest .22-cal. cartridges we have.
8. .204 Ruger
This is where I start to doubt the accuracy of ChatGPT’s analysis a little bit, but there’s no doubt that the .204 Ruger is a top varmint cartridge, owing in part to its blazing speed. It’s low-recoil and very effective (I own one myself). But considering it was only introduced in 2004, I’m not convinced it’s had time to outpace total overall sales of all the 17 calibers and other popular varmint rounds.
The Also-Rans
This list leaves out the ubiquitous .22 LR, which by sheer round count is the undisputed top-selling ammunition cartridge of all time. It is used for hunting, but mostly for plinking and target shooting, and its hunting uses are pretty limited to small game like squirrels and rabbits. For larger varmints like bobcats, foxes, coyotes and more, you’d want a little more oomph.
The uber-popular 6.5 Creedmoor is also conspicuously absent from this list. Though it’s a great round and most of today’s popular rifles come chambered for it, it’s only been around since 2007. That’s simply not enough time to make up for the 100-plus years of sales that rounds like the 30-30 Win and 30-06 Springfield have enjoyed. Will it catch up eventually? Time will tell, but considering how well the 30-06 still sells, it could take a long time—if it ever happens.
