My favorite caliber

[Walleye Steve]

Choosing a caliber for an all around hunting rifle can be daunting for a new or even experienced hunter. After owning several .30 caliber magnums and not liking the weight of these guns, I finally settled on the .270 wsm. My daughter and I both have them and I have found that this caliber has all the qualities i could want in a deer and elk killer. My kid loves hers

 

[WildRose]

You need at least two more options, 6.5 and 7mm.

My favorite is the 7mm STW and second to it would be the .300wm because of it's utility.

 

[Walleye Steve]

You need at least two more options, 6.5 and 7mm.

My favorite is the 7mm STW and second to it would be the .300wm because of it's utility.

300 win mag is a good choice, 6.5 a bit light in my opinion fir elk.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Yeah, definitely missing a few other good options in there... I wouldn't even put .277 on the list, personally...

I would say .284 (7mm) caliber is my favorite. And 7mm SS, .280 Sherman, 7mm RemMag, .28 Nosler, or 7mm STW would be my preferred cartridge options.

 

[HARPERC]

I'm more Baskin and Robbins. Vanilla and chocolate that's it! I'm shopping elsewhere.

Favorite requires more parameters, generally I'm fickle, and favorite is usually the next one. However, I won't tell you there is much truly new and/or improved out there. I've currently circled back to the beginning, and a .30-06 has my attention again.

 

[Walleye Steve]

Yeah, definitely missing a few other good options in there... I wouldn't even put .277 on the list, personally...

I would say .284 (7mm) caliber is my favorite. And .280 SS, .280 Sherman, 7mm RemMag, .28 Nosler, or 7mm STW would be my preferred cartridge options.

I feel slighted. Most of those calibers you've listed are not well known to newbies or to a fair amount of long time hunters.

 

[WildRose]

300 win mag is a good choice, 6.5 a bit light in my opinion fir elk.

Well few people hunt elk and I would have agreed with you until doing a lot more research into the 6.5's before buying my first .260 Rem.

People have had an enormous amount of success on Elk, Red Deer/Stag, Moose, Bears, and all of the African plains game with 6.5's for far longer than most of our favorites have even existed.

For pure utility you can't beat the 300wm, or as I say frequently "The .300wm is never the wrong answer", you can pretty well do anything with a well placed shot from one.

The STW remains my favorite though as nothing has come along yet that is really superior at least for 90% or more of what I do. There are faster 7's for sure but you pay for that added speed in substantially increase muzzle blast, recoil, and greatly shortened barrel life. There are some that match or come close to matching it's performance but they aren't doing anything it hasn't done for 30 years and done better than most.

It's just at that point in case capacity and performance right where the law of diminishing returns starts to take effect at least for my purposes.

 

[tmmcampbell]

Never shot a caliber I did not like and I've shot every one I can. However the 30 holds a special spot in my heart. When I was in my early 20's a house fire cost me all my rifles except a .22, which was in the pickup. I was given a 300 weatherby from the wife of a man who I much respected. He asked her to give it to me after he passed. This was my only rifle for over a decade. Now I have most every caliber from .17-.50. When I go shooting I shoot them all. When I go hunting I almost always reach for a .30. Sure the others will kill just as dead, but I don't trust anything like I trust my .30. From in your face to 1200 yards. It's the one I trust.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I feel slighted. Most of those calibers you've listed are not well known to newbies or to a fair amount of long time hunters.

No need to feel slighted. Welcome to the forum. Most of us started out in the same manner as most hunters, and only knew the basics, because that was the only things the people who taught us knew, as well. I've learned more in the last 10 years of being on this forum, than I did in the 22 years prior. There's lots of good info here. Guys like WildRose and JE Custom and several others on here are a wealth of knowledge.

What is your main goal for the rifle? Targets? Hunting? Any specific game, or all-around hunting? This will help us narrow down the selection to help you better choose which one to go with that will fit your needs the best.

 

[WildRose]

Never shot a caliber I did not like and I've shot every one I can. However the 30 holds a special spot in my heart. When I was in my early 20's a house fire cost me all my rifles except a .22, which was in the pickup. I was given a 300 weatherby from the wife of a man who I much respected. He asked her to give it to me after he passed. This was my only rifle for over a decade. Now I have most every caliber from .17-.50. When I go shooting I shoot them all. When I go hunting I almost always reach for a .30. Sure the others will kill just as dead, but I don't trust anything like I trust my .30. From in your face to 1200 yards. It's the one I trust.

I feel for ya. I lost six rifles, three shotguns and three handguns in a house fire Christmas of 99 along with almost all of my taxidermy collection.

Rough christmas.

 

[KyCarl]

Day in day out for N. American big game I'll take my 300 WM! It's been a solid performer for years and will continue...

 

[Country Bumpkin]

I'll play too.

I "used to be fickle" in that everything I currently had wasn't quite right and my "favorite" was being saved for. I started with a military surplus Smith & Corona pumpkin-chunking 30.06, given its name because I've seen pumpkin chunkers on history channel with better accuracy. It had a cherry stock which beat the snot out of me (and felt like an anvil in the mtns). Then when in college we saved up and my wife bought me a Use Rem 700 in 7RUM. I couldn't get that beat-up barrel to shoot (the whole gun looked like it had doubled as a walking stick and hatchet). Bought a takeoff barrel online in 300RUM. That shot almost as bad ..... I gave up and hunted archery-only for 3 years while coming to two conclusions 1) I'm not willing to spend any more money on factory hunting rifles as my primary stick and 2) I don't enjoy shooting the Ultra Mags. Eventually I found myself with a 300WM custom with Defiance Deviant, Bartlein, EH2 with VX6. Man, that gun SHOT!!! I went on a rifle-hunting spree for 3 years and killed some of my best animals with that. Ultimately I decided that it was too heavy for the way I like to hunt. It was a dream to shoot though and I struggled with parting from it.

Now I have an 8.5 lbs custom built off rem action, proof cf, stockys cf stock with same VX6 in a 7RM. I think this gun has the potential to shoot as well as my 300WM but I haven't had the time to shoot anything other than Barnes out of it (consistently under 3/4 with factory TTSX 150). It's still a pleasure to shoot and I love having it in the mountains. In its first season of service I took my first black bear, a Sitka blacktail, a nice mulie and my biggest elk. I think I finally have a favorite in the 7RM. If you made me pick another, it'd be the 300wm.

 

[Aoudad shooter1975]

Hummm....if I had to pick from the list of two only, I'd go with 30 caliber. My mentor shot a lot of game with a Weatherby fibermark in 300 weatherby. I really never was a fan of the 300 weatherby-but I'll tell you he was very successful hunter with one. He shot rams in Russia, Tahr in New Zeland and Elk in Colorado--and never lost his confidence in. He believes in a 180 grain bullet pushed fast.

I have been all over the board, and I have really warmed up to my 300 Norma, but if I had to pic one--I'd step up a little bigger for all around and go 338...and I'd go 338 Norma for shootablity and use.

My favorite bore diameter is .224 though...a 223 taught me more about shooting than any of the above--or the bores in the poll.

 

[hunter67wa]

6.5 0r 284 caliber