New Gun For Wife.

I built the wife a 6.5 Creedmoor with a 26" "tube"...her original/first rifle is Colomian Mauser chambered in 6.5-06...I think she will reach for her Creedmoor first!
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Her's is in the fore ground...she picked the stock color on both...the thumb hole is my 6.5x284...both on Savage actions.
 
Honestly it comes down to what she'll be hunting and the range she'll be hunting at. I find if I'm going to go hunting someplace other than near my place I make sure I use a caliber that's readily available too where I'm hunting. I'd hate to lose my ammo somehow and then be stuck checking every store trying to find a difficult round.

243 Win - Readily available everywhere, good for up to whitetail, pretty flat shooting and light recoil
257 Roberts - Selective availability, pretty much a good match to 243 with a hair more energy if you use +P
25-06 Rem - Selective availability, I'd consider this is the smallest round I'd consider for anything larger than a whitetail.
6.5 Creedmoor - Good availability most places but not everywhere. Capable of larger animals but I wouldn't take moose hunting
260 Rem - Select availability, almost a match for 6.5 creedmoor with a hair more energy and I find brass sources more readily available. After this you need to make sure your wife is recoil tolerant depending on rifle weight.
270 Win - Probably the king of availability next to 30-06 and 308 Win, can take pretty much anything but still wouldn't choose it for moose hunting. I wish they didn't come in 1:10 twist barrels, I'd like to try a 1:9.5 or 1:9 to try really heavy bullets.
7mm-08 - Pretty good availability, a very versatile round and can be loaded to take about anything.
280 Rem - very select availability, a match for 270 knockdown with better bullet availability.
308 Win - available everywhere, can be loaded to take about anything but I find a lot of the ammo that's available is target loads which I wouldn't take on a hunt.
30-06 - available everywhere and with a ton of different hunting loads. There's not an animal in North America that hasn't been taken by one.
 
My brother always had a great suggestion for a good hunting rig - Go into any store that supplies hunting bullets and see what bullet has the biggest selection. That may be your best round for hunting. Then go backwards from there. Find the caliber selection in the range that would seem to work best (I would think a 270 would be a great choice in the hunting range of bullets, but again, base this on availability) and then find a rifle that is comfortable for her in that caliber.
 
Got my wife shooting a 6.5 creedmoor. She's about 110 pounds so put a brake on it amd she loves it
 
It all depends on the lady. I have seen women who struggle shooting a .243 and others that handle a .458 Win. Mag better than I or most men can. That said, today I would choose a 6.5 Creedmoor for 98% of all hunting with the right bullet for the average woman so she would enjoy shooting, make shooting longer ranges easier, and make it a chassis model so you can custom fit it to her.
 
I'd vote 7MM-O8! Great selection of bullets available, a slightly larger bullet, and slightly more "bang" than the "creed"! If things are nearly equal, I always opt for larger diameter. JMO.


Disregard, I didn't read the entire post! memtb
 
I have a ruger precision rifle in 6.5 CM. Its pretty heavy how I have it set up and very low recoil. My wife will shoot it no problem.
 
We bought my wife the lady hunter in 30-06 and she loves it. The recoil isn't to bad, she handles it good and she bruises easier then a old tomato lol. But I'll probably rebarrel it to a 7-08 just so she doesn't develop a flinch.
If you reload, the 30-06 with a 130 bullet can be made with light recoil. My 13 year old daughter shoots one with a break. She came from a .243 and says it's not a noticeable difference in recoil.
 
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