One caliber, two chamberings to cover everything hunting

[del2les]

"Is it plausible to choose one caliber and two or three chamberings to cover 100% of your hunting?"

For me.....no.

 

[K.E.C. Darkside]

If only it were that simple. In fact, I live in a land that uses both systems in arbitrary and inconsistent ways.

For example, the country grid roads I grew up on are laid out in miles, one or two mile blocks. So when I'm driving on gravel I only think in miles, kilometres are gibberish. But the paved highways have signs all in kilometres indicating distance…when I'm driving on asphalt I think in kilometres and if someone tells me how many miles away it is I have to mentally convert that to kilometres to make sense of it.

If I'm outside I think of temperature in degrees Celcius, Fahrenheit means nothing. If I'm setting the thermostat inside I think in Fahrenheit cuz that's what the thermostat measures in. Same with cooking. 350 Fahrenheit is English. 176 celcius is stupid


What really l can't think in is metres and centimetres. I can't stand that my drivers licence gives my height in cm. I'm five foot eleven. And I weigh things in pounds not kilograms UNLESS it's deli meat

OMG . No wonder you all seem confused up there. And then you all have a language problem ( French or English)
That most be where Cannutts comes from.

 

[K.E.C. Darkside]

I was relating my observation based on the my experience. Whitetail, Mule Deer, Antelope and pigs are probably all I will ever be able to hunt, my medical issues won't allow me to push my body hard enough to get deep into the back country.
I would have to go with 30 caliber, and the
Chambering would be 300WM, you can shoot from 110gr to 230gr .
My question was, if you had to choose one caliber, what caliber and then what chamberings would you choose to cover 100% of your hunting.

30 cal..... 300Wm.

 

[2 the Plug]

.257 3 chamberings… 256 Win Mag varmints and small game, 257 roberts, medium game, 257 ROY (257 wby mag)
I'll take my chances on anything in North America as long as they are each repeaters… 5 257 Roy's to a grizz should work, if it's not charging you… you could replace the Roberts with a 25-06 or some others to do the same tricks…
And I went we these 3 because I already have too many 30, 6.5 and .277 choices… so a reason to tell the wife I need 3 more chamberings, I'm all in!

 

[2 the Plug]

I was really hoping to cheat and use a 45, thinking 45 Long Colt gives me a 410 shot shell and a pistol/carbine round for birds, Turkey and 45LC small game, but never realized it's a .452 and I think the only other thing in .452 is 460 S&W Mag… if I could fit a shotgun in, all my needs would be covered…
Edit: has anyone loaded 22 shot in a 223 or 224 Valkyrie??? Seems like a fun adventure.

 

[Calvin45]

OMG . Know wonder you all seem confused up there. And then you all have a language problem ( French or English)
That most be where Cannutts comes from.

*its "no" wonder, not "know" wonder! I ain't the only confused one here

Just playing, but you're right! I know just enough French to get into trouble , learned a lot of individual words from reading the French off of food labels since I was a kid. But there's a difference between knowing what a word means and being able to speak the language or comprehend it when hearing it spoken. But I have drove through Quebec and we stayed a few different places, before we had kids my wife and I did a "great Canadian road trip" of sorts, in 2015 in February we drove to the west coast and back, and in august to the east coast and back. So glad I got to do that before we had little ones haha, lots to see.

But anyway in Quebec I was able to "get by" as in I could figure out what road signs said, could use basic manners such as "hello, please, thank you, etc", order a hamburger or a coffee, and most importantly knew how to declare that I was in need of a bathroom!

Seriously some wise old guy told me a while ago that whenever you're in a place where you don't speak the language the first thing you need to learn is how to ask where the bathroom is haha…when ya gotta go ya gotta go, and there's no language barrier regarding that basic human predicament

 

[Calvin45]

.257 3 chamberings… 256 Win Mag varmints and small game, 257 roberts, medium game, 257 ROY (257 wby mag)
I'll take my chances on anything in North America as long as they are each repeaters… 5 257 Roy's to a grizz should work, if it's not charging you… you could replace the Roberts with a 25-06 or some others to do the same tricks…
And I went we these 3 because I already have too many 30, 6.5 and .277 choices… so a reason to tell the wife I need 3 more chamberings, I'm all in!

I do love the 25 bores as well…but to my mind they're too light for too many things regardless of how fast you can drive them…

That being said, I love my .257 weatherby. To my mind an old savage 99 in .250-3000 savage would compliment it nicely. Both historically rich and groundbreaking cartridges

 

[Mike D Texas]

As much as I love the 6.5mm bore and cartridges, if I were limited to one bore and 2-3 cartridges it would be .308 bore with .308 Win and 300 Win Mag covering everything I would ever hunt. If I could have a 3rd cartridge just because it would be a 300 Norma Mag Improved to shoot the heavies at 230-250 grains.

 

[AGGRO]

6.5 Grendel and .300 win mag to cover it all.

 

[memtb]

I was really hoping to cheat and use a 45, thinking 45 Long Colt gives me a 410 shot shell and a pistol/carbine round for birds, Turkey and 45LC small game, but never realized it's a .452 and I think the only other thing in .452 is 460 S&W Mag… if I could fit a shotgun in, all my needs would be covered…
Edit: has anyone loaded 22 shot in a 223 or 224 Valkyrie??? Seems like a fun adventure.

For your 460 S&W fantasy fulfillment!

Cartridges from left to right: 300 grain plinking load @ approximately 1100 mv, next is a 400 grain @ near 1600 mv, then a full length 444 Marlin Magnum brass loaded with a full 1/2 ounce of #8 lead shot in a plastic 410 shot cup, duplicating a 2 1/2" 410 shot shell. Gives a pretty decent shot pattern out to 20 feet! memtb

 

[nralifer]

I was relating my observation based on the my experience. Whitetail, Mule Deer, Antelope and pigs are probably all I will ever be able to hunt, my medical issues won't allow me to push my body hard enough to get deep into the back country.

My question was, if you had to choose one caliber, what caliber and then what chamberings would you choose to cover 100% of your hunting.

I have harvested all the animals you mentioned with a 308Win using a 20" barrel and the 150gr BD2 all copper bullet from Badlands Precision. My list also includes wide variety of African Plains Game and a large coastal Black Bear in Alaska. You can look up the rather long thread improving the 308 Win performance.

 

[bomberodevil]

If I had to limit myself to two cartridges in one caliber, for all the hunting that I do (in North America only), it would be a 7mm-08 and a 7mmRM. Although I don't own either one of these (I have a 280 AI, in the middle), I think these two cartridges would be great for all the game that I hunt.

 

[birddog 68]

After my components thread and some members relaying that staying with a couple of calibers to simply component searches and purchases.

Is it plausible to choose one caliber and two or three chamberings to cover 100% of your hunting?

Full transparency, I have had several manbuns, hard to argue with cheap factory ammo, easy recoil and impressive accuracy over a broad range of factory offerings. Makes it easy for a parent to get a kiddo behind the rifle and develop some confidence.

I got curious about the 6.5 PRC, found a nice used X-Bolt Hells Canyon Speed and while bedding the rifle and picatinny rail, I got to wondering about the subject of a single caliber covering all the bases.

Honestly, I could cover 95% of my hunting with a 22 Creedmoor, possibly a 223.

I got out my Gun Gack and a few other manuals and thought, the 6.5/.264 might be the perfect choice for the majority of hunters.

Some of the big 6.5 whizzums, like the 264 WM or 26 Nosler, 6.5/300 Weatherby, 6.5-280 Ackley, would offer a lot for bigger animals and then you could cover everything from varmints up to and including elk(within reason) with a Creedmoor. A Grendel would get you varmint, Prairie dogs and medium bodied Whitetail.

I said all that to ask, if you had to choose one caliber and two or three chamberings, what would you choose? What components would you choose to be able to use them in both or all three (if possible).

As much as I love my 280 Ackley, I honestly think a 6.5 Creedmoor and a 6.5-280 Ackley would cover everything I ever plan to chase.

I also know that there are plenty of y'all that use one cartridge for everything?

Have fun, but I am curious to see the selections and thought process/reasoning behind the choices.

If I had to limit myself to two cartridges in one caliber, for all the hunting that I do (in North America only), it would be a 7mm-08 and a 7mmRM. Although I don't own either one of these (I have a 280 AI, in the middle), I think these two cartridges would be great for all the game that I hunt.

Agree with this. 280 AI and a 7-08 will do just about everything. I almost narrowed my stable down to these two and has kept component costs down a bit.

 

[Gpkhill2]

I think if I were to go the one caliber route it would almost have be .30 cal. Down deep I'm a .284/7mm guy. Have been since I was 14. And for years I had a 7mm08 and a 7 RM to cover everything. But I think something like a 308 and 300WM or PRC would probably be a little more versatile especially on the top end. I feel better about shooting large animals with my 300PRC using a 215 grain bullet over my 7RM using a 180. Just my 2 cents