Your All Around Rifle and Cartridge Combination

[Cold Trigger Finger]

Every year I kill more and more stuff with Spitz bt solids . They work great and don't usually ruin much meat. .
Take the 308 or 06 for instance. Shoot many smaller animals with expanding bullets and its gonna make a big mess. Use an fmjbt and it pokes a hole thru things let's the air out without destroying lots of things. . But hey. I'm not gonna argue about it. . I've killed black bear with 1 223, 55 gr fmjbt. 1 shot 1 dead bear. When you can't get anymore ammo you need to make every shot count. If your gun is feeding several people its important not to waste anything. Including an animals brains. Brain tanning hides is very effective. Neck shots work well for that.

In a shtf scenario many people will try to survive by plundering . Something to keep in mind for the use of your rifle.

 

[mountainman56]

What kind of bear? I used to hunt in Grizzly country and I would not want a light calibre for that situation. If I wanted to be able to dispatch large bear AND go to 600 yards I would go for the 300 win mag. If I can keep the shots under 400 I would pick the 375 H&H. I have shot everything from jackrabbits to moose with mine and they all died

 

[gohring3006]

if meat damage became a problem with my 06 I would load a reduced 110gr. Speer 40gr. Imr 3031 @ 2200fps. For the small critters...

 

[RT2506]

A 300 Win mag in a Rem 700 with a Zeiss 3-12X56 would be my pick with various hand loads.

 

[MudRunner2005]

If I could have 1 rifle from 0-800 yards but have multiple loads for it...

It would be a worked-over Rem 700 with a 26" Bartlein 5R 1:9 Rem Varmint contour barrel in an old HS Sendero stock (no palm swells) chambered in 7mm RemMag. With a NF NXS 5.5-22x56 HS ZS MOAR locked in with Seekins rings and an EGW HD rail.

And my 2 go-to loads would be 7828 SSC pushing either 168 VLD or 180 VLD or Hybrids out of Nosler brass with Fed 215M primers.

 

[Jud96]

Every year I kill more and more stuff with Spitz bt solids . They work great and don't usually ruin much meat. .
Take the 308 or 06 for instance. Shoot many smaller animals with expanding bullets and its gonna make a big mess. Use an fmjbt and it pokes a hole thru things let's the air out without destroying lots of things. . But hey. I'm not gonna argue about it. . I've killed black bear with 1 223, 55 gr fmjbt. 1 shot 1 dead bear. When you can't get anymore ammo you need to make every shot count. If your gun is feeding several people its important not to waste anything. Including an animals brains. Brain tanning hides is very effective. Neck shots work well for that.

In a shtf scenario many people will try to survive by plundering . Something to keep in mind for the use of your rifle.

The FMJ idea is understandable, but when you are putting meat on the table, why take the chance of wounding and losing the animal? I don't want to argue either, it's your choice as a do all cartridge.

I wouldn't really say this is a SHTF situation. More like living like mountain men did. You only have one rifle, plenty of supplies available, just you have to take varying sized game with one selected rifle and cartridge. Most of the mountain men only had one rifle or musket in some cases and had to fend with what they had from killing fox and beaver to taking down elk and grizzly. If they could do it with black powder muzzle loaders, I'm sure we could all do it with our preferred high powered rifles.

 

[Jud96]

If I could have 1 rifle from 0-800 yards but have multiple loads for it...

It would be a worked-over Rem 700 with a 26" Bartlein 5R 1:9 Rem Varmint contour barrel in an old HS Sendero stock (no palm swells) chambered in 7mm RemMag. With a NF NXS 5.5-22x56 HS ZS MOAR locked in with Seekins rings and an EGW HD rail.

And my 2 go-to loads would be 7828 SSC pushing either 168 VLD or 180 VLD or Hybrids out of Nosler brass with Fed 215M primers.

That's a good setup! I was thinking of choosing the 7mmRM myself, but don't have any personal use with one so didn't want to choose something I don't know anything about.

 

[memtb]

I guess that it would be the "only" rifle that I have hunted with since 1989; a model 70 Winchester, .375 Ackley Improved, McMillian stock, light contour Douglas SS match grade barrel with Express sights, Leupold QD base and rings, Leupold VX3 3.5-10 CDS weighing in at 8 lb. 14 oz. (scoped, loaded with sling) and a Leupold Vari-x III 2.5-8 for my back up scope. With hand loading given as an option in your scenario, I believe that this rifle would fulfill my every need. I have taken small game (prairie dogs, coyotes, etc) with cast bullets at around 1350 fps. I'm hoping to develop an accurate load with cast bullets at around 1800 fps and I think this load will still cleanly take "small" big game such as deer and antelope. My present hunting round is a 270 gr. Barnes TSX at a little over 2900 fps. When I do my part from the bench, three shots will run just under 1/2", which should give acceptable accuracy and performance out to 700 or 800 yards. So what I have here is a rifle that is economical, pleasant to shoot, and fairly lethal with cast bullets while having plenty of horsepower for big and/or possibly dangerous game at extended ranges. While this certainly would not be everyone's choice, it has served me well and is my constant "go-to" gun. - memtb

 

[Jud96]

I guess that it would be the "only" rifle that I have hunted with since 1989; a model 70 Winchester, .375 Ackley Improved, McMillian stock, light contour Douglas SS match grade barrel with Express sights, Leupold QD base and rings, Leupold VX3 3.5-10 CDS weighing in at 8 lb. 14 oz. (scoped, loaded with sling) and a Leupold Vari-x III 2.5-8 for my back up scope. With hand loading given as an option in your scenario, I believe that this rifle would fulfill my every need. I have taken small game (prairie dogs, coyotes, etc) with cast bullets at around 1350 fps. I'm hoping to develop an accurate load with cast bullets at around 1800 fps and I think this load will still cleanly take "small" big game such as deer and antelope. My present hunting round is a 270 gr. Barnes TSX at a little over 2900 fps. When I do my part from the bench, three shots will run just under 1/2", which should give acceptable accuracy and performance out to 700 or 800 yards. So what I have here is a rifle that is economical, pleasant to shoot, and fairly lethal with cast bullets while having plenty of horsepower for big and/or possibly dangerous game at extended ranges. While this certainly would not be everyone's choice, it has served me well and is my constant "go-to" gun. - memtb

Hey if it's working for you, then it would be an excellent choice for what we are talking about. The cast bullets idea is very smart. If you brought a bullet mould along and a sufficient amount of lead, say 100lbs and stocked it up in the cabin or wherever then you'd be set. The .375 would definitely be playing it safe on the moose, bear, and elk!

 

[MudRunner2005]

That's a good setup! I was thinking of choosing the 7mmRM myself, but don't have any personal use with one so didn't want to choose something I don't know anything about.

My go-to deer hunting caliber has been a 7mm RemMag for over 12 years now. It is the best all-around cartridge I know of, and we've discussed how wide and diverse my caliber selection is. I could hunt with all kinds of things from .22LR up to .45-70, but I seem to always reach for my 7mm RM when I'm going deer hunting.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I guess that it would be the "only" rifle that I have hunted with since 1989; a model 70 Winchester, .375 Ackley Improved, McMillian stock, light contour Douglas SS match grade barrel with Express sights, Leupold QD base and rings, Leupold VX3 3.5-10 CDS weighing in at 8 lb. 14 oz. (scoped, loaded with sling) and a Leupold Vari-x III 2.5-8 for my back up scope. With hand loading given as an option in your scenario, I believe that this rifle would fulfill my every need. I have taken small game (prairie dogs, coyotes, etc) with cast bullets at around 1350 fps. I'm hoping to develop an accurate load with cast bullets at around 1800 fps and I think this load will still cleanly take "small" big game such as deer and antelope. My present hunting round is a 270 gr. Barnes TSX at a little over 2900 fps. When I do my part from the bench, three shots will run just under 1/2", which should give acceptable accuracy and performance out to 700 or 800 yards. So what I have here is a rifle that is economical, pleasant to shoot, and fairly lethal with cast bullets while having plenty of horsepower for big and/or possibly dangerous game at extended ranges. While this certainly would not be everyone's choice, it has served me well and is my constant "go-to" gun. - memtb

That's basically the .375 version of my .300 Ackley Improved Magnum. I bet that's a heavy hitter...

 

[Engineering101]

I kind of answered this question on another thread called the Perfect Deer Rifle - 338 RUM. Basically what I said is that I would take my full custom 338 RUM with muzzle brake. It shoots 0.3 MOA and kicks less than my 06 so what is not to like? With this chambering you are not under gunned on the really big stuff (brown bear for example) and it won't damage meat on a small animal like deer - IF you use Barnes or similar bullets.

Since Barnes bullets out of a 338 RUM with pass through just about any animal, a bigger animal gets hit harder than a smaller animal. I have tested this on both elk and deer with zero meat damage. If an animal is big enough to stop the bullet - then it is going to get the whole 5,000 ft lbs which if it is that big the added power is probably needed.

 

[Jud96]

I kind of answered this question on another thread called the Perfect Deer Rifle - 338 RUM. Basically what I said is that I would take my full custom 338 RUM with muzzle brake. It shoots 0.3 MOA and kicks less than my 06 so what is not to like? With this chambering you are not under gunned on the really big stuff (brown bear for example) and it won't damage meat on a small animal like deer - IF you use Barnes or similar bullets.

Since Barnes bullets out of a 338 RUM with pass through just about any animal, a bigger animal gets hit harder than a smaller animal. I have tested this on both elk and deer with zero meat damage. If an animal is big enough to stop the bullet - then it is going to get the whole 5,000 ft lbs which if it is that big the added power is probably needed.

That's a big cartridge, but using it like you do really makes it shine on the medium game on up to the largest. Nice choice.

 

[memtb]

When I was talking to my wife about this topic (actually she was typing as I can't type worth a s#@*), she said "What about my rifle?" so here is her "go-to" rifle that she has used since 1994. She bought into my "one gun for everything philosophy". We hunt big game, live in grizzly country and at one time thought when we got "rich and famous", we would hunt Alaska and/or Africa (which hasn't happened to date!) So, I convinced her that she needed to retire her .270 and get a .338 Win Mag. For the first couple of years, she wasn't totally convinced that the .338 was the way to go (she loved her .270). After years of use and many one shot kills including an elk at 400 yards, she is pretty pleased with her rifle. She has a "box stock" factory Win Model 70 .338 SS push feed. but does not have iron sights. The only modification made was cutting the stock and putting on a Pachmyer decelerator. She also has Leupold QD's, Leupold VX3 - 3.5-10 CDS weighing in at 8 lb. 10 oz. scoped, loaded with sling and has a Vari-X III 2.5-8 Leupold for backup. We built her some cast bullet loads that work pretty well on small game and like mine, should work for "small" big game. Her hunting round is a .225 Barnes TTSX at about 2950 fps and actually offers flatter trajectory and more foot pounds of energy out to 800 yards than does my rifle. I/We feel that we are pretty well covered on all-around rifles. - memtb