7mm-08 or 35 Whelen for final rifle?

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Warden70

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Okay, I've been thinning the heard for a while. I'm down to choosing between these two calibers and rifles. To qualify my difficulty in making a decision, I wish to state the following:

I have a bush rifle: Marlin 30-30
I have a do-all: Rem 700 Mountain rifle in 270 Win.
I hunt mostly deer, with aspirations of going on Moose hunting or possibly elk hunting expeditions in the future.

The 7mm08 is a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight Compact and the 35 Whelen is a Remington 700 CDL.

Between these two calibers/guns, which would you choose and why? Please begin and thanks in advance.
 
The 270 is all you need for anything in North America and most of the world. So if your goal is to thin the herd, that would be the one rifle.

But, between 7-08 and a 35, get rid of the 7 as you already have the 270. I would bet you will be remorseful after selling the 35. I am still kicking myself for selling my 35 Whelen.
 
Several fellows I hunted with will tell you, based on their own experience, that there is nothing lacking in 270 Win for deer, moose or elk. In particular, read some Jack O'Connor about the later. Then read Elmer Keith's counterpoint. Those two made a bazillion bucks from that discussion over the years!! Nothing wrong at all with 270 Win, especially 150's or 160's on really big ungulates, or perhaps 130 mono-metal on everything..
You don't actually "need" a 7mm-08 or a 35 Whelen, if you have a 270 Win, but since when did "need" every count for anything? ;-)
 
Given the circumstances, I'd keep the .35 & forgo the 7mm-08.

The reasoning on which has already been well covered in previous posts to this thread.

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Op

Are you going to hunt outside of NS? A quick search shows that’s not grizzly or polar bear territory. If your staying is NS I would sell both and buy another 270 if you really want another rifle.
 
I would get rid of the 7mm-08 and keep the 35 whelen. Always nice to have the option for a heavy hitter, especially 250gr at 2500-2600 fps. I Had a Ruger Hawkeye m77 SS in 35 whelen that i sold and have regrets about.
 
That would be an easy decision for someone with OCD (ahem...). Keep your .270 and couple it with the .35 Whelen... both are Rem 700's, both are on the .30/06 case... I would personally widen the gap with your bullet and load choices by going light"ish" with the .270 and heavy"ish" with the Whelen. Find a good peppy 130 load for you .270 and a firm 250 load for your Whelen... which rifle to pull on any given day will be fairly obvious based on the circumstances of your hunting situation.
 
The Whelen 35 and the 270 is all you need. If I were you I would also dump the 30-30 and use the 270 with 150 bullets going at a mv of 2800 in the woods instead. In fact I have a 6.5x55, a 270 win and a 9.3x63 which is similar to the 35 Whelen. I love all of them. If you handload, take a 140 bullet in a 270 win and load it to a mv of 2800, then you get a 7mm-08. Load the same bullet to a mv of 2650-2700 and you have a 6.5x55. Load it to 2950 and you get at 280 Rem.
The 270 win can become a 7mm-08 but the opposite is not true.
 
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