Best all around hunting caliber
- Thread starter justin16
- Start date
unstableryan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Beautiful Okanagan Valley
Don't get me wrong, I hunt with a 6.5x55 Tikka t3, beautiful rifle.
BeaverMeat
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nanaimo, B.C.
I am going to put forth a caliber/cartridge that most seem to overlook.
7.92x57 Mauser
It might be tough to find good ammo (hand loading is a must in North America) but it will take anything down. It fits nicely between .308 and .338 and you do not have to go magnum. I do not have personal experience hunting with it myself (yet) but my grandfather used this round for everything in his hunting days. He took down coyotes, deer, moose, elk, and bear with ease.
7.92x57 Mauser
It might be tough to find good ammo (hand loading is a must in North America) but it will take anything down. It fits nicely between .308 and .338 and you do not have to go magnum. I do not have personal experience hunting with it myself (yet) but my grandfather used this round for everything in his hunting days. He took down coyotes, deer, moose, elk, and bear with ease.
The 8mm mauser is a great cartridge, esp if you handload. bullets have a fairly wide range of weights, and it's a fair chunk larger than the 30-06 and 303 brit, and loaded properly, will have almost the same performance as a 30-06. I've only used mine to hunt old computer parts though... lol
Well I tried to resist the urge to post on this thread
since it seems to get rewritten way to often, but
urge overkill wins out. I find it hard to believe that
no one stated the obvious . Best overall hunting
caliber is 12guage . You got bird shot for small game,
buck shot for medium game and of corse slugs
for large game . And all from the same firearm,
if shtf actually happened and we had to hunt and gather
all our food and supplies the only gun that matters is
the shotgun.
since it seems to get rewritten way to often, but
urge overkill wins out. I find it hard to believe that
no one stated the obvious . Best overall hunting
caliber is 12guage . You got bird shot for small game,
buck shot for medium game and of corse slugs
for large game . And all from the same firearm,
if shtf actually happened and we had to hunt and gather
all our food and supplies the only gun that matters is
the shotgun.
This would be true if all your game was inside 100m, unfortunately that is not always the situation,,,
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
But a good rifle with handloads can do all that, plus make hits on game at a quarter mile. The shotgun is only versatile when the ranges are within 50 yards; yes a slug extends that range, but not on small game, where as with a rifle its only a marksmanship problem.
plus in BC a shotgun is not legal for most big game.
nothing wrong with the 270, it wasn't that long ago that it was considered a "big gun" and i guess it seemed that way compared to the 30WCF's and 303's that most people had. load it up with 150 grainers and call it done.
SavageLapua
CGN Regular
- Location
- Mining brass near Red Deer
7mm Rem Mag
How far away was this bull moose that allegedly charged you? I ain't buyin' what you're sellin'.
Rocket Surgery
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
With modern hunting bullets it's more about which rifle is the best.
Basically, any short action rifle that's light and can put 5 holes within 2 inches is your best bet. It's safe to say that 308win is all you need, unless you're doing africa stuff or going after big kodiaks, then you want to step into the big magnums.
You start getting into these boutique calibers like 243 when you want to outfit your wife or kids. Calibers like that offer nothing over 308win except reduced recoil, and you can get 308win in reduced loads. No one can come up with even one reason why you would go 243 over 308win.
The blued steel rifles, well I'm not sure why they even make them anymore, they have nothing on stainless.
Then there's the personal preference kind of stuff, like laminated wood vs plastic, or detach mag versus hinged plate. Common sense dictates that a detach mag with spare mag in a composite or laminated wood stock is the best way to hunt. Iron sights on a rifle is probably one of the best backup features, but not many companies do this anymore. If you want a detach mag, stainless rifle that's light and accurate enough, you have to get the Ruger Scout.
Basically, any short action rifle that's light and can put 5 holes within 2 inches is your best bet. It's safe to say that 308win is all you need, unless you're doing africa stuff or going after big kodiaks, then you want to step into the big magnums.
You start getting into these boutique calibers like 243 when you want to outfit your wife or kids. Calibers like that offer nothing over 308win except reduced recoil, and you can get 308win in reduced loads. No one can come up with even one reason why you would go 243 over 308win.
The blued steel rifles, well I'm not sure why they even make them anymore, they have nothing on stainless.
Then there's the personal preference kind of stuff, like laminated wood vs plastic, or detach mag versus hinged plate. Common sense dictates that a detach mag with spare mag in a composite or laminated wood stock is the best way to hunt. Iron sights on a rifle is probably one of the best backup features, but not many companies do this anymore. If you want a detach mag, stainless rifle that's light and accurate enough, you have to get the Ruger Scout.
- Location
- Prince Albert, Sk
If we re-word the question as to what hunting rifle do you use the most , then we would get a varied response and maybe more accurate. 
The .243 is a vastly superior varmint cartridge to the .308. There is one reason for the .243 over the .308.
I gotta disagree on this post. You're right that we do split hairs on cartridges and many of people's choices show very little differnece in the field (.270 vs. .308 vs .30-06). However cartridge selection does matter. Just like a bush hunting rifle and a open country rifle will be different, a bush cartridge does not make a good open country cartridge and vice versa. This is why there is no "best" cartridge. Merely an assortment of good choices for a specific application.
For an example a lever action .30-30 makes a great deer gun in the bush, but it would sure handicap a guy in the open country. A bolt action, 26" barreled 7mm Rem Mag is a pretty poor bush gun, but great out in the open. Not only does gun choice matter, but the cartridge plays a pretty big role in what a gun is good for. There is no best, however, as a open country gun has a wide varity of great choices that will be different from a bush gun's wide varity of great choices.
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Rocket Surgery
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Wrong, .308win is a great long range cartridge for varmints and medium size game. This is the beauty of it, with modern bullets you can pretty much do everything except grizzlies and african game.
One could argue the same about 30-06 being the best all around cartridge, which is a pretty safe argument. I don't think it's better than .308win simply because you gain like 7-10% performance and have to switch to a long action system. This mean longer bolt throw, less scope mounting options, less potential accuracy, less mag cap, more recoil, longer gun, etc etc. It's just stupid to go 30-06, you may as well go 300win mag if you're going to handicap yourself that much, get all you can. Of course people always say you can go from 125-220g bullets, but you can pretty much do that with .308win as well.
Others argue that 7mm is the best all around hunting cartridge. Once again it's a safe argument that's stupid to make.
Shooting gophers on a farm isn't hunting.
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How do you figure the .308 has greater magazine capacity than the .30-06 when they both have the same diameter case?? Not really buying the rest of your argument either.
