Best All Round Rifle Caliber?

Weatherby Fan said:
one caliber to do it all......thats just silly talk.........but since you asked a 30 cal magnum of some sort would be the most versatile, Ill go with the 300 PRC as it can shoot heavy high BC bullets and is an excellent long range cartridge if one desires to shoot long range !
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I'll go with this.
 
There was a nice model 700 classic in 6.5x55 at the gun show today. I picked it up, and quickly put it down. Not because of the walker trigger, but because I knew prolonged exposure would be dangerous to my pocket book.
Thought of shell shucker for a moment as well.
Then, bought a book. Big Game Records of B.C.
 
Buckmastr said:
There was a nice model 700 classic in 6.5x55 at the gun show today. I picked it up, and quickly put it down. Not because of the walker trigger, but because I knew prolonged exposure would be dangerous to my pocket book.
Thought of shell shucker for a moment as well.
Then, bought a book. Big Game Records of B.C.
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Those are sweet...had two of those and they were both shooters. Just couldn't warm up to that caliber in the 700 though. Dumb maybe but so it was.

They are a nice rifle.
 
I’m here to settle it once and for all.
It’s .270win preferably when using a pre ‘64 model 70 featherweight.
 
I live and hunt in BC. Hunted with/shot game with a lot of calibers. They all worked well really. My all around gun is a fairly light (8 1/4 scoped ) 22” .338. 30/06+ trajectory with big killing power. Never under gunned, certainly not over either.
 
Joel said:
Grew up hearing a lot of anti 270 rhetoric/Fudd lore from the old folks in my family on account of an incident or two where moose seemingly walked away from being pelted several times with one. When you are a kid, it sounds legit. Even the "zips through so fast it doesn't open" stuff.

Til I met and started hunting with some pretty accomplished folks who used a 270 Bee and a 270 Win. And killed. What do you know, if a 270 Wby was driving those bullets through both sides of bullwinkle with good expansion and he was tipping over, hard to believe the 270 Win wasn't gonna.

I was a dyed in the wool 30-06 man until recently but have to admit, the 270 has some better numbers behind it. Its a stout, well weighted bullet moving fast. Hard to argue with.

Perhaps back in the day, people were driving less effective 130 grain bullets into big animals too fast. I dunno. Or just not shooting well, but bringing up that theory was not very popular :p
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I believe we also wrongly assume the old timers knew better too. There’s a nostalgia of sorts of the “olden days” and respect for elders that presumes shot placement and skill must have been at least as good and likely better back then. I actually think shot placement and ethics may even be improving not declining. At the very least we’re likely equal but with better optics and equipment. Likely fewer will take a quartering away shot today than may have been the case seventy five years ago. My own grandfather’s .30-30 moose hunting stories are what I base this on, they were hungry and it wasn’t only recreation, though that was certainly part of the tradition. Now it’s more about recreation than hunger for most, and that changes the ethical balance of shots taken a bit.

It starts with “it was all we needed, never lost a moose” which I believe is true and sounds very accomplished. As the conversation goes on and you get deeper into it, you realise they were just human too, and using much cruder equipment- like my Grandfather’s iron sighted .30-30 “moose rifle” which I still own.
 
You must not of looked very hard, last week was most versatile cartridge, 3 days later we get best all around cartridge. Same people giving different answers even. Odd
 
383SB said:
You must not of looked very hard, last week was most versatile cartridge, 3 days later we get best all around cartridge. Same people giving different answers even. Odd
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Is that really a surprise when one thread asks the best all round rifle chambering, and the other asks the best chambering for all North American game but with the lightest recoil? If it was all the same answers, I’d be surprised.
 
Ardent said:
I believe we also wrongly assume the old timers knew better too. There’s a nostalgia of sorts of the “olden days” and respect for elders that presumes shot placement and skill must have been at least as good and likely better back then. I actually think shot placement and ethics may even be improving not declining. At the very least we’re likely equal but with better optics and equipment. Likely fewer will take a quartering away shot today than may have been the case seventy five years ago. My own grandfather’s .30-30 moose hunting stories are what I base this on, they were hungry and it wasn’t only recreation, though that was certainly part of the tradition. Now it’s more about recreation than hunger for most, and that changes the ethical balance of shots taken a bit.

It starts with “it was all we needed, never lost a moose” which I believe is true and sounds very accomplished. As the conversation goes on and you get deeper into it, you realise they were just human too, and using much cruder equipment- like my Grandfather’s iron sighted .30-30 “moose rifle” which I still own.
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The "nostalgia" is still being made today alongside the same old wives tales with new ones. The "new timers" today will be the old timers of tomorrow: everything correct and incorrect we see today will be considered as we are doing now. Your sentiments bear a lot of sense. Subsistence still carries on as you cannot buy wild meat, and I still hear wild magazine dump shooting during season. I suppose all this consideration resolves the question of these threads in one answer: The best caliber is one that WILL deliver quick death with one accurately placed round. One cannot compensate crap shooting with larger caliber then call it "best". Provided the caliber someone likes or has a sentimental attachment to can fulfill that criteria, carry on with the blessing of the god of the best calibers... train and prepare for it's delivery, delivery men.
 
I would agree with what others have said: the rifle / cartridge that you can shoot the best.

Beyond that, since I handload, I like any caliber that offers: high bc bullets, round or flat nose and varmint bullets. The two that I have that cover all of those are 30 cal and 6.5mm, I’m sure other calibers offer all of those as well. It is up to the shooter to decide which chambering they want to launch the bullets. For me, versatile 30’s are 308, 30-06, 300wsm, 300wm. For 6.5’s things like 260 rem, 6.5cm, 6.5x284, 6.5prc.

If one does not handload, I would take a look at factory offerings to see which cartridge offers the most load variety. I believe there are differnt bullets for performing different tasks.
 
New Camper said:
Good point, and I never thought about Ackley not having any room to improve it either. ;) Though the 30-06AI being less overbore than the 270win might have been something Ackley considered.
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Ackley chambered many rifles for it, and wrote that it equalled the 300 H&H velocity it in his manuals. I built two 30-06 A Imps in the past forty years, however 180gr bullets at 2800fps was not enough for me to keep either rifle.

They definitely had sufficient Cool Factor though, that someone else wanted them enough to take them hunting.

Ted
 
7x57 in a nice commercial Mauser 98 action.

Smooth feeding, moderate recoil, accurate, easy to reload, and still a good assortment of commercial ammo to be found. Yeah, I can also vote in 7mm-08, but it just doesn't exude class or history.

For anybody else, 30-06
 
I hunted with and had many listed on here.
Only have a few today, my ranking
30/06
6.5x55
7rm
300wm
Never owned a 270 but if I did I have no doubt it would be high on the list.
 
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I'll put one in for the good ole 338 federal simply because it has a good choice of bullets you can use for all game you can use 308 or 7mm-08 brass and has better ballistics then the 30-06 and 308.
 
Weatherby2 said:
I'll put one in for the good ole 338 federal simply because it has a good choice of bullets you can use for all game you can use 308 or 7mm-08 brass and has better ballistics then the 30-06 and 308.
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Great Cartridge the 338 FED ! I have a Tikka T3 SS Lite with a Leupold VX111 2.5-8 in Talley LW rings ! Accurate and a Hammer with Barnes TTSX ers ! BEST of the little cartridges ! jmo RJ
 
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