Favorite round for mountain hunting

264 magnum or a 6,5x68 mm would do with the lighter weight bullets. Those are seldom used anymore but are made for those kind of hunt. From sheep, goat all the way to grizzly...
 
I've never hunted too many mountainous areas but know a guy who's a guide in the Yukon.
Still uses the 270 he had when I left 27yrs ago.
 
I’ve used the 280, 270, 30-06, 7mm MSM, 7MM RM, 300 WM, and 338 WM in the mountains. I didn’t really feel hampered by any choice.
 
conor_90 said:
Famously Yellowstone, the Smokey Mountains and Sierra Nevadas are ugly as sin

I hate when you cross from Waterton to Glacial National Park and suddenly there are no lakes.

Cast off ugly mounds indeed

- A guy from Banff


Anyways let's get back to.how rifle weight and chambering don't matter for mountain hunting
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First time dealing with the elbows up type?

These days I’ll take any cartridge you can get in hornady precision hunter factory ammo.
 
Something you can carry and shoot well. Wind is a common factor in mountains. People ask about cartridges and rifles but a 100 year old 6.5 Swede with a practiced shooter would make a very good mountain rifle, for example. Most modern rifles with plastic stocks, bottom assemblies and mags are pretty light. The shooter makes the difference, cartridge is less important, anything over a .223 would kill a sheep quite dead….
 
I started with a 300 Ultra R700 as it was my favorite rifle at the time. Progressed to a 7wsm in a Montana as it was 1.5 pounds lighter. Dropped to 280AI on a Mountain Ascent as it was lighter yet.
Carried a Montana 223AI last year.
This year will likely be a Montana 22 Creed.

Sheep give up pretty fast, the easiest part of a sheep hunt is the shooting. Use whatever makes you smile and put a good, fast expanding bullet in the front half.
 
I think a 6.5 cartridge would probably be a minimum for me and probably the 6.5prc or 6.5-284. The only problem with the 6.5 is it’s not quite big enough to deal with an aggressive bear, because there’s not really any heavy 6.5 bear bullets on the market. If you sleep soundly in bear country without a rifle than 6.5 will be fine, but if you get a bit on edge or have some ptsd from a bear incident like me than you might want something bigger. I normally pack a 6.5-284, but I’m usually with another guy who has a rifle as well, but I went with my wife one year and I was the only one packing a rifle that trip and it was a 300wsm, I felt alot more equipped for handling a bear with the 300 and I definitely slept better. The 6.5-284 is low on recoil from a lightweight platform and still stretches out a long ways with bullets like the 156 berger.

I have a 7saum being put together right now where I think it’ll be the happy medium of everything considered. I should be able to push 175 partitions or 168 barnes lrx or whatever. There seems to be more options for better suited bullets in 7mm than 6.5.
 
I prefer a light to ultralight rifle platform for mountain hunting. 5.5 pounds bare or less, and well balanced. I also like to shoot my main rifle a lot. Recoil is always a factor, but even more so in UL rifles. So my cartridge preferences run 270Win and lower. 270, 6.5PRC, 7o8, any of the moderate 6.5s, etc. The last several years a 6.5CM has done it all for me.
 
I have a couple rifles that would fit for this.
Rem Model 7 in 300 SAUM. Comes in at 7 pounds all up. Not ultralight, but not heavy and hits hard.

Weatherby Mark V 280 AI. I haven’t weighed it, but it shoots like a dream and is quite light also. I would guess around 7 pounds also.

I have a slightly heavier and longer Christensen arms Mesa in 300 win. It shoots great, but due to length is a bit more unweildly to carry for long days compared to the other 2. I have packed much worse than this over the years, but I now have the others that pack even better.
 
Back when I used to climb mountains to hunt, I wanted a lightweight rifle powerful enough to reach out. 7mm ballistics and bullets being what they are, I knew that would be my bore choice. So I built a rifle on a Rem 600 action. Extended magazine box (cut and welded, no Wyatt boxes back then. Slim taper barrel, wildcat stock (first version had a hollowed out factory stock), and chambered in 284 Win. The lengthened mag box allowed a 3.2" coal, which let me better 280 Rem ballistics with bullets up to 160 gr. Was (is, I guess) a great goat hunting gun. - dan
 
dan belisle said:
Back when I used to climb mountains to hunt, I wanted a lightweight rifle powerful enough to reach out. 7mm ballistics and bullets being what they are, I knew that would be my bore choice. So I built a rifle on a Rem 600 action. Extended magazine box (cut and welded, no Wyatt boxes back then. Slim taper barrel, wildcat stock (first version had a hollowed out factory stock), and chambered in 284 Win. The lengthened mag box allowed a 3.2" coal, which let me better 280 Rem ballistics with bullets up to 160 gr. Was (is, I guess) a great goat hunting gun. - dan
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What a great idea Dan!

Cutting and lengthening the box magazine opens up a lot of different caliber designs on the Remington 600 action.

I had my gunsmith build me a 221 Fireball on a Remington 600 action, I had it Cerakoted Stainless silver. It turned out beautifully and was a real tack driver. I unfortunately sold it to pay for another build.

I would like to do a Remington Model Seven build in a 284 Winchester caliber, but I would have to cut and extend the box magazine in order to get that 3.0" length that I prefer for heavier .284 bullets.

Did you cut and weld your metal box magazine yourself? Would you care to show pictures of your 284 build?

Thanks,

John (TH)
 
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