What is your favourite hunting caliber and

I have a very accurate Ruger v in 280. It’s taken moose bear and both species of deer ( in Ab). Never felt underguned and lots but not all 1 shot kills. A mule deer buck at 500 yds was a bang flop with 175 Nosler partitions. This is my very max snd he was standing in an opening. Bullet placement trumps all. Use a mid cal with enough energy for your max range and practice.
 
Because it's cheap and easy to find ammo, versatile especially when you handload, and just plain works ... on everything. I use '06 and 300wsm exclusively for big game. The '06 is an all-weather rifle so it gets used the most.
 
The 30-06 has an amazing balance of
Recoil (light enough for a light rifle)
Versatility (wide bullet choice) with 150's it mimics a small bore with 220's it acts like a medium
Trajectory
Energy and hitting power (Bison legal minimum here in the Yukon)

I also have to say that in a modern rifle with a decent barrel length and loaded to modern pressure standards it is surprisingly sprightly. You won't be as far off that 300WSM as you think if you load your 30-06 up to what it is capable of!
 
diemaco said:
Maybe it's just me, but .30-06 can get a little spicy in a truly light rifle (<7 lbs scoped)
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my upper limit is about that 7 lb mark all up with a .270 win running 140's, it's not fun beyond that, can still shoot harder kickers well...it's just not fun grinning and bearing, I like fun to shoot stuff

Spruster, I only have one big game cartridge in the safe. It can be done.

And the little b@stard only burns 30 grains of powder, if a guy can't get'r'dun with that then maybe it's time to pick up golf, pussies.

Before everyone gets their panties in a twist...does everyone know what pussies is actually slang for?

pusillanimous
[ pyoo-suh-lan-uh-muhs ]
adjective
lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid.
characterized by a lack of courage or determination

Ie; wimps...not whisker biscuits, I'm calling you wimps. ;)
 
blakeyboy said:
my upper limit is about that 7 lb mark all up with a .270 win running 140's, it's not fun beyond that, can still shoot harder kickers well...it's just not fun grinning and bearing, I like fun to shoot stuff

Spruster, I only have one big game cartridge in the safe. It can be done.

And the little b@stard only burns 30 grains of powder, if a guy can't get'r'dun with that then maybe it's time to pick up golf, pussies.

Before everyone gets their panties in a twist...does everyone know what pussies is actually slang for?

pusillanimous
[ pyoo-suh-lan-uh-muhs ]
adjective
lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid.
characterized by a lack of courage or determination

Ie; wimps...not whisker biscuits, I'm calling you wimps. ;)
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that's cool,
 
Calling people "pussies" in the same post as identifying your "upper limit" is a .270 shooting 140's out of a 7 pound rifle seems kind of ironic...
 
lol, typing that one was ear to ear grin from start to finish, glad you're having some fun with it, that was the plan ;)

I like to shoot little groups at distance and it's fun to shoot more than a few whenever one wants. All of that goes out the window after .270 at 7 lbs all up, my last one was 6.5 all up but great stock design with the blaser k95 so it handled it well. Still not a range day fun gun or lets play sniper on the gongs either, hunt focused. Now I shoot things that can go all day for play and cross over to hunting really well. So much more fun, keeps a guy sharp too. Ya wimps, did half my big game work with a bow, 30 grains of powder with a good bullet is almost like cheating haha
 
I recently bought a new .308, old school. I can find box of bullets at "any town hardware store" if needed. I also have a .270 for deer and a 7mm magnum for Elk, but I bought the .308 as a general purpose do-it-all.
 
Mr.Rigpig said:
Exactly.
I like the ones without a #####.
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Same here, but there are some that like a good sword fight

Ive got a few 30 cals, but i always seem to grab my 6.5prc. Only got it because of a smoking deal at the time.

The 140gr load i use is ballistically equivalent to a 150gr 270 with 2/3rds the recoil. So far its dropped deer, a bear, and just recently dropped a coyote two days ago.
 
Hunted a musk ox yrs ago with 338lm, it penetrated, left a small and clean exit hole.
I would not say it’s a over kill, but I prefer to minimize the damage of hide,
and if possible, also hope to retrieve the killing bullet as souvenir.

Will try smaller caliber within the trophy weight around 300kg next time.
Perhaps 300WM or 3006, or even smaller.

Anything bigger than that, I’ll go for 375hh.
Anything beyond 200M, 338lm is my only pick.
 
Well I’m pretty torn by what’s my favourite cartridge but love the 7mm/.284” caliber for everyday hunting, deer, bears and moose but Elk I’ll stick to .30 cal ie-300 PRC

As far as cartridges go 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, 280AI, 7mm PRC, 300 PRC, If I had to live with just one cal/cartridge it would probably be the 7mm PRC, as much as I love the 280AI I’m finding the 7mm PRC to be a touch more versatile.
 
gelatine said:
Hunted a musk ox yrs ago with 338lm, it penetrated, left a small and clean exit hole.
I would not say it’s a over kill, but I prefer to minimize the damage of hide,
and if possible, also hope to retrieve the killing bullet as souvenir.

Will try smaller caliber within the trophy weight around 300kg next time.
Perhaps 300WM or 3006, or even smaller.

Anything bigger than that, I’ll go for 375hh.
Anything beyond 200M, 338lm is my only pick.
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You may like this read, another poster put in another thread. May get your creative juices flowing for what formula it will take to recover bullets in certain animals and shot angles.

https://mauserfanatic.com/2023/02/06/english-85/

These guys doing same thing. Reduce the SD. I think it bears some thought to construction though since our bullets are variable SD. Are they getting their result with traditional copper/lead? or also able to achieve with Mono's? Mono's tend to stay longer for frontal area and carry all their weight so they tend to go deeper given same weights and impact velocities of copper/lead options...it's because they lose less SD as they change shape. So you need to consider bullets, and cartridges that launch them, that will get the formula you're after for game intended and also the construction you may need to steer clear of mono's.

It may be far less important which of the above cartridges you choose to do this. A squishy lower SD lighter .375 might be easier to recover than a stout 30-06 tough 200 grain load. You could even get a 300wm to penetrate shallower by running lower sd squishier bullets much faster than stout heavy tough 30-06 as the SD really falls off fast when you go too far on the spectrum...start approaching deer only penetration depths but then you're not likely to recover much bullet going into the more varmint formula.

Look back on all the bullets, cartridges that pushed them, typical impact velocity ranges...of all the nice recovered mushrooms you've seen recovered in the offside and there will be a pattern able formula there between impact velocity, starting SD, and construction type. Then just try to mimic that formula for what you're trying to do next in hopes of recovering the bullet. If you did that homework project you'd find highest chance of getting to that formula for your goal.
 
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Started out with 30-30 , then 308 browning lever for many years, then 7mm for moose and deer and coyote, for long time , now use Ruger 375 m77 250 gr sierra bullet,
I think I’m backwards to most people , the older I get the bigger gun I use , have shot wt deer, coyote, and elk with the 375 Ruger, in between I have a win 348 but only thing I shot with that is a magpie , never saw a deer or moose
 
Thanks for the info.

I'm a hunting noob and that poor muskox is the only thing I have hunted so far.
Yes, I have thought of some parameters like the shape of the calibre, bullet shape, and
weight, but I haven't have the chance to try it out yet.

I'll do more research on the topic. Thanks again. That helps a lot.
 
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