Only 1 Hunting Rifle

Picher said:
My first deer rifle was a Savage 30-06 and it killed at both ends, but I used it to shoot several woodchucks and I put a Bishop stock on it. It was a good rifle, but I preferred a Model 700 Remington and have several, two in .270 Win,
which have killed several deer. One also shot a nice bull moose in the "North Maine Woods" at about 200 yards.

Photo: Rem 700 Stainless .270 Win. moose and deer killer at my deer stand in Vassalboro, where we've killed several nice deer.
View attachment 1115259
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The triggers on several of my Remingtons make me drool!!! NO CREEP, Light weight, NO perceptible BACKLASH! JUST PERFECT!

I loaned two of my Rems to In-laws this fall and they couldn't believe how well they shot. One shot a doe offhand at about 85 yards and he said, "The bullet went in EXACTLY where the reticle center was." I told him, of course it was... why would you expect otherwise? I wouldn't expect that someone would be able to really see where the bullet hit, due to recoil on a .270 shot offhand, so didn't give a lot of credence to the statement.
 
only read first page... so maybe you already made a pick. In the scenario you described, Id go 6.5 Creedmor. Ammo is easy to come by and from my understanding softer shooting than a .308
 
When considering a new rifle, in my mind the first item for consideration is purpose. Some of the main considerations are hunting, sport shooting, and self defense. What may be good for one, is not necessarily good for the other. Over the last decade plus, sport shooting has grown considerably while hunting is on the decline. This has resulted in ammunition manufactures shifting towards a sport shooting consumer base creating cartridges like Creedmoore, Grendel, Hornady's Advanced Rifle Cartridge (ARC) and Precision Rifle Cartridge (PRC). Not saying that these are bad hunting cartridges, rather their primary purpose was fast, flat shooters to put holes in paper. Therefore, hunting bullet design in these calibers needs closer scrutiny.

My next consideration is terminal ballistics and velocity is big component to ethical and fast kills. Nathan Foster talks a lot about ethical kills using hydrostatic shock. This is where velocity is high enough on impact that your permanent and temporary wound cavities transmit energy into the ribs, up to the spine, into the spinal cord and onward to the brain. At high enough levels, that energy registered into the brain causes the brain to shut down (coma) and reboot. During the coma period, blood loss happens and the game expires. The range is somewhere around 2,600fps and 3,200fps. Velocities exceeding the upper end dampen the effects due to the water resistance of muscle. Velocities on the lower end results in not enough transmitted energy and now we are reliant on blood loss from the permanent and temporary wound cavities requiring expanding bullets. If we are using a sport shooting round, one needs to look closely at bullet construction and how it creates wound cavities or they may find themselves learning why 6.5CRD hunters always seem to have to track and/or lose their game.

Next, is the intended target. This really comes down to size. Are we staying with medium game under 300lbs or is there potential to move up to larger game? If this is a medium game only rifle, in my book .243 Winchester is a solid caliber. If one wants the potential for large game, we need to increase sectional density and jump up calibers to something like .270 Winchester or 7mm-08 Remington.

Using these three calibers and Hornady's SST Superformance ammunition to keep everything equal, muzzle velocities out of the 24" test barrel is 3,185fps (.243), 3,200fps (.270) and 2,950fps (7mm-08). A 20" barrel, the .243 has a muzzle velocity of around 3,085fps and drops below 2,600fps at right round 175 yds. 270 is 3,100fps or so at muzzle and drops off at around 230yds. With 2,850fps at the muzzle, the 7mm-08 will achieve the same effects out to about 130yds. 308 is half of this. Of these choices, I would go with 270.

Next up is the rifle. There is good reason why Remington M700's account for roughly 40% of the market. Winchester M70's are solid rifles as well. My other strong considerations for below $1k rifles are Howa M1500 and Tikka's. Howa/Legacy Sports International make very accurate rifles with MOA accuracy guarantees, note that has an asterisk to it (match ammo, break-in period, etc.). I have a Howa 1500 6.5CRD on a GRS Bifrost stock for sport and is indeed sub-MOA. Climb a little in price and go to Bergara or Christensen. One can order Howa 1500 and Bergara Premier Series barreled actions from Brownells...when in stock.

The stock can be deeply personal. I am not a fan of thin, lightweight wood factory stocks, but that is just me. I like some girth to the foregrip. GRS makes some awesome feeling stocks which are fully adjustable, but the offset grip makes one reevaluate. Past life experiences, I am also a huge fan of H-S Precision stocks. Kevlar, carbon fiber body fill and colored the way you want it with an aluminum bedding block that wont break the bank. I just did one for a 300 PRC with an 8oz mercury recoil reducer and deacceleration pad and they had the stock to me in under 4 weeks.
 
Sorry, I don't have a specific reference citation for that anymore. It was a statistic I recall from gunsmith school several years ago.
 
I have a Remington 700 VTR in .308 that I like real well but I can't recommend
Remington anymore as a company since the 700 trigger debacle. I put a Timney
510 trigger in mine instead of sending it back and waiting months for it to be fixed.
Zeroed at 33 yards, it's 1.75 high at 120 yds and then dead on at 200
with Winchester 150 gr Power Max Bonded. The gun and cartridge is great
for deer, bear and hogs we have here in East TN.
Dano
 
If I were to buy a new or different gun today, it would be a Tikka T-3. Guaranteed 1 inch MOA out of the box and ultra soft recoil pad to boot. Ask Hornady which ammo was the most requested during the pandemic and that was 30.06. 30.06 can handle any animal in the northern hemisphere because it has ammo from 130 grain thru 220 grain. And what the competition doesn't want you to know is the commercial ammo available for youth shooters. That youth ammo is good for us older gents too. Look at all the new ammo that came out 10 years ago with the short magnums and how many are left. Ever wonder how many of today's new calibers will be gone in 10 years from now, especially since the trend is for long distance shooting?
 
Varminterror said:
Any reference for this? It seems incredibly unlikely that .30-06 would be most requested over all of the higher selling cartridges on the market which flew off of shelves before it.
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Empty shelves guarantee whatever is put out will sell.

I was at Academy, shelves empty. A guy walks by and sets a box of .38 S&W L down.
Another customer grabs it, walks to counter and asked what gun shoots this ammo?
Was told, nothing in stock. He bought the ammo, anyway.

Crazy times, crazy people.

With deer season approaching, many customers were requesting. 30-06 and
.30-30.
 
Seedy Character said:
Empty shelves guarantee whatever is put out will sell.
Click to expand...

That’s a very, very different claim than the VERY specific statement that specifically Hornady issued a statement somewhere to someone that specifically the .30-06 has been the most requested (through what specific forms of contact??) cartridge during the pandemic.

Odd, the relatively small number of 15 million total (including firearm and archery) licensed hunters in the US would have called Hornady more than over 100 million firearm owners, specifically asking for .30-06. That, over 223/5.56, x39, 9mm, 308win, and 6.5 creed, all of which have greater market sales than .30-06.

Mostly sounds like gun counter gossip.
 
Deer season

Granted .30-06 isn't the perennial #1 it once was. It is still a top 10.

I would be surprised at Hornady getting 15M calls, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Getting caught short is a hard lesson many learned.
 
I don't know about you guys, but I like options. So here's a list of options that I would pick from in the OP's case:

1. Weatherby Vanguard, 243 Win (I have the Deluxe, shoots great and is easy on the eyes)
2. Winchester 70, 243 Win or 257 Bob (Take your pick, either will get the job done, and you've got the option for longer shots
3. Winchester 1894, 30-30 (Killed a LOT of deer with mine, it never disappoints)
4. Remington 700, 7mm-08 or 308 (Again, take your pick. Recoil would be a bit sharper but when there's meat in the scope you don't notice it as much)

Mac
 
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