Remington 700 - Which caliber?

[WhiteKnight]

I am going to buy a Remington 700 in the very near future, and I am undecided on the caliber that I will choose. I am buying this gun primarily for hunting whitetail deer, and will do that for the next couple of years. I am simply going to mount a Leupold riflescope and a sling, and then go off to the woods.

However, I would possibly like to use the gun for long-range competition in the future, and don't want to be held back by a caliber not suited for the job - such as a .270. I believe the .308 caliber would be a good choice for this type of competing, but I am unsure as how it would perform in comparison to a .270 or 30/06 on American whitetails. I plan to perhaps send the gun off to a custom shop, and get it rebarreled, bedded, restocked, the trigger tuned or exchanged for a Jewell, and new rings added.

Would a .308 be suitable for most American game? Which caliber should I chose for hunting now, but suitable for long-range shooting later?

Thanks.

 

[Jim Watson]

.308 is a fine deer caliber, and most other game except maybe elk and big bear.

.308 is a fine target caliber, even if the real hotshots are shooting smaller calibers and even wildcats. These are more demanding to load and have shorter barrel life.

But why confuse your hunting rifle with your (future) target rifle? If you cut up your hunting rifle to build a target rifle, you will just have to replace it if you plan to keep hunting. (Of course, some people would call that an advantage, an excuse for two new guns instead of one.) The nominal caliber might be the same, but the ammo would not.

I would buy a good hunting rifle now and a good target rifle when I wanted to go target shooting.

 

[kudu]

The .270 in a good barrel will probably out perform the.308 with flatter shooting. Better ballistic coefficients with the .270 bullets.
Any of your calibers you choose would be suitable for whitetails, more than enough actually. Iv'e seen some 06s that have been rebarreled with heavy contour barrels that a .308 couldnt' touch for accuracy, its' to bad no company offers a heavy barrel in .30-06 off the shelf. But like Jim Watson says, buy a good hunting rifle now and a target rifle later. I wouldn' want to carry a good target rifle out hunting, too much weight.

 

[Art Eatman]

Well, long as I'm spending your money on this deal, lemme offer this notion: Buy it in .308, since that will take care of most anything in the lower 48. Since the odds are you're not going to be doing a bunch of deer-killing beyond a couple of hundred yards, put a Leupold 2x7 on top.

Play with the forearm bedding, per a gazillion posts here. Adjust the trigger yourownself; it's a piece of cake.

Start browsing around the gunshows, setting yourself up for reloading. Good used stuff (press, scales, "useful thingummies" and suchlike) but buy new resizing dies. Don't be in a hurry, but do it...

When your rig is all set up, all sighted in and ready to go hunt, buy some GI-type ammo and practice hasty-rest positions and offhand shooting at informal targets--tin cans, etc.

Start saving up for that dedicated target rifle. You'll then be ready to custom tailor your ammo for max accuracy.

Sounds easy, huh?

But you'll still have your venison collector.

, Art

 

[Jmurman]

I bought my 700bdl in 30-06 a few years ago. At the time I was living in Oregon and wanted a rifle that would do Mule deer, blacktail, antelope and Elk.

The last time I went to an extended range I had a 5 shot 4" pattern at 450 yds, using Federal Premium 165 gr spbt. I haven't done anything else to this rifle, with the exception of a Nikon scope and low mount Leupold rings.

I would like to pillar bed the rifle, but here in MD I dont need anything anymore accurate that what I already have.

 

[Rob62]

Hi WhiteKnight,

As has been said before, get the .308. Its more than adequate for deer hunting. I'd recomend getting the 150 grain loads for it. They should work very well on those NC deer.

Look hard at the Leupold VX-1 series of rifle scopes. They are a lot of scope for around $199 at places like Bass Pro Shops. While Art recomended a 2-7X power scope, nothing wrong with that, I'd go with the 3-9X. Leupold seems to be having some very good deals right now on their scope mounts and rings too (Wal-Marts). But that's probably due to the upcomming hunting seasons.

Good Hunting,

Rob

 

[BusMaster007]

You could buy a Remington 700 LTR in .308 and have a 7 1/2 lb. rifle that is pre-set for long range shooting.
If you put something like a Leupold M8 6x42 A/O Target scope on it, you'd have a dual-purpose rifle ready to go!

http://www.remingtonle.com/rifle/700p.htm

http://www.leupold.com/products/products_highlights.asp

 

[Stinger]

Can you truly be an American without an '06?

If you choose .308, you must immediatly supplement your arsenal with a Garand. And that's an order

Stinger

 

[Remington 700]

Yea, go with the .308, but look into the Remington 700 tactical model it's only 7.5 pounds and from what I can tell it shoots great (.5 moa) with the federal stuff, I have a 700 varmit (8.5 pounds) model and it can shoot sub .75 moa although putting a Mcmillian stock on my varmit model. Both of these rifle come with the x-mark pro trigger to wich i like and their cheaper than their police models these are under 700.00 if that

 

[zammyman]

308 is a very good caliber for North American game-

 

[Antihero47]

Guys, seriously... Oct 2003?

 

[Horsemany]

DOHH!:banghead: