Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Help me thin my rifle battery.

I agree with Drover, with one minor change. I would substitute the .243 recommendation with a 6mm Remington.

I would take the $$$ from the sales of all the extraneous stuff you were not keeping, and upgrade glass on each of the rifles kept, and pick up a new range finder.

The plastic gives me the chills. I know what you mean.

barm,

Not sure I did?? but when I was doing more hunting (with family and friends) and less worrying about if I had just the right rifles it seemed like a good start

You really can't go wrong with what people have suggested as far as the calibers - just do it, go hunting and don't look back

PennDog

I know the 243 is more practical, but the long neck of the 6mm sure looks good. My 243 is stainless and the 6mm is blued. If I regretted ridding myself of the 6mm I could rebarrel the 243 later.

I have a Leica rangefinder now. My glass on the 6mm Remington and 243 are NF 2.5-10x42's. I am very happy with them. I have Zeiss, Leupold, and a few Weavers too. I have never owned a Schmidt and Bender or Swarovski, I could try them.

If you like it, then go with it! If you reload, you can pretty much duplicate the performance of all the other calibers you have with the .223, .243, and .260.

It'd be easy for me to cut that list down. I'd start by getting rid of all the Remington junk.

Another vote for harv's combo above ^^^^ ... And another vote to buy a .270 Win with the proceeds from the "thinning". MRC X2's and MRI Mountain Eagle rifles both seem do a good job at mitigating "felt recoil", at least for me.

I didn't realize you had a medical limitation. I hope you feel better soon.

The 308 can do a lot of what the 30-06 does and ammo is almost as widely available. That doesn't matter much if you're handloading, but you can still get stuck without your ammo, and then it does matter. A Remington 700 BDL or CDL in 308 with a Leupold variable should weigh about 8.5 pounds and would give you the weight you need to eat up a lot of recoil. 150-grain (or lighter) premium or super-premium bullets and a top-flight recoil pad should make recoil pretty manageable while still giving you the punch you need for North America's larger big-game species.

Good luck, and keep us posted.


Okie John

Thank you for the kind words. I will keep in mind the 308 Winchester. I used to have two heavy barrel Savage rifles at one time and I did kill several deer with them.

It is a good one and several other members here agree too.

PennDog,

I will do as you say and go hunting and not look back.

Ok. I have made some decisions on what I am going to keep and send on its way. My core battery will consist of:

22 LR
221 Fireball
260 Remington

The 22 LR is ubiquitous and would take care all of my small game situations.

I am going to sell the 22 Magnum and 22 Hornet. My 221 Fireball can be loaded down to replicate their performance and with the Lil'Gun powder I am right on the heels of the 223 Remington with 40 grain bullets. Plus it has a 1-12" twist which is perfect for the longer polymer tipped varmint bullets I like.

The remaining rifles of:

222 Remington
223 Remington
204 Ruger
22-250 Remington
243 Winchester
6mm Remington

are going to have a competition to see who stays. The 222 Remington with its 1-14" twist 24" barrel and the 223 Remington with it's 1-9" twist 20" barrel are going to have a shoot out. My wife was kind enough to buy my a chronograph for Christmas and I am going to put both rifles through their paces and compare the accuracy and velocity of both. The one I declare the winner will stay and the other will go.

The same thing will happen for the 204 Ruger and 22-250 Remington. The winner will become my long range groundhog rifle. Since I have never used the 204 Ruger in the field I will shoot some whistle pigs with it before I decide. I have plenty of experience with the 22-250 in that regard.

The 243 Winchester with it's 24" barrel and the 6mm Remington with it's 22" barrel will also compete for a spot. I will try a mix of varmint weight bullets and big game bullets. Like drover suggested they could replicate what the 22-250 can do. After all I started my varminting passion with a Ruger 77 tang safety in 243 Winchester.

So after it's sorted out I would have:

22 LR
221 Fireball
222 Remington or 223 Remington
204 Ruger or 22-250 Remington
243 Winchester or 6mm Remington
260 Remington

This would leave me with a battery of six possibly five depending on my 243/6mm competition with varmint bullets. Even if I couldn't make a cut on some, it wouldn't be the end of the world to have a total of 9. It would still be manageable compared to the dozens which I already sold.

I would also have room, if sometime in the future I want to add one of the '06 size cartridges or a 308 Winchester.

Thank you to everyone who posted and I wish you all much luck and happiness in the new year.

Humm, shot this one at about 150 yards right behind the shoulder - his tail flipped a couple times and that was it. Similar results on about 100 others last spring. Wicked on Jack Rabbits also.

Centershot,

That is a nice sized rockchuck. Our groundhogs are bigger than rockchucks. Lots of good food, fields of alfalfa, orhcards, and the like make them super fat. Maybe one of the members from Pennsylvania will chime in, they really grow them big up there. I remember the largest groundhog I shot it was when I was in high school. This was long before cell phones with cameras and the internet. My usual course of action was to pick 'em and throw them back in their hole. This pig was huge. At the time I measured him with 4 of my hand width's across the back. That is roughly 15" across the back. If there was a 20+ lb groundhog he was it. Too bad I didn't know how special it was or that I would be talking about it to a guy in Idaho on the internet nearly 30 years later. My cousin and I used to shoot them with our deer rifles at that time too. We shot several with 7mm Remington Magnums and a 300 Weatherby Magnum where they literally had their guts hanging out dragging their body which was nearly cut in two back to their holes. Pound for pound the toughest animal I have ever seen.

Let's get back to the 17 HMR. Full disclosure, I am an unabashed hater of the 17 HMR. I bought a Marlin the first year they came out and used it for squirrels and groundhogs. It would destroy way too much meat on a squirrel and lacked the "ass" to anchor groundhogs unless you had perfect shot placement. I hate it. My cousin who I mentioned earlier feels the same way you do. He loves it. Go figure. Different strokes for different folks. He now has a 17 Hornet and it has replaced the 17 HMR.

Here is a pic of a small one I shot in the spring when I was out turkey hunting. They sure are good eating.

I see you have a 260. You need to add a 6.5 creedmoor to better cover your 6.5 needs.

Hope this helps





Trystan

If you reload, the 260 can do anything the 243 can, including lighter recoil. The 260 will be fully capable of taking an elk with no fuss.

You are not helping. I need a 12 step program I saw CZ is going to chamber their 527 in 6.5 Grendel and I feel weak.

DakotaDeer,

I do reload and plan to for the 260. I was thinking those 100 grain bullets would be great for deer and give me recoil close to my 243.

That's exactly the one that needs to go. Better send it to me immediately.