Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Caliber for walk around field rifle/ truck gun

My truck (1971 F150) guns growing up were always an older beater of some sort. They were mostly used for running trap lines in South East Wyoming, and Northern UT.

A buffalo scout .22 revolver and some old beat up rifle. Once it was a borrowed Winchester 1892 in 25-20. Sure wish I had that thing today.

You're now posing a question for something new. But do not state if you want high end quality, or entry level shooter.

For me, something south of $500.00. Ruger American, Savage Axis, Marlin X7 would be a truck gun. I'd probably scour the BackPage ads for something used.

Caliber ? What are you going to use it for ? Rodents, varmints? predation on live stock ?Jack Rabbits? Coyote? Bear?

For me, I'm using a Ruger American .223 compact with a vortex 4-16x50. As the previous poster said, a self loader might be nice too.

Have fun in you're quest for a new right seat companion.

If you're going Kimber, I'd go 223 Montana.

It's my favorite combo ever...

They said no on the 1 in 8" 22-250.
They didn't say no on the 1 in 8" 243. They didn't say yes either, but I think it may happen. I'll know soon. It would be in the Montana, not the Hunter.

All I'm gonna say for now!

I use y dad's 1927 manufactured '94 in .30-30 for walkabout, for the most part, here in Alaska.

Haven't killed a thing with it since '66.... That was a whitetail doe in North Dakota, as a senior in High School.

I came north in '68.

I probably should blood the thing again...

25-20 if only edible small game is legal. Deer and up: 223 and up. possibly with a very accurate handgun for small game.

I bought that usd one off your site a few weeks back. Thank you for the great deal! Got is scoped up and plan to sight it in this weekend!

Mjduct - looked thru this post several times to ensure I didn't miss something...saw all the suggestions i.e. .223 /.243 and others. What I didn't see mentioned was the geographical area
your "walk" takes place in. IMHO - what works on So.Florida
deer would probably "insult" an Alaskan moose. Just my $.02 worth. Homesteader

I'm not a .243 fan, but your scenario might just be the place for one. I'd look at something in the .243, 6mm, .250, .257 area in the bolt gun of your choice. Or a .250 or .243 savage 99. Some of the traditional dual purpose varmit/medium game cartridges.

I like my 223 Montana, light, low muzzle blast, accurate and a sensible cartridge for this application. A dead Coyote at 550 yards solidified my choice.

Texas Hill Country, low fence place about 2500 acres. deer get up to about 150 if your lucky, hogs 250ish at their fattest, this gun would be for mostly coyotes, turkeys, foxes, raccoons, other varmint type things. With hogs and exotics like axis and fallow deer being possible and one giant trophy red stag at 450ish seen on the place in the past decade. But I'm not betting on that ever happening again. The exotis are opportunist at best. I'd hate to see one in July. When I'm in snake boots and shorts and know I didn't have a chance at them. (I'm shooting at hogs when i see em, reguardless of what I have on me too damn many on the planet) I wanna be able to kill the little stuff with ease and no recoil, while being able to make an ethical kill on the exotics,

I'm happy with being able to terminally would the hogs, if they run off for a few hundred yards first thats fine with me... let em run I just miss out on the $25/tail bounty. If I need to start practicing head/neck shots I guess I can start going that route.

This would be a nice pack around rifle.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11893057/all/***RUGER_77_HAWKEYE_COMPACT_SS

If you get it in the Kimber, we can hear about how good of a score it was for you. 5 1/2 pound 18" barrel varmint/hog rifle.
Enjoy

A purpose built lightweight hunting AR would work pretty well for everything up to and including deer.

Howa Alpine rifle with detachable mags in 6.5 Creedmoor or 308.

Why is the difference in weight between a 308 and a 243 barrel an issue in a truck gun?

Mjduct - "deer get up to about 150 if your lucky, hogs 250ish at their fattest". IMO - the .223 is just tickling 'im while the .243 makes your hog go "huh"! Up caliber from there and you're
golden. But bounty/control shooting is a whole different situation. Tuff call...hogs up the wazzzou, exotics in between and you're in shorts and snake boots. Choices, choices - LOL
Homesteader