Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles need reccomendations...TWO Rifles ONLY........best calibers?

223 and either a 270/308/7mm Rem Mag. I'd buy a medium weight rifle in ....

Since big bears are out of the picture...

I'd go with a 243 and a 7mm-08/308/270. Easy recoil, easy to find ammo and will work up to moose with the right bullets.

RH

I am going to go a little off the usual philosophy here and say:

1894 Marlin in 44 Mag/44 Spcl.
Great woods gun, great short range woods rifle. Will kill game efficiently from bunnies to big bucks with the right bullet.

Quick shots, great with a peep, two different cartridges in one gun, you can get a wide variety of bullets, and hella fun to shoot at the range.

7mm Remington Magnum in a Remington 700 XCR
Bolt action, stainless steel, full bed synthetic stock.

80 bullets to chose from for reloading from 100 gr to 180 gr flying really fast without punishing recoil. Great ballistic coefficients and sectional densities. Wide variety of factory loadings (over 60 different loads available through one online retailer).

Effective for anything from Coyotes to Moose with 300+ yard effective range and retained energies that make a 30-06 look pretty tired.

338 Winchester Magnum in a Bolliger Signature Rifle
500 NE in a William Evans Double Rifle with an extra set of shotgun barrels.

That is all you would ever need for your whole life and you could shoot everything from a rabbit to an elephant and be completely happy.

Sincerely,
Thomas

30-06 and a 220 Swift..

2 - 308's or maybe a 223 and 30-06?

anyone disagree?

223 rem and


3006 or
7mm Rem Mag of some sort or
300 Mag of some sort or
338 mag etc

World wide
+1
dave

I'll say a 7mm-08 and a 300 WSM since varmints don't matter much to the OP (and .22 RF's are cheap anyway).... That's a nice big-game pairing for a non-reloader...

Substitute a 30-06 for the WSM and ammo is even easier, and recoil is a bit less. It's really hard to argue against a bolt 30-06 as an all-arounder up to elk. Great, great cartridge. It's what I bought my brother for his "one rifle"... It's what I bought first for myself...

Whether to aim for making your rifle pair similar, or different, is an interesting question. A case could be made for either. Similar would nice in terms of as a backup or loaner or commonality of training between them. Different would be nice because you could specialize a bit, or have one gun be more "fun", like a lever or semi-auto or featherweight or whatever...

My first two big game rifles were a 30-06 and a 7mm-08, but more to the point the 7-08 is a Model 7- a short barreled, compact bolt gun. I use the M7 in thicker timber and such; it's wonderful for that. A 44 mag or 30-30 lever gun might really turn your crank. Or an AR. Depends on lots of things I suppose.

But the one, single Thing That Is True is that ONE of the pair should be a good solid bolt gun in a major, common caliber.

I've mostly hunted a .358 model 7 and a .325 WSM Kimber the last two seasons. One is optimized for great handling in tight quarters, and short to medium range; the other has some "reach". The calibers are oddballs, don't go there; I'm just saying a compact bolt rifle and a more "normal" one is a good pairing, almost regardless of caliber.

(Short answer: buy a 30-06. No-brainer. Shoot it a bunch, use what you learn to decide what gun #2 should be)

I just got on thread so I really am not going to read 5 pages.
IMHO. I would go with a 6.5 caliber for varmits up to deer at 500 yards.
Then I would go 300wsm for deer 350 to 800 and elk size up to 600
I have hunted all over world and the 300wsm is what I use 95% of time.
There is no such thing as to dead.

I'd be solidly in the camp of those recommending .223 and .30-'06 (or .308).

But...

If bears are off the menu for now, you could well step down from the .30 cals to the light 7's (7x57, 7mm-08), the .270, or the .260. Any of those are still elk-capable cartridges, and would have a tad more versatility toward the varmint end of things. From an ammo supply/cost standpoint, you're probably better off with the .270. My reasoning is that they would be a bit lighter on the shoulder. Then again, your particular shoulder may not feel any difference whatsoever between shooting a .270 and a .30-'06, so it would all be academic.

I'd still stick with the .223 on the lower end. You get low ammo cost, excellent shootability, and it's still deer-capable with non-varmint bullets and a practiced and confident shooter pressing the trigger.

FC

I think I am going to agree with Sambo on this one. I have spent most of my adult years shooting cartridges just a tick off the beaten path, but in the last few months, I have been thinking quite a bit about owning rifles chambered for readily available cartridges. ANY two bit sporting goods store, and half the mom and pop gas stations between here and Tyler, Texas, will have .243 and 7mm Rem Mag behind the counter. You can afford to buy a box of Remington Corelokts for either cartridge, and not have to sell a kidney, and neither round will kick the fillings out of your teeth.

.223 and either a .308 or .30-06 would be my choice.

.243 and .308 in the same model rifle makes sense to me. I shoot a pair of Sako L579 Foresters.

With this clarified criteria it's got .243 and .308/30-06 written all over it. For what you describe I don't know what would be more available and cost effective and cover your needs better.

For many years I owned just two rifles. (Both were tang safety Rugers.)

The 220 Swift took care of all the varmints and the 270 took care of every thing larger than coyotes.

I figured that if I ever could afford to hunt something which required more killing than the 270 could do, I'd also be able to afford to buy another rifle in 338 Win Mag.

That was a long time ago. Now I have five prairie dog / varmint rifles and six deer rifles. As of yet, I've had no need for that 338 Win Mag. Maybe some day...

358win 30-06

You nailed it.The 25-06 and 7 maggie are both very sensible choices for what you plan to do.

22-250AI and 300 Jarrett

223 and 35 Whelen.