Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles ONE rifle

TWO of whatever you pick (2) cause you know [bleep] Happens. You buy the 2nd one for insurance and never need it but if you don't have it, you will need it. If you can't afford more than one gun you can't afford to hunt either unless you are popping a deer out your backdoor.You asked for advice I gave it to you. Magnum Man

Big time! One main gun I get, but just one no thx. Unless I was a mid western whitey hunter exclusively I'd have no want for only one gun.

Always best to have a back up.

Dober

Only one gun? What a horrible thought. To be honest, my heart says my very nice custom Oberndorf Mauser in .35 Whelen. With my pet load using the 225 gr. Barnes TSX over a stiff load of RL-15, I figure I'd be good to go anywahere on North or South America.
On a more practical note, my J.C. Higgins M50 30-06 that sits in a Butler Creek stock is probably the more practical choice. I mean you can't find .35 Whelen ammo in your local Walmart right? Oh well, what the hell? I'll go with the Whelen anyway.
Paul B.

New here but I will put in my 2cents. I shoot pretty much everything with my abolt 338wm. Except for varmints when I am actually varmint hunting. IAlthough have been known to take down a coyote or bobcat while deer hunting. Come to think of it I have killed everything from a bobcat to a bear with it using federal 210 partitions. I recently purchased a 338 rum but haven't put optics on it yet. I doubt I will hunt with it but it will be fun at the range.

My Weatherby 30-378 AI of course.

Buy a nice used Remington 700KS in either 30-06, 300Win Mag, 7 Rem Mag, or 270 if you like lighter recoil. Any of those would get the job done real well.

This will easily handle anything in North America;



Pair it up with one of these and you have anything on the planet covered;

I love it when he does this

Sorry, you can't just have one .....

I'll take my Kimber 300 wsm with 168 TTSX's into MOA consistently.

M700 SS Milspec 5R in .300WM.

I'd look for a SS Rem 700, chambered in 300 Win Mag. Order up a McM Classic Swirly or a McM Edge, depending on what weight you want the rifle.

Get it professionally bedded, Talley Lwts, trigger job, and a Leupold VX3 scope.

Ruger M77 Stainless .30-06

30-06 with a 180 loaded 2,750 to 2,800... if that's not the everyman's, do-all rifle I don't know what is.

A Ruger in 35 Whelen!

Mark V ClassicMark in .270 Weatherby.

gg godd;
Having lived in western Canada for almost 49 years and having hunted here for about 43 or maybe 44 of them and having grown up in a hunting family, I'd opine the following.

Since I've been teaching the BC Hunter Safety course for about 22 years this subject comes up fairly regularly actually and the first question I ask is, are you a handloader?

If the answer is no, then you should go down to a few local purveyors of ammunition and see what they have in stock. Next travel 100 miles from a major city, stop at the local Canadian Tire and see what they have in stock.

Based upon what you find with that bit of knowledge, you should first pick your cartridge.

While I've only been present when whitetail deer, mule deer, black bear, moose and California sheep have died, I've examined the carcasses and talked to enough folks who've killed elk, grizzly bears, goat and caribou to make a few observations.

If you can't get the job done on all of the listed species - and I don't think I've missed any from the BC part of the world - with a .308, .30-06, .270, 7mm Rem Mag or .300Win Mag, then it's the operator.

Any of the above fit my criteria of being able to be found on the local Canadian Tire shelves, which is why they make the list.

A good case can absolutely be made for adding the .303 British to the list as well, but prices for Lee Enfield's seem to rising lately, making them less desirable for the budget minded hunter.

I've eaten enough .303 killed moose and known enough hunters who killed everything that moved up to and including grizzly with them that I'd have no issues using one.

Anyway, once you choose your cartridge, the next step is to go to as many stores and gun shows as possible and look at, pick up and handle as many different rifles as you can.

Some will no doubt "feel" better to you, which is normal because we are all built differently.

Buy the one that feels the best to you and/or represents the best compromise between feel and budgetary constraints.

If you take that rifle, put a decent optic on it, sight it in well at a range and then take it into the hills and shoot a minimum of 5 boxes (10 is better! ;)) of your Canadian Tire ammo through it, you really should be ready for anything we can chase out here in BC anyway.

Hopefully that was some use to you. Good luck whichever way you decide.

Regards,
Dwayne

PS;
I've left out bison on purpose because I've no personal experience with them other than getting a skull from a buddy who shot a local ranch bison between the eyes with a .222.

If you intend to hunt bison in BC, it is the only animal that has a minimum projectile weight regulation. You must have 175gr for them if memory serves - which always made sense to me - seeing as you can hunt a bull elk or moose with a .17 Remington in the same area....

What a dumb A$$ thought! It is NOT going to happen ever NEVER!

However, just to satisfy your post wants, I'll tell you I would take my .416-Rem mag in a model 70 Winchester and the backup would be my .338/06 in a lightweight model 70 also.

Kimber Montana in 7WSM.