Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles if you could only have 2 calibers?

To hunt the world: my .270 Win and a .375 H&H

North America only: a .243 Win and a .338 Win Mag

250 Savage & 358 Win for the rifle department. Still need a Black Powder Gun and at least 1 shotgun.

Ken

With apologies to my 338WM those would work for me. Still planning a trip or two to Africa and at least one calls for a Cape Buff. Otherwise I could live with 30-06 and 338WM.

Hard to pick only 2 but in the rifles I currently own i guess .257 Roberts and .348 AI are my favorites. Mainly due to the rifles they're chambered in.

Steelhead's .22 and .30 would be hard to top, but I'd have a hard time living without something in .45 to scratch the cast bullet itch.

.223 and 45-70 for me.

Exactly what I was thinking ("caliber"/cartridge), except make mine the good ol 30-06 and 375 H&H...

If I had to get down to 2 cartridges (I pray that day never comes) I would go with .22LR and .30/06.

If we play this game assuming everyone is going to have a .22, I think I would go .257 Roberts and .30/06. For a long time I thought I would choose a .270 and a .300 Win Mag, but having a young son, I have really given this a great deal of consideration. I want to send him out in the world properly prepared. I bought one of the limited run Winchester model 70 featherweights in .257 Roberts and put it in the safe for when he is ready for a centerfire. He is 7 and had a ball this evening shooting a .22. I figure I'll add a .30/06 when he is a teenager and he is good to go.

Fast twist fast stepping .224, and the 06. Though I could be tempted to make the 06 a 45/70. Either way I'd be good.

Either of the following combos:

300 H&H and 400 H&H

8x68S and 404 Jeffrey

I'd lean towards the latter.

308 winchester

375 H&H

For my own enjoyment, I'd choose the .257 Bob and standard .280 Remy.



But from a strictly [pragmatic] POV, might be better to choose the .243 Win and .30/06 for their popularity and usually plentiful ammo stocks.

For hunting, only two rifle cartridge chamerings would be .22 LR and .30-06.

Obviously, there are several other choices that would be a better fit for some animals. A .375 Ruger or H&H would be better suited for large bear and moose and a .223 Rem. would be a better choice for coyote, but if only allowed two, these would be my choices.

The most versatle single hunting weapon/chambering would be a 12 ga. pump or semi-automatic shotgun with a 3 1/2 inch chamber and a smooth shotgun barrel and a rifled slug barrel. With this and the proper shells, you can hunt large game up to about 125 yards down to doves and rabbits at 35-40 yards.

Wow what a question! Mine would be my 7mm STW and my 338 Lapua both very accurate Sakos !! At some point in life every man should own a Sako rifle and a John Deere tractor !! I'm still waiting on the tractor, spending all my money buying Sakos !!

My 300 savage for small stuff and my 30-06 when I need the big gun

Now to answer the caliber question, 22 and 308 would do fine by me.

1.a- .22 Rimfire
...b- .22 Centerfire
...c- .25 Centerfire
2.a- .30-06
...b- 35 Whelen
...c- .375 H&H

I have my own way of counting.

+1

Lots of good cartridges to choose from with those two calibers.

For what I hunt now, 1. 22lr and 2. .270WCF. For what I'd like to hunt .22lr and .300WM. To do it all and be extra cool about it .22WRF and 8x57.

Hard to argue with that. I suppose the '06 would fit in there just as well but really the .277 and .375 would be a hard combo to beat. Make the .277 a WSM and it is an even tougher argument against.

.22 and a .45-70 or .45-100.

I would want one for general purpose deer, that is mild to shoot and one that has ample power for elk,moose and larger bear. I would want them to be close enough I could take the small one as back-up for elk moose and the larger one not to extreme that it wouldn't work well for deer.


I think I would do a 300 mag of some kind, probably a WSM and then maybe a 7mm-08 or one of the 6.5's for the lighter one.

If I added a third, say a 375 I would be pretty set world wide.