Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Are we gravitating toward smaller calibers/cartridges?

Not really, but close.......

Guess I don't get it. I've had a zillion different rifles/actions. It don't take me a few weeks of lugging one around the field to familiarize myself with a rifle.

Whatever

I think deflave nailed it!

1tn: I know they kill deer...elk too.

But IMHO there are better elk cartridges.

Personally I would start it at 6.5mm,which may be arbitrary but a guy has to start somewhere,and that would be my own line in the sand.

As to giving credit....I'm an optimistic guy, liking to believe that any hunter has practiced enough to be proficient with whatever he carries,a marksman wth his rifle.....which we know will make up for a lot of cartridge power.

That said,there are a lot of experienced 300 magnum shooters who can actually shoot well...I know a few.Some even post here

Or maybe we actually worked for a living and got worn out.

After one or two rotator cuff repairs and onset of arthritis, pussy pads are a godsend.

I killed my first mule deer with a 22-250 nearly forty years ago. I do not think internet forums had much to do with my choice.

I carried a 30-06 for many years and used it on everything from ground squirrels to elk. I don't carry an '06 any more, simply because I had loaded every bullet known to man in it and there was no more experimentation left with that round.

Today I would carry a 260 or my 264 for deer. For Elk I will not go with anything smaller than my 7mm STW, but I expect to have to shoot 400 yds with either species.

Range influences my choice as the STW generally has the more velocity at 400 yds than the 7-08 does at 100 yds.

As to the general public moving towards smaller rifles to hunt with. I do not believe that to be the case. We who populate this site or Sniper's Hide are not indicative of what the general public does. The general public still grabs the 270 or the 30-06 or the 30-30 out from the back of the closet, buys a box of whatever cartridges are on sale at the hardware store, and they go out and kill schit.

I've seen way more deer wounded by guys slingin' magnums than I have from anyone using a 243. The "more wounding with smaller chamberings" mantra gets old quick, when you actually see what happens in the field.

Consider that most men who intend to load for the 30-30 already have dies. With Marlin quality going to total crap the last year and the ridiculous price tag coupled with the scarcity of a new Model 94 Win. People are not buying many new 30-30's, even if Dad and Grandpa had one and they really had their heart set on it.

I'll be hunting with a BAR Safari II in 243 with 80 gr. TTSX ammo next deer season. This is the first 243 that I've owned and can't wait to put it into action.
I also like my 25-06 and 7mm-08 for deer here in Alabama.
I've used 300s and 7mm Rem. Mags but they stay in the safe now that I'm getting older.
I bought a 270 WSM last month and will use it in our big cutover some but the 243 is going to see the most use next season.

I hear the old crap about mag.s crippling game.. The best deer hunters I knew both shot 'em.. And they hunted by stalking, stand hunting, and making two and three man mini drives.. Both were deadly shots.. The worst crippler of game I ever knew by choice shot a .243 or 6mm.. Every year he shot off legs, hit deer in the guts, and after a couple cripples, he would finally manage to find one.. He last deal was shooting at bull elk twenty one times with his trusty 6.. It was getting away, so he used his last round to shoot at a spike, which he hit behind the ear.. The 6 pt ran over the hill out of sight, and dropped.. The spike was out of his area by just a small margin.. Fortunately the game warden saw the whole event from the rim.. And the clown was fined and lost his license for five years or so.. Shooting little calibers does not make you and excellent shot, or super hunter.. I shot game with every thing from 22 lr though the .375 H & H and .45-70. I used medium and small bores at times.. But when the chips were down and I needed and elk or deer for the freeze, I took the flattest shooting hardest hitting rifle I owned.. Many times it filled the tag, when the guy with a .30-06 stood around and said too far for me..

Well, I'm not so sure.....you guys are looking at a few NR hunters.

Back here you rarely, if ever, see a guy during deer/bear/moose season toting a 300 or 7mm magnum.If he does it's usually a novelty move to try something "different".At least that's what I see in Maine, NH, and Vermont and after 40+ years hunting here, I can't recall a single hunter carrying a 300 or 338 magnum....we're as "far east" as you can get.

Go into any big gun store back here and its obvious what everyone is shooting....the Federal and Fusion ammo stocks consist largely of 243,30-30,308,30/06,7/08,6.5x55,270,....standard case stuff is what sells. 223 ammo flies off the shelves.Big Boomer stuff moves slowly.

Up in Alberta, Sask, and Manitoba I have mostly brought a 270...the natives thought it was "little". They hold tags each year for deer,elk, moose,bear, and hunt in grizz country...the most common rifles I see are 300 magnums and 338's...."works on everything" they say.The most experienced and successful western trophy hunters I personally know shoot 7mm magnums.

Folks in ranch country, state side,I notice, use smaller rifles....they shoot a lot,carry rifles in trucks year round for vermin and plinking. When I first went to Montana, the rancher used a 22-250;another in Wyoming used mostly a 250 Savage and 257 Roberts on everything up to elk.One cowboy I know loved the 300 Weatherby...others the 338,the 264,and yet another the 7 Rem Mag.These have been Colorado, Wyoming,Montana,and New Mexico folks.

I gave my rancher friend a Rem 700 270MR; after several animals,he found it "better" on elk and the big mule deer he like to hunt. I found a good deal on a M70 300 win mag in Rawlins,bought it,left it at the ranch, and he used it on several elk,including a couple of nice 6x6's. He also has shot elk with a 7mm STW.

His impartial observation (no ballistic ax to grind on the internet)was that the 270 was a quantum step up over the little 250;and that while the 270 certainly kills elk just fine, the 300 Winchester flat hammers them.....of course, Bill can shoot,which is the real issue that escapes a lot of people.

So I find it pretty hard to generalize about people's rifle preferences based on what part of the country they come from.

And I was going to take my sako 75 in 22-250 out for a spell next weekend alongside the '06 and 7-08???
I will make sure I shoot the little deer like fallow with the 22-250 and let the big boys come out when I have the 7mm/30 cal in my hands!!!.............somehow deer don't read these forums......

I am confident I can place the shot as required with the 22 cal....so all is good!!
Gus

Nowadays, I see more 223's/243's/260's/7-08's in this part of the world than just about anything else. Magnums are certainly in the minority and always have been.

Reason being kids are taught to shoot at an early age in this part of the world, so their Dad's have selected mild cartridges.

Same goes for wives... who have started hunting in droves since the 80's.

Most gent's that shoot/hunt also own several rifles and have had small/medium calibers in their arsenals for several decades - the 25-06 being quite popular since it became a factory offering.

Of course, the Bubbas' with 4 foot lift kits on their pickups still like shooting magnums on crowded public land - and magnums do make sense when hunting bean fields or Power line right of ways.

For some reason, many people outside the South just envision tangled forests & swamps, without realizing much of it is agricultural and long shots have been a big part of hunting here for eons.

Blanket statements and guessing is nothing new here though.

Not here.

I took his statement as when eastern hunters go west to hunt they need bigger calibers than the guys that live and hunt in the west.

Yes.

And I also find that if I tell a rancher in Montana I shot a mule deer with a .223 or 22-250, they usually reply with "That'll do it" or "Nice job."

But if I say that to somebody from MN, or Georgia, their eyes go cross-eyed and they'll repeatedly ask "A .223?!??! Really?!?!!?"


Travis

And its true. I've seen guys around here argue that the .300 Win mag is not enough for western elk and recommend the .300 Weatherby.

1tn: Sure,some of that goes on.But like I said if you poll a lot of western elk hunters you will find as much divergence of opinion on what constitutes a good elk cartridge as you find on here.

Not all western elk hunters shoot little rifles...far from it.

When we were kids(25 years ago), my dad had a good ol' hired man who was really into rifles and hunting. Melvin grew up in an era of 'slim pickens' and was a meat hunter first and foremost.

He had the luxury of patience and being pretty choosy in his shots.

His choice of rifle for everything(including Breaks cow elk...)?

Why nothing less than the number one choice for eastern Montana ranch/truck guns, the mighty 22-250!


Naturally when I was 12 or 13 years old, and could legally hunt big-game, my dad bought me a M70 in 22-250.

Shot several deer and antelope with it and never had a problem(55 grain soft points). Of course a long shot back then was still way less than 300 yards.


We still have the rifle along a couple boxes of handloads that Melvin brewed up.

I've lived east, I've lived west, I've lived in the middle and I've even lived in that schitty part of Mexico that they refer to as Texas.

You'll find different preferences or opinions everywhere, but I'd be pretty hard pressed to find somebody around here that will jump up and down give a schit about a cartridge or tell you what cartridge won't work.


Travis

Melvin sounds cool.



Travis