Giving a bit of thought to this question a few things come to mine.

Anyone that can hunt all over the world can afford a lot more then 3 rifles, so the only reason for such a limitation is compactness linked to versatility. The cost of 1 airplane ticket round trip to an area 12 time zones away + the cost of the hunt and trophy fees is far more then several other guns. But if a globe trotter wanted to keep only 3 rifles for his travel kit because of compactness such a self imposed limit might make some sense.

So if I had unlimited money and time, and wanted to travel around the big ball to hunt, but only carry one case full of guns (with 3 inside) I'd choose the 22 long rifle, the 270 Winchester and the 375H&H.

My reasoning is as follows;

The 22 LR is super useful for many types of small game and birds, and ammo is easier to find all over the world than many other cartridges. My gun of choice would be a Marlin M39 because it can be taken down easily and fit into the case with a bit more compactness. The M39 is very accurate and holds 17 rounds of Long rifle ammo, but also feeds shorts as well.

The 270 and the 375H&H would both be made on either Winchester M70 Controlled feed actions or Mauser 98 pattern actions and both would be take down rifles.

My choice for a "ONE size fits almost-all" is and has always been a 30-06, but because I can have 3 rifles in this scenario, I choose the 270. My reasoning is that I have killed many elk with 270s and about 3/4 as many with 30-06s and for elk size game, despite the numbers on paper, I have not seen any advantage of the 30-06 over the 270s given good bullets used in both. If I were to go to a larger size animal I suspect I may start to see a difference, but up to 900 pounds of so, the 270 has shown me outstanding results for over 50 years and it lends itself a bit better to pest and varmint/ pest-predators then the 30-06. Because I have a 375H&H in the set I'd use that one any game over what I felt was maxed out with the 270. So again thinking about covering the most bases with only 3 rifles I would place the 270 as my general purpose hunting rifle. For moose buffalo and pachyderms the 375H&H is all the rifle you'd need for HUNTING. For back-up (for guiding other hunters who may not make the 1st shot as perfectly as they should) I'd want a 458 or something in that range, but for my own use the 375H&H is as good a weapon as I could ever desire, again given my choice of bullets. And like the 22 and the 270, the ammo is easier to find on "other places" than many cartridges we may have available in the USA, but when a long way from the USA such a consideration might be important.

So 3 rounds in 3 specific rifles for me it would be the Marlin M39 and 2 take down bolt actions, one 270 and one 375.

Last edited by szihn; 03/05/24.