Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles If you can only have one bolt action rifle...

...............................Good question and you get many answers. May I suggest a different approach. Since you only seek one rifle, then get that one rifle that is the most perfect for you, which will best fill YOUR needs and a rifle that best fills the priorities that you are looking for in a rifle.

First. Pick a cartridge or make a short list of cartridges that will best suit your needs.....Second. What preferences are you looking for in a rifle? CRF action or push fed? 3 position safety or 2 position push type? Degree of bolt lift? Detachable box magazine or spring type? Straight stock or Monte Carlo style? Traditional wood or other stock material? Stainless or blued barrel? Barrel length? Low price point? High price point? What priorities are most important?............Opinions from others is all well and good. Which rifle you get should depend on what rifle is the most perfect for you.....................PRIORITIZ'N

If that was the limit for me, and I could only buy 1, I'd buy a Winchester M70 in 30-06.

If I can make my own rifle it would be the same action or a 98 Mauser, also in 30-06.

The 30-06 is now 112 years old, but I do not believe there has been another cartridge invented yet that covers as many applications as well as the grand old 30-06.

Others are a bit better in certain specialties but if you want "one gun" you should avoid a specialty caliber and get a general purpose caliber. That mission statement my friend, is best covered with a 30-06.

It will do everything a rifle needs to do, with about 75% of the field covered with excellence and 25% covered antiquity.

Only one bolt gun would make me go with my Sako Forester in 243 Win. I can load up and down for pdog, Coyotes, deer, elk, and bear. Good, solid, cartridge that wouldn’t make me feel under gunned...😎

FWIW IMO the OP's parameters really lend themselves to a 7-08 or 6.5 Creedmore ( my 6.5's are in a Swede though ) for a do all go anywhere rifle the deeper into geezerhood I get. The Bolt Action Rifle otoh is a tossup more dependent on his budget, with the obvious 1st set of choices in budget guns dominated by the Ruger American (uggh), and Howa 1500's & several others at the under $4/$500 price points. I started out in the late 1960's with a quality 243 as a wedding gift and learned to shoot with it, but soon moved to a 270 and never regretted it hunting mostly in Texas, and have had at least one ever since. Better bullets today have solved most of my issues with the 243's on game performance, but in a short case caliber there are now better cartridges like the ones posted above, and the OP can't go wrong with the parent case caliber, as the 308 is solid choice too.. In the mid price point range of $500 to $800 I favor Tikka's, Winchester M70's or Ruger 77's, but have little love from personal history for the Big Green or Savage guns. Of the dozens of hunting rifles I have owned, only the Tikka 695's & T3's have been dependably simple Plug and Play rifles.

Mo Money gets more choices and opens the door to lots more jillyfrasse but not much more quality unitil you break a $K for the rifle alone, then the Quality stairstep is in about +/- $500 increments.
JMHO & YMMV
Ron

Verhoositz: I would say you nailed it for the OP. 6.5 Creed cartridge in a Tikka would be a great start. From what dang near everybody says who owns a Tikka, they shoot great out of the box...Always nice when your first rifle purchased exceeds expectations and doesn’t leave a guy with a bruised wallet...For the OP. My vote is a Tikka in 6.5 Creedmore...😎

It’s a secret!

OP says he's only gonna buy one rifle...

Any takers???

i do know guys who only buy one rifle...



















Per month....

Slacker

Yes guys, only one bolt action rifle I am planning to get. I pretty much have one firearm in each category except the full auto stuff. To be honest, for coyotes hunting, I probably will just use my ar15. Deer hunt is different though, you can’t disrespect a deer with “assault rifle”...

Btw, couple weeks ago, someone was selling a kimber mountain ascent 2017, green stock, silver color leupold scope I think. Where did his post go?
I found his gun on gun broker only “watched” it online. Then my days got busy and didn’t even check in and the auction was gone too. How does it compare to kimber classic select?

If it’s primarily deer, look at the Tikka T3 Lite Stainless in 7mm-08. All the punch you need, very little recoil. I kill deer and elk with mine.




P

I'm not aware of any such things as AR15 assault rifles or leopard scopes...

leupold.

Howa 1500 Long Range or Remington 700 Long Range in 6.5 Creedmoor, 308 Winchester or 30-06 Springfield.

700 BDL 30-06. Early model. With 6x FX3 Leupold. Second choice 280 Remington otherwise the same.

All he’s hunting is deer. Why the elk cartridge recommendations?





P

Not even hunting deer with a rifle. No reason to go any bigger than .223, and the fun factor and round count will be much higher with a .223 than a bigger rifle...

A New Haven Winchester Model 70, Stainless Steel, Classic Action!

mod 70