Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Regions and Rifles...

Here in the Northern part of Western Kentucky, it’s bolt action .223, .243, and 7mm-08. Mostly for coyotes and whitetails.

Western Va and eastern Wva. Personally i use anything from a 44 pistol to a 300 RUM rifle. 90% of my hunting is either a 7600 Carbine in 06 or an early 700 mountain rifle in 06 . Shots can range from self defense type in the laurel thickets to stuff like in my avatar where you can stretch the barrel on a big magnum. See a lot of Remington pumps and semis ,few lever guns especially 30-30, 35 and 45-70. Couple of my uncles who still take several deer each year are still using a 760 and 742 both in 06.

Folks in my area are farmers. The older ones who used Remington 742s and 760s have either retired or died. Most hunters now use a bolt action 243, 270, 30-06 or 308win. A very few use 300wsm and 300 Weatherby. A few I know bought 6.5 Creedmoors having the long range stock, pistol grip, etc. but those I have spoken with recently have sold them saying they are too heavy/bulky for hunting.

These days i just use my 7x57 because it never misses.

I have used others but it has become my favorite.

IA, Nebraska, much of the West; AK. Africa. Used a lot of different stuff.

Coyotes and fox — 17 Rem, 204, 223, 22-250, 22-250 Imp, 243. Respectively, a Kimber 84, a CZ, a Stag Arms AR, left hand semi-custom Rem 700 SA, Savage 110.

Deer — 270, 7mm Rem (Rem 700 BDL), 284 Win (Rifles Inc Strata), 6.5x55 and 30/06 (Blaser R92), Rem 870 12 ga (Iowa), 308 Win Rem 788, 350 Legend; this year I carried a Savage 99 in 358 in IA., a couple of mzlr’s. 350 RM in a Rem 660 and in one other rifle.

Elk — 300 WM, 338 Win, 35 Whelen, 35 Whelen Imp, 340 Wby (Semi-cust Rem 700), 30/06 (Blaser), 300 Wby (Blaser R8), 45/70 (Marlin 95), 45 Colt (Ruger Redhawk), 284 Win.

Caribou — 340; black bear — 284 Win
Bison — 9.3x74 Chapuis double rifle
Brown bear — 340

Plains game in Africa — 375 H&H, 30/06 (Blaser R92)

Had but never hunted a 416 Rem and a 458 Lott, the first in a Rifles Inc, and the second a Montana Rifles build.

I live in Idaho. Hunt in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Yukon, and various countries in Africa. Have owned bolt rifles chambered for pretty much every big game cartridge from 25-06 through 416 Remington. My most used are 25-06, 270, and 375. The mediums 33-35 never made the cut and are gone. Of the belted cases smaller than 375 bore, I like the 300Win but don’t have one because I never could see any perceptible gain compared to a 270W with modern bullets. For a time I was enamored with the 280 but I found that cartridge to be both fussy to load for and very difficult to find ammo for.
For jack rabbits I have used a 25-06 with 100 grain Sierra’s.

Live in western WA, but hunt all over the state. I have two main rifles which are identical Remington 700s. One in 270 and one in 30-06. Both are stainless/cerakoted with fiberglass stocks.

I generally do all of my deer hunting (blacktail, whitetail, mule deer) with the 270 with handloaded 140gr Hornady Interlocks. I hunt elk (Roosevelt, Rocky Mtn.) with the 30-06 and handloaded 180gr Nosler Partitions. If something were to happen to one rifle, the other would fill right in.

My ex's uncle used a 700 occasionally. He called it his "throw away" gun. If he thought he was going to get caught poaching he'd throw it in the bushes and keep walking. I can see the validity there...

Most guys I know that hunt elk use a model 70 338wm. Oregonians huh???

Ha ha.. The poachers choice in Washington, or so I have been told by many Washingtonians..

What, No RUM'S???? Got to be fn kidding me.. For uc ks sake... This chidt is never not funny....

I hunt from Northern NY to Va out to Wyoming, Idaho, or Oregon mostly.

For deer back east, usually a lever gun, 760/7600 or my M70 270 Win.

For elk and and deer, the 7 Mashburn or 338 Win seem to get the most play.

I call them “beaters”.

I enjoy reading what others use for their different hunts. The smart a$$ comments ruin something fun for all concerned.

I mostly deer hunt in upstate NY (Western Catskills) but we also encounter an occasional bear. Our shots rarely exceed 100 yards. What I carry depends on the weather.
If it's snowing/raining I take either my stainless/synthetic 30-06 or 308 bolt action. In better weather I'll carry one of my blued/walnut 30-30's. Other days I'll take out my BLR 308 or maybe my Tikka Superlight 243 in a wood stock I bought on here.
Most of the guys in our camp carry a plain Jane 30-06, 308, 270, 280, 243, 44Mag, etc. Mostly bolt actions but a few lever guns sprinkled in. Nothing too fancy in our woods.

I hunt mostly in Oregon. For big game I hunt blacktail deer, whitetail deer, mule deer, black bear, cougar, antelope, sheep and elk.

I usually use a bolt '06 with 180 gr NPT's, TBBC or a 180 gr cup and core. For branch bulls I use my .bolt 338 Win Mag and 225 gr bullets, TBBC, NPT or Hornady I/L.

We doe hunt where cf rifles aren't allowed most years. I have been using a scoped Savage 220 with Remington 3 in Accu Tip slugs.

I bought a 6.5 Creedmoor Hunter and a Ruger GSR a few years ago but I haven't used them or any of my other larger rifles on big game lately. Tags are too hard to come by.

i'm quite certain I could hunt most ever thing with my model 70 fwt in 280 remington and 140 partitions. but I also like my 7 mag and 28 Nosler too

7-08AI with 162 A-Max's, 338 Federal with 185 TTSX's, and lately, a 450 Bushmaster with 250 Hornady FTX's. The 450 is a hammer, and the AR platform is very handy in the hardwoods.

Middle Georgia area.

Grew up in South Dakota killing deer with .308 Win, .243 Win, .30-06, and .260 Rem. My favorite of them all is the .260 Rem. Taken deer east and west river with rifle and handgun versions of the .260 Rem. I love it. Moved to Iowa in 2002, shotgun or muzzleloader or straight-walled handguns. Started with a .454 Casull barrel on my TC Encore, then went to .357 Maximum. Both are great. Killed deer out to 200 yards with both. Then moved to shotgun region of Minnesota. The year before we moved Minnesota permitted handguns as long as they are .24 caliber or larger with a barrel longer than 4" and they're centerfire. Yeah - a 5" .25 ACP was legal. Idiotic. That's when I got my 18" .260 Remington barrel for my TC from MGM. Love that barrel. It shoots better than I can. Moved back to Iowa in 2015, kept at it with the .357 Max barrel and 190 gr. Ranch Dog WFNGC bullets I make. Hammers deer. Started with 180 gr. Speer Hot Cors last year and they worked great last year on two nice does and I killed a big 4x4 with it this year. 18 year old daughter told me this year that she doesn't want to share a pistol for hunting any more (we've been sharing the TC in .357 Max for several years) and that "This one is mine. Sell my shotgun and buy another pistol." So now that Iowa has changed regs to allow bottleneck cartridges from .355"-.500" that produce 500 ft/lbs at the muzzle, I am the proud owner of a .350 Rem Mag XP100 with 16" heavy bull barrel. Haven't even fired it yet, but I'm going to slay a deer with it next year during the late muzzleloader season because that's the season I like to hunt and Iowa allows handguns to be used during that season. But I yearn to kill deer with my Ruger M77 MkII in .260 Remington again.

I've hunted a bit here and there. Nothing too exotic, but I've been around the US some. As a kid in Northern MN, I used a Browning A Bolt Medallion in 280 with a 3-9 Redfield Widefield for deer and bear. As a little older kid, starting out as a teacher in Eastern MT, I used that same rifle for years. I killed train loads of deer, a few more bears, and some antelope and elk. As time went on, I added two more A Bolt Medallions, one in 300 RUM and one in 7-08. More deer, elk, and antelope with those two. Picked up a Weatherby Sub MOA in 257 Wby that was my go to for a few years. Killed some does with my Ruger 77 tang in 22-250. Lately I've been shooting my deer and antelope with a custom 6XC on a Defiance action and my elk with a custom 338 LM on a Defiance. Even killed a bear at 325 yards with a custom AR in 6x6.8 SPC. I've shot deer in KY and MN with my TC Omega muzzleloader, more deer in ND with my Mathews bow, elk, deer, and antelope in WY with some of the above rifles. I have shot a small mountain of coyotes with ARs, and various bolt rifles. They all work great with the right bullets placed in the right spot.