Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Pet Caliber? Which do You Favour? And Why?

I have more 6.5s than any other caliber, but prefer the 358s. I like cast bullets and the 358 bullets in the RCBS 200 grain FN plain base, powder coated, are good bullets to cast and make accurate loads. In a 358 Win or 35 Whelen are very effective.

.260 Rem for whitetail (and hogs) if doing the bolt gun, suppressed. Otherwise, .308 AR for hogs. Otherwise, the .300winnie for the money shot on big game paid hunts. Otherwise, the .375 H&H for the money shot on bigger game paid hunts.

I’d probably go to the .338 WM if that time ever comes…..but, I’d have to restock my wife’s rifle, as it would be too short! 😉 memtb

.308

My favourite cartridge has been steadily stepping down calibers through the years.
In the 80s it was the 8x68S. An 8mm 180gr bullet at 3,200 fps was difficult to beat.
Before-the-last one was the 6XC.
And now my heart is divided between the 5,6x50R and the 22-250, both with slow twist barrels.
The reasons?
They are a pleasure to shoot, I shoot them more accurately, I see the bullet impact through the scope, and with the right bullets, 75gr or 80gr ELDMs and 77gr TMK and 88gr ELDM respectively, carry plenty of killing power given my hunting style.

6.5mm for me. Why? Because it just works. Mid sized 6.5mm rounds seems to have the best kill to recoil ratio and the longer range capabilities of many 6.5mm bullets doesn’t hurt.

That said, I am currently procuring parts and pieces for an ultimate mountain rifle, and am planning for it to be a .280 AI, so 7mm, I guess.

I agree with T Inman about the 6.5s. I’ve killed a lot of deer with a 6.5x55 and 140s. That cartridge and loading are the epitome of efficiency. Makes it easy to get bored with it - no drama. I really screwed up when I let my Kimber Mauser 6.5 go.

If I could only have one it would be a .308, but I REALLY like the following too:

7mm08
300 HAM'R
.30-06
.358 Win (the most underrated caliber ever)

.358 = Because it's Magical

I like the 6.5 Creedmoor because its universally available and both my rifles are 1/2 to 3/4 MOA with my favorite loads (Fieldcraft and Tikka, 130 AR Hybrid Berger and 139 Lapua Scenar).

Wife loves her 6 ARC repeater (wilson combat barrel and components) as do I (Sgt of Arms build). She has a Howa mini 6 ARC that’s light and very accurate. I’ll probably get a 6ARC Howa Mini for me, as well.

My 300 HAMR is the house gun. I figure a 125 TNT at 2450 would be as decisive on people as on pigs or deer.

It is really tough to beat a solid 284 whatever. So many great bullets out there and man it really covers great ground while still keeping recoil in a friendly area.

308 is my pet cartridge. I also have a lot of 7mm bullets that I would like to shoot. I will find a 7mm08 some day and life will be bliss. lol

Before moving to AK, I hunted primarily with .284 caliber rifles. I had a .280 Rem, which I still have, as well as. 7-08 Rem, and 7mm WSM. Sold the 7-08 and 7WSM off, but have since replaced the 7-08 with another one. If I leave AK anytime soon, probably sticking with the .284 and .264 calibers and giving my son the .30-.33 calibers.

At one time it was the 7mm's, the 7x57 was my favorite. These days I'm really pro 6.5. Have a 6.5x06, 6.5x55 and a 260 Rem. Only draw back whicth doesn't bother me a lot is they are pretty shallow on bullets and sometimes hard to find. Shoot 120gr Hornadys in the 260 and in the other two 140gr Hornadys. Seldom even shoot my 25-06 any more or my 243. Getting to old to pack out an elk these days so 30-06 is collecting duse. ut as for elk, I've killed as many with my 6.5x06 as the 30-06! 6.5's do it without a bunch of recoil.

I'm primarily a .30 caliber guy.

I killed my first elk with a borrowed .30-40 Krag.

My first centerfire rifle was a .30-06 that I later had re-chambered to .30 Gibbs and I killed 30 of my elk with that rifle.

My favorite hunting rifle now is my .300 Weatherby. Most of the animals that I've shot with it were one shot kills. I've used it on elk here in Montana, Exotics in Texas, a Dagestan Tur in Azurbaijan, a hunt in New Zealand, 3 African hunts, and my latest hunt, a moose in Alberta.

I have a couple of bold action .308 Win rifles that I enjoy "ringing the steel" almost every week at our local range. I shoot both it and a .223, but there is less wind drift with the .308 bullets and hits on the 430 yard gong are much louder with the .308 bullets than hits from the .223 bullets.

Ever since I shot my first pronghorn antelope back in 1971 and had a shoulder mount of it, I've literally filled my house with more than 80 mounts. Other than pronghorn antelope, I've limited my North American mounts to 2 of the best animals of each species, and I have mounted most of the animals that I shot on international hunts.

The largest number of my mounts, 29, I shot with .30 caliber bullets, with 18 of them shot with my .300 Wby. Thats followed by 20 mounts that I shot with .284 bullets from my 7 mm Rem mag rifles, 14 mounts shot with .257 caliber bullets from my .257 Ackley, and 14 mounts shot with .375 bullets from my .375 RUM.

Overall, I think that my .257 Ackley has put more animals (not meat) in my freezers that all of the rest of my rifles combined.

I can't say I have a pet caliber.
There are many cartridges I have owned and used in my many years of shooting and hunting. Some more than others.

Even "pet" cartridges" are not something I'd think of in a way of giving one loyalty over others.

I'll admit there are some I dislike for the reason of being complicated to make (like fire-formed wildcats) But even that is not written in stone. Working with older guns that fire ammo which is now unavailable forced me to make shells at times and I didn't mind doing that, but many of the "improved' shells are not worth the effort to me.
I've made quite a few "A.I." cartridge's in my 50+ years of being a gunsmith and never once seen a real-world advantage to any of them. 1 example is a 280 AI I just helped a friend with 2 years ago. Having owned and killed several head of game with a 7MM Weatherby and a 7MM Remington Mag and not one time ever seeing any real difference between their performance and that of a 270 Winchester the very ideal; of having to fire a case to fill the chamber to increase the velocity to a point it's almost but not quite as high as a 7MM Rem Mag and then pointing out that the 7MM mag never did ANYTHING better then the 270 Winchester on many head of game (they are not bad at all, just no better) I fail to see any reason for using up the extra powder, bullets primers and time re-shaping the brass.

Another type of cartridge I don't care for are those that eat out throat's super fast. I love shooting a lot, and I dislike cartridges that require me to set back or re-barrel rifles very soon, and having use a 7MM STW and a 30-378 Weatherby, once again I can't see the results in the field being noticeably better then kills I have made with 7X57s 280s and 30-06s. In fact the faster the MV is on any given rifle the more critical bullet choice is and given some more "standard" bullets the super magnums were not AS GOOD at killing well as the standard calibers. With the correct bullet they work great, but nothing can be done to keep the throats from getting eroded quickly with these kind of magnums.

True "Calibers" being the bore and groove size:

The caliber I have more of than any others is .222. That being the 22 LR. 15 of them.

For center fire cartridges; the calibers I have more of any others are .308 and .452. In centerfire cartridges I own more with the 308 bore size and any other. As of right now that is 10 rifles from 30-30 to 300 H&H.

In handguns it's the 45. Most are the ACP and 1 revolver I use Auto-Rim shells, as well as one 454 Casull. That number is 9 handguns total.

But I can't say I see a "magic" in the 308 bore size or in the 45 caliber bore size. I just have come to like the guns that I own chambered in them and sold off the ones that were not more "dear" to me over the last 35 years or so.

30 caliber in the form of a 300 Savage using a Hornady 150gr Interlock Spitzer launched from a Remington 722...

Bad medicine for WI Whitetail deer! It works...

Dean that bullet works wherever it is used on whitetail deer and alot of other animals..mb