Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles If you could have only ONE rifle, what would it be?

Have I got a deal for you. My .2 cents on sale for the low, low price, ahh hell it's free. <BR>I'm with Tex 338 seems to be the way to go. Big enough for just about anything, accurate and hard hitting with ammo so plentiful you can by it in downtown Nashville. A Model 70, with a Leupold 4x12 would do just fine.<P>jim

One rifle?By decree of government?<BR>Make mine Black,in .223 with at least 7 30 round magazines,cuz I will be too busy to chase critters.<BR>Now if for some reason I was too broke,well,Make that one a .22lr.<BR>Now if it was a spousal decree,<BR>That would cause me to choose the .338win,so I could force her into divorcing me over the multiple trips every year,and all the dead critter mounts in the house,and...wait I'm doing that now! Hey! honeeeey..........<BR>E4E<P>------------------<BR>

E4E:<P>LOL!<P>Rick

I kind of like my Rem 700 SS in 7MM STW with its 3x9 Zeiss (German). This one shoots a 160 gr partition Gold at about 3400 fps into really tight little 1/2" groups and likes the miserably weather as well as the sun <P>Beak

.338 Tex!!! That's fine, but just don't go deer hunting unless you like ground venison. I understand the need to compensate for bigger game, but at the expense of damaging smaller game which is generally taken more frequently. No thanks. I'll drop my ego and stick with my .270.

I'd have to pick one of the various 416's. I cant think of a better all around big game gun for the world. There are pro's and cons with all guns. I think I could live with the cons of a 416.

Just left that answer in another thread!<P>My pre-war Win. M70 in 30-06. All original except for the Leupold 3x9 Vari-XII.

I did live with "one rifle" for a few years as a starving college student.<P>Model 700 in 30-06 with a Leupold 4x scope. Loaded 125 Sierras for jack rabbits and 165 grainers for deer.<P>Now that I are a highly trained teknicul profeshunal and are making more money:<P>D'Arcy Echols Legend, left hand, 30-06, Leupold 2.5X8 scope.<P>Woops, I ain't making that much money yet. So I guess I'll stick with what I got last summer - a left hand stainless Model 70 custom shop model in 30-06 with a Leupold 2.5X8 scope in Leupold dual dovetails. Don't care for the feel of the McMillan copy of the older squared off stock, so will be replacing that with a Rimrock when Mr. Borden get's his LH mold fixed. Or, maybe just replace it with a factory LT stock whenever they get around to making a few of those.<P>Anyway, it would be a 30-06 bolt action with a Leupold scope, of that there can be no doubt.<p>[This message has been edited by Jim in Idaho (edited January 30, 2001).]

The rifle that I use the most is a 35 Whelen. A one and three quarter to six leopold sits on top. 225 Sierra handles the light stuff, 225 Barnes X's handle the rest.<P>------------------<BR>Hunt smart, be safe

As of about a week ago all of my rifles are 375s.<P>I use them for everything including tin cans and birds<P>Mike

O.K. I'll play too. Since I only have one hunting rig I'll stick with it. Its a Weatherby Accumark 338-378 with a Swarovski 3-12x50 on top. No reason its better then anything else except its mine. I wanted a 338 diameter bullet and I wanted a powerful one. That was my criteria for the start of my arsenal. I don't get out for ground squirls much anymore, but it would still work albeit expensive and I took it Moose, Caribou and Black Bear hunting in Alaska. For me it fits. -t.h.

Rem 700 action (goes without saying), schneider 26" S/S barrel, McMillan Graphite GP Stock, trigger set to 2 1/2lbs, Badger rings and bases, Swarovski 2.5 to 10 X 42 Scope (why settle for a leupold?). More bullet selection for 30 caliber then any other caliber and with the proper bullet and shot placement the 300 win mag will kill anything in the lower 48 states. Yeah, thats the ticket,,,, well, at least for me.<P>Don

Mine would have to be a Match model AR-10 in ,.308. with a 4.5 -14 x 50 LR Leupold mil dot by Premier on Talbot QD mounts and a set of open sights in a pouch, Plenty of Mags (5 & 20). They are extremely accurate for an autoloader, ammo is easy to find almost anywhere and the .308 has well enough power to hunt anything I do (no bigger than a White tail) and if ever needed plenty of fire power.<BR>.......Celt<BR>

I own many different caliber guns,but if i was to choose just one for all around use i would choose my 375H&H mag.It's got good long range capability and can be loaded light for deer or loaded up hot for griz or cape buffalo if i was to go to africa.Ammo is available most anywhere in the world.Can even use it on ground hogs.(they don't care what clobbered them)~~~~tom

Springfield M1AA1 .308. If you could have only one rifle, there are major problems in your country and you will need something with carstopping firepower.

Truth is, for the first ten years of my hunting career the only rifle I owned was a 270 Ruger M77 with a Leupold 3X9. I shot everything from Mule deer to varmints with it. I still love 270's but I have more experience and money now and I gave up the idea of the mythical one rifle for all game years ago. I also gave up the idea of having several different hand loads to try to make one rifle into a "do everything" rig. Those are attractive ideas, but in the practical world of hunting they make as much sense as trying to play 18 holes of golf with just one club. You can do it, but it is not the best way to go. I used up a lot of bullets, powder, etc... and shot the barrels out of a few rifles trying to find different loads for different game and applications. I also wasted a lot of time and components re-sighting-in every time I wanted to use the rifle with one of those different loads. Not to mention the fact that each different load has it's own trajectory to try to remember. How much more does the 130 gr. spire point drop than the 90 gr. hollow point at 500 yards? Now, I work up the most accurate, flattest shooting load I can for each rifle using a bullet that gives good performance on the game I intend to hunt. That is the only load I will shoot in that gun. Then I spend my time with that rifle learning where it places those bullets at different ranges. One rifle for all game just won't work if you hunt for fox furs and big deer. You are going to blow some big holes in the furs or limit your effective range on the deer. It's too much compromise. Until I started shooting prairie dogs I got along very well with just two rifles, a 220 Swift for varmints and a 270 for everything else. Prairie dog shooting is a different story altogether.

Since I only hunt in Alaska a .338 Magnum is all I have now. But if I could afford another rifle, it would be another .338 Magnum. It would have a mouser-type bolt with a 3-position safety, a Leupold 1.5-6Ex (Vary-X III) scope, a better synthetic stock with at least pillar bedding (not the one used by Winchester), and would be made of stainless steel with a satin finish. <P>

Remington stainless 700 LA that has been blueprinted and mated with a 24" #3 contour Krieger barrel with double cryogenic processing. 11 degree recessed target crown. Chambered in .30-06' Obermeyer. Holland stainless steel recoil lug. Holland custom fit firing pin and Wolf Blitzschnell firing pin spring. Jewell stainless HVR trigger with bolt release and top mounted safety. Set at 16 ounces. McMillan Mountain Rifle stock with Decelerator in ADL configuration that is bedded on stainless steel bedding pillars and with Steel bed or titanium devcon. Williams machined stainless steel ADL trigger guard. Reciever scope mounting holes opened from 6-48 to 8-40s. Talley TNT bases counterbored to the 8-40s. Two Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8x36mm scopes with duplex(maybe premier 4a) reticles mounting in Talley TNT quick release rings. Custom Ziegler case that would allow for takedown of the rifle, storage of extra scope and a SR torque wrench for proper assembly. Custom load development that would combine Federal match brass, Swift Scirocco 180, and roughly 48-50 grains of IMR 4064. Federal Gold Medal Match primers of course. Proper bore tech or dewey cleaning kits of course. Thats about does it. Best Matt. Btw, Close to having Mr. Ricks build this for real;-).<BR><p>[This message has been edited by Matt in Virginia (edited February 05, 2001).]

Timber; I'am going to take the easy way out on this one, as I type very poorly. I just answered this question at length in HuntAmerica-Big Game forum. -memtb

Timber; I was WRONG!!!-so many boards-so little memory! My answer to that question was on this board,Big Game forum, under the question - One Cal.-Time to Explain Your Choice -memtb