Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game One gun,one load for the rest of your life!!!

That's about what I had planned when I bought my 300 WSM. One rifle and load for everything. It is a Winchester Mod. 70 Classic Stainless in a McMillan stock and wears a Leupold VXll 3-9. The load is 168 TSX and H4350 @ 3100.

It should work for anything in NA from antelope to brown bear.

This thread shows that there are a lot of combo's that will work real well.Especially with todays lineup of cartridges and great bullets.

.30-06 with 165 gr. Nosler Partitions and 57 gr. of IMR 4350, done.
Selmer

For me,a big 7mm with a quality 160 would cut a big swath....

I'm with BobinNH, my Husky 7mm Rem Mag with a 140gr TTSX pushed by 67gr of IMR4831...

Win M70 stainless Classic in 30-06 shooting 165 Interbonds in front of 59 grains of H4350 at 2925FPS. I have been known to switch loads but the gun and caliber always remains the same.

Weatherby Mark V .300mag 180gr.

You know I wouldn't be happy with just one, but if I have to it would be the trusty 30.06 with a good 180 GR. bullet.

I'd make do with the 7x57 Mauser and a 160 partition at 2700 fps or so.

I have talked a good talk about 338 win mag but on reviewing my bag limits over the years it is the 6.5 x 55 that has accounted for over 75% of the animals taken. It is not a powerful round, or a sexy round, or even an easily found factory round, but it do shoot well, no recoil to speak of, and penetrates like mad. I just bought a 30-06 to take to Africa next spring with my 338, and I am liking it, but it is not a favourite round. It is a proven round, just not by me.
Randy

Something big enough to shoot myself with. Actually, I'd take a Pre '64 Model 70 Winchester Alaskan 338 Win Mag with a 210gr Partition over 65.5gr of RL-15.

So far my Ruger MKII 338 Win Mag and 210gr Partitions hasn't not worked...

That was exactly my choice for 20 years. Prairie dogs, coyotes, antelope, deer and elk, it never failed.

The "Magnificent 7" with 120-140g bullets will do anything a .257 Roy with 100g or heavier bullets will do in terms of trajectory. In fact the 7mm RM will do it a bit better (less drop and wind drift and higher impact velocity, albeit by a hair) while delivering an extra 300fpe on target. With 160g and 175g bullets the 7mm RM is an outstanding choice for elk and more than adequate for moose, delivering long range performance with recoil similar to a .30-06. And, of course, the 7mm RM can be downloaded to 7mm-08 or 7x57 levels if desired.

I'm not much of a fan of "one gun, one load" for all tasks, had enough of that the first 20 years I hunted big game. But if I had to go back to one gun the 7mm Rem Mag would probably be the sole survivor and I'd use multiple loads - 120g TTSX and 160g MRX would pretty well take care of things.

Rem M700 Alaskan Ti 300WSM
Leupy vxIII 3.5-10x40 w/ Butler Creeks
Talley lw's
150gr Noz E-Tip @3300fps




Brett

35 Whelen and a 225gr TSX w/60 grs of RE-15 pushing it 2730 fps. That should take care of about anything.

Actually, he was eating grain from a coffee can.

BMT

Remington 700 ADL circa: 1972 / leupold vxII 3x9x40/ 30-06, 180 grain TSX.
I have 30+ long guns / the above rifle is my first one, purchased second hand when I was 16 years old (40 now). If I had to pick one to take with me with the sh#t hit the fan, this is the one.

I started out 40 yrs ago deer hunting with my 264 Win Mag that I bought thru the mail. Carried it for 25 yrs. Then carried 30-06 for ten yrs or so. Now I waffle back and forth between my 06 and the 7mm Rem Mag. One gun for life is a good sound plan, but if your a gun lover its hard to do.

In my experience it actually didn't on whitetails. Rather unimpressive. YMMV....

7mmSTW with 160 partitions. Although now with different bullet choices...who knows.

For me, I'll stick with the Colonel and 225's......

I like the Weatherby WeatherMark in .300 Weatherby Mag., stoked with Weatherby factory loads (180 gr. PT-EX) and topped off with a Leupold Vari X-II 3-9 x 40.