Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles If you couldn't handload which............................. .............

308...and hope one of the premium loads would shoot in my rifle....

the few rifles I have had that would not shoot well with a Barnes Bullet got new barrels. Last I heard, they are making more barrels every day. Life is too short to go through it any other way.

I still say .375 H&H.

30-06.

I almost wanted to say that it'd be 1/2 dozen 30-06 or 6 to the 308.

But then the 308 has a reputation for accuracy, and being rather un-fussy to load for.

So logic would dictate the same would hold true for factory ammo.

Therefore, 308 indeed. Remember like two years ago, you could BUY South African surplus for less than you could load "Blastin Ammo" And before that it was Radway Green, and Cavim?? Those were the days. The UPS man must've thought I was outfitting a Militia every month when he brought the next case of ammo. It got to be a running joke that it "was that time of the month, and my rifles needed tampons." Man I miss surplus 308 ammo...

270 Winchester and 375H&H.

Same as now, just not handloaded...
.25-06 Fed Premium 110 Accubond
.300 Winchester Fed Premium 180 Partition
.35 Whelen Fed Premium 225 Trophy Bonded or Nosler Custom 225 Accubond

Realistically, if I were starting again, I'd probably just get a .30-06, and feed it 180 Partitions.

.30-06 SPRG due to ammo selection availability and cartridge capability.

Well said, and pretty much sums it up.

Besides the fact that the 30-06 will just plain work, if you can't find 30-06 ammo on a shelf in some store, chances are you're not gonna find any of the other choices mentioned above either.

It's pretty much universal.

.30/06

Same as now, I just wouldnt shoot targets any more.

Odessa is right about the 30/06.

You can only shoot one load at a time and I'd look for max flexibility from one load,so in the 270 I'd buy the ammo by the case,same lot number,and shoot federal premium in either 130 Nosler Partition, or 140 HE Trophy Bonded bullets and shoot everything with them.

In the 375H&H,I'd reach for Federal premiums in 250 Trophy Bonded for North America, and 300 gr softs and solids in the Federal Cape Shock line up.

.308

I'd have to go with .270

30-06...

The factory stuff is close to (but a touch less) than what a handloaded 308 runs at.

Of course HE stuff is available too, but I suspect we're talking economical loads here.

.308 Win Would likely be my second choice.

Safariman's choice of the .375 H&H is obviously best for the non-handloading traveling hunter, or those who live where there is really big game. It also works quite well on smaller stuff, as anybody who's used the .375 much knows.

I would also back up his statements about the legality of handloading some places. There are indeed jurisdictions where handloading is illegal, yet hunting is very popular. As a matter of fact, long before hunting was banned in Kenya, handloading was illegal. In fact Finn Aagaard never handloaded a round before he moved to the U.S. in 1977, for that very reason.

For my hunting in Montana it would be a .270, .308 or .30-06, simply because they have the widest variety of factory loads and always will. I'd probably lean hardest toward the .30-06, because even when used with "ordinary" bullets it works quite well on our heaviest game, whether elk or Shiras moose. The other two will also, but you don't have to be quite so choosy about shot angle with the old '06, and it offers a little more zip with lighter bullets than the .308. But any of the three would be fine.

That's easy. .30-06 all the way. Super versitile both up and down.

using a .308, or a 30-06 there's honestly not much that you couldn't do with corelokts or power points...
and both have shot very well in the majority of rifles that i own...
in fact, rems 180 corelokt is very hard to beat for accuracy in either of my 30-06s....
in my .243 the rem 80 plhp is the second most accurate load ever shot, including handloads... the most accurate load was a federal premium factory load... the 70 nbt...

i would not worry about the performance of factory ammo.....
it's the price that gives me fits.....

.270

90% of everything that needed killing could be handled by 130 Core-lokts or Power Points. The other 10% by 150 gr of the same.

Mike

Definitely 308. Matter of fact, I may go on record with a prediction that the .308 will become America's version of the .303 Brit. It won't be long till every house that owns a rifle will have a .308 in it.

300 Winchester Magnum