Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Which Single Shot?

If you were going to buy a single-shot to be your go-to hunting rifle for everything from hunting elk in the timber to shooting 350 to 400 yards at mule deer or antelope, which single shot and which caliber would it be?

I'm looking at Encores and another No 1. I have a No. 1A in 7x57 that is a great little rifle but it just doesn't seem to shoot as well as I'd like for a do-it-all.

Definitely not expert or speaking from experience,but my brother in law used to guide in Wyoming for an outfitter who did.According to him his boss used to lay the elk out like cord wood with a #1 B in 300 Win.There is no doubt in my mine this would work for all you need. A little heavy of a rifle for my taste, but in 300 Win it might be perfect.

For the cartridge, I would pick the 300 Winchester Magnum. For the rifle, I would pick the Encore. And yes, I'm biased and proud of it.

For me, it would be a B78 in 7mm Rem. Mag. They were made in both octagon and round barrel models with the round barrel being my pick. They're still out there...a pal of mine recently bought one NIB.

If money was no object I'd order a Dakota Model 10 in 280 Rem. Sure like to have one; probably way over priced.

Get a Ruger #1 in 270 Win and your problem is solved

Nice group, but life's too short to shoot an ugly rifle.

"If you were going to buy a single-shot to be your go-to hunting rifle for everything from hunting elk in the timber to shooting 350 to 400 yards at mule deer or antelope, which single shot and which caliber would it be?"

I did:


Top one is a .375 H&H, needlessly powerful, but lots of fun. Bottom rifle is a 7mm Rem mag, all the rifle a fellow would really need for what you propose.

Dan, I chose a 300 win mag single shot to hunt the world. It has killed truck loads of animals. Here is a picture of a Namibian eland I took with the 300 single shot.



I am headed out mule deer hunting in a few weeks and I just got this beauty in. She's in 7x57 and I am thinking about taking her on the mule deer hunt. I know the 300 is a slightly better choice, but the little 7 mauser may be too pretty to leave home.

I dunno.

Why would anyone only want one rifle?
It is my policy that once a gun has taken an animal it is all used up and you need to build/buy another.

Grumulkin: That's an awesome group! If my No. 1A in 7x57 shot like that, I'd find excuses to use it! As of now, I only shoot my bolt rifles well enough to count on them for shooting much past 150 yards.

GuyM: That 7mm looks like a tack driver. I might get into that because I could at least use some of the same bullets I'm loading into my 7x57. At least this way I'd have a chance at two rifles liking a bullet rather than finding out that my current rifle hates them and I have 30 bullets left out of the box.

SharpsShooter: Very impressive.

I would agree that a 7mm Remington Magnum would also do what you want to do and with less recoil than a 300 Winchester Magnum. Come to think of it, I also have a 7mm Remington Magnum Encore barrel; no, make that 2 barrels. The one with the brake has very mild recoil.

The beauty of the Encore is I can feed my addiction to shooting and handloading by buying a new barrel at much less cost than buying a whole gun.

The Encore an "ugly" gun? I don't think so but if it was, I would rather have an accurate ugly gun than a pretty gun that didn't shoot well.

Encores are an acquired taste but I've yet to meet an inaccurate one.

#1s are sometimes erratic but can be made to shoot and have CLASS,
especially if you can find an early one when Ruger's had fine wood.

Just remember, one shot is ONE shot and hunting Elk in the black timber is a bit like jumping Whitetail back in those Eastern woods & blowdowns. I never lost a Whitetail but I will admit there were a few that took shot # 2 or #3 from the 1100 slug gun to put then down.

My black timber Elk gun is this 9.3x62 but it hold only three.

Naw, one shot isn't one shot; you just have to reload and it doesn't take that long. On a couple of occasions, I've taken 2 deer in quick succession with an Encore and I didn't take said 2 deer with one shot.