Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Best North American game cartridge

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from 7mm up, there are no true varmint bullets widely available..... i know of such as the .308/110 and others, but their makers will not recommend them for use in settled country without a certain backstop.....

buckwheat,
If you are hunting in settled country you darn well better have a backstop! Some darn fool just put a bullet through several walls of a house and just missed a three year old girl playing on the floor in Hugo, Minnesota. It was on the news every night for quite a while.
Try shooting pistol bullets out of a 35 Whelen, trust me its a varmint bullet! If everone else jumped off a bridge would you?
If everyone else got married would you?
If everyone else shot a 30-06 would you?
I vote 35 Whelen. It's big enough for bears and with pistol bullets it can be used on small critters. You can make cases out of useless 30-06 brass. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />
Great White North

hmmmm I should stay out of this but !!!!!

I'd go with a 358 win ... load light for small game and
250's for deep woods .... even though I do like the 45-70
idea ... best thing is 308 cases can be used and you have
lots more powder to reload with to get that bullet placement
thing going !!!!!! less powder, more practice = food on the
table ... yummie !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talon

Well buckwheat, maybe not! Take a Hornady 220gr designed for the 375 Winchester and load it up as fast as a .375 H&H can drive it. I think one might have a .375 varmint bullet but I must say I haven't tried it...yet. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

The 300 Wby has got to win. does everything the 30-06 does but about 400 fps faster. This means you can shoot a 220 grain bullet as fast as the 30-06 shoots a 180 grain. 300 Wby factory rifles are available in weights as light as 6 3/4 pounds with 26" barrels.

I think a good 8x57 with modern loads, 180 Ballistic tips and 200 grain Partitions would do for most all game at the ranges I shoot.
Charlie.............what the heck am I thinking ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />.....9.3 Sisk must be the best, followed by the 9.3 BS <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The 06 is a good pick. However, for all North American big game, the 35 Whelen is great on all of it.

Dave

Sharps made the west safe for Winchester

Dave
There you go, making sense...
art

Sharkhunter, not famiar with the 35 Whelen, but since I don't hand load i think I better pick between the 06 and Rem7MM
I think I'm still leaning to the 06.

what remains of that bullet will still travel a long ways and do a lot of damage..... a few hundred yds downrange your 220 is traveling at .375 Win. velocities and will behave just like it

thanks GWN,

you made my point for me, and provided a good example....
such examples are rare where i live because rifles used hereabouts are overwhelmingly in the fast .22, .24, & .25 class... and everbody with a lick of sense knows enough to use varmint bullets...

in much of the area where i live there are no back stops... particularly south of the river, the topography is as flat as a quadrangle map.....
cartridge and bullet selection are both crucial to safety....

concerning other matters that you mentioned, bridge jumping and marriage are equally risky but the discussion of such is not germain to the selection of a useful rifle..... please try to focus..... john w

Sign me up for the '06. I can tell from these posts that we're all feeling different parts of the elephant. Guys who take the biggest and most dangerous game into consideration seem to want the bigger guns. Guys who take their game at longer range seem to favor the faster guns. Some guys put up with more recoil. Some guys don't.

Me? I've hunted boar, deer, coyote and groundhog with the '06 very successfully. It has been more than a match for all. I would not feel undergunned anywhere I intend to travel. Although I might take along something bigger or faster if I went West for Elk, or North for Moose, or way up thar for big bear, you can bet one of my rifles would be a 30-06. East of the Mississippi, I believe it has no peer.

My defense of this position is simple:

1) I have loaded the '06 with everything from 55 grain up to 200 grain, and I know I could go further than that. The 165 grain and 180 grain I shoot will do a good job on 90% of what I intend to hunt.
2) I can get ammo for '06 just about anywhere on the planet.
3) I can buy a used '06 cheaper than any of those fancy calibers the collectors love.
4) The loading components are ubiquitous, and it is probably the most heavily researched round out there.
5) I do not have to get fancy. Remington Core-lokts from Walmart will blow away anything that gets in my sights inside 200 yards.


BTW: if you want my second choice, it would be 12 Gauge slug at anything inside 75 yards. You can poke fun at me all you want, but having seen what a Remington Slugger will do on a deer makes me a believer.

.338 Win Mag.

Wow..............

35 Whelen

Well, if the big bears are included, then there is a wonderful article in the March issue of RIFLE on the choices of grizzly guide Ed Stevenson, an Alaskan with 40 years of experience. He likes the 411 Hawk, 375 Hawk/Scovill, 348 Winchester, 350 Rem Mag, 45-70, 35 Whelen, and 375 Holland. He likes lever actions and he is not impressed with the 338's and 300's.
For the coldest months, he might use a 7 Rem Mag for wolves, and foregoes the levergun as the receivers are too cold in subzero weather.
This was another RIFLE issue that was superb. Oh, and writer Al Miller does not care for the 270 WSM in and it's ilk. They recoil too much. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I think you have to eliminate the big bears for a meaningful answer unless the person answering is an Alaskan resident that might encounter grizzlies alot. I would feel foolish shooting a squirrel or a pronghorn with a 340 Weatherby that I needed for big bear and I would be terrified with a 25-06 facing a grizzly w/o back up, but that is just me.
7 x 57 Ackley for the lower 48.

How do you hunt squirrels with a 30-06?

Come on!

Why not, I have done it. Albeit I have only shot a few squirrel with one. I have also killed a bunch of grouse with a 30/06 along with a few turkey, a couple of rabbits and numerous crows.

When you use a hard cast bullet at 1600fps, all it does is make a 30 caliber hole. As long as you head shot them, no problem. And with body shots it doesn't do much damage, but the only small game I have body shot with the 30/06 are turkey.

In fact for years in Alaska, I would say that 90% of the grouse I killed were with a 30/06. The others were with a 30/30 or 38 special.

Try it, you will like it.

No single caliber can do "everything" in NA well, one (or more) can do a passable job, and a four gun battery can capably and comfortably do it all.

Okay, the "one-gun" for everything? .30-06. No brainer. One caliber to do it all, squirrels to griz, soup to nuts? .30-06.

Why? 'cause the ol' '06 done been there, done that. It's got verifiable kills, and a lot of records, for every species of game on the continent, and most on the planet. It's well within most shooters comfort zone for recoil. You can find darn good factory loads for it, and get them in any "mom and pop" general store almost anywhere you can hunt on dry land. No, it ain't sexy, or new. It don't blaze the ballistic charts, or shoot as flat as a frozen rope for 400+ yards, or show enough punch on paper to flatten a T-Rex, but it'll do the job. And for an "all-'rounder" that's what you want. It ain't perfect on either the big or small end, but it'll do it, no questions asked.

The four-gun battery?

Sensible? 22LR; .243 Winchester; .308 Winchester; .358 Winchester. All but the 22LR use the same brass (reload compatible), and the parent brass (.308 Win.) can be found anywhere.

Nostalgic? 22LR; .250-3000 Savage; 7x57 Mauser; .375 H&H. If you need to ask, you don't know.

"New-fangled"? .17 Mach2; .270 WSM; .325 WSM; .416 Remington

Speed-freak? .17HMR; .257 Roy; .30-378; .416 Roy

Lever-gun? .22LR; .25-35 Winchester; .307 Winchester; .45-70 Government.

Handgun (single-shot)? .22LR; 6.5 JDJ; .375 JDJ; .45-70 Government

Handgun (revolver)? .22LR; .357/.38; .41 Remington Magnum; .45LC/.454

Just to be different? .22 Hornet; .257 Roberts; .300 Savage; .405 Winchester

There now, don't we all feel better now that's resolved? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'd say that the .30/06 is the most tested and proven cartridge extant. It's the minimum I'd choose for the do-all title. Lots of cartridges will do nearly as well, but not on the upper end of the spectrum. With today's ammo options, the .30/06 has narrowed the gap between it and the .300 H&H's standard performance numbers. In a 24-26" barrel using modern ammo, the old '06 delivers way more than the numbers that made it's legendary reputation. On some game you'd prefer more bullet weight and bore size, but the old '06 can be made to work adequately on anything in North America.AW

Oh the 50bmg with out a doubt. lol actually probly the '06 or .270