Are you a 25 guy? Do you have all kinds of 6.5’s ? Are you a gay 270 man?? How about the 7mm’s ? Are you a man’s man and Blast away with 30 calibers? 8mm? 33’s??

I have multiple rifles in all of the above, but I’m a 7 mm shooter. I have a 7mm 08, several 7 mags and a 7mm ultra mag. If I could have only one caliber, it would be 7 mm.

.375 and .30 for me.

two fitty salvage

7/284 and 33....................

.30 and 9.3. BUT if I had a .25 (Roberts) I'd be satisfied.

I've got more 7mm stuff than anything else, but the 6.5 is catching up around my house.

I like .257 Roberts and .35 Whelen, two timeless classics that are useful today as when they were designed veteran shooters. The .30-06 has also stood the test of time and has been embraced by millions of shooters both novice and seasoned alike, effective on all North American big game given proper bullet and shot selection.

I used to be .30 but right now it appears that I'm a 7mm guy.

257 and 264's. Have others but those are most likely to head out on a hunt.

.224" chamberings see the most use for me but various 6mm chamberings are a close second.

For big game hunting, I’ve owned rifles in .257 (both the .25-06 and .257 Roy) through.338 (.338 Fed and Win Mag). I’ve had something in every major caliber in between except 8mm. The vast majority of rifles have been 6.5, .277 or 7mm.

If I had to have just one rifle it would more than likely be a 7mm of some sort, perhaps a WSM, SAUM or .280 AI.

I could certainly be talked into a .270 Win or WSM, though.

I guess when I really look hard at it, I’m probably a 6.5 guy more than anything. A great deal of my most memorable shots were made with a 6.5x284 and I have never noticed a lick of difference between the way the 120-140 grain 6.5 bullets kill and the way any other size bullets kill, up to and including premium 250 grain .338s. And with the development of mono metals reaching the heights it has, there really isn’t any non-dangerous game animal that I wouldn’t expect a complete pass through from a TSX, TTSX or LRX 6.5mm bullet fired from an adequate cartridge and rifle.

As I get older and more broken down, recoil and rifle weight mean more and more to me. The 6.5s are really running right in my wheelhouse.

.45-100

Eight Nine rifles in .308".

But If I could have only one, probably a 7mm.

284 and 308 but the 264 is making an appearance again.

6.5 creedmoor and the 35 wheeler for in the bushes

I use many of them and love 'em all, but I'm a .30 guy from way back.

6.5 mm, 277 and 35's for me.

Creedmore

Well thats hard to say for me I have now:
Z-HAT Custom Winchester 1895 405 WCF NECG sights
WBY Custom Shop MK V Outfitter S.S. 270 Wby mag
WBY MK V ULW 30-06 bought here on the fire
Lipseys Ruger Hawkeye RSI 30-06
Sako Tecomate 300 WSM
The Win 95 405 WCF was all done in Robar NP3
The rest of my rifles were ALL finished by Hired Gun here
in Cerakote externals and Micro-Slick internals
Scopes for all except my 405 WCF
are Leupold 6x42`s Heavy Duplex or German #4
or Meopro 6x42 German #4

7mm (7mm-08). Works great for any big game I’m likely to hunt.

6mm rem and 35 Whelen here and 264 win, sometimes.

223, 243, and 270 is all that's left....

Faithful to the .22 and .30 cals for years but lately been turning into a bit of a caliber slut. I have been playing a lot with 6mms, 7mms, .35s, and starting to get into the 6.5s. For some reason I haven't had much interest in the .270s and .33s.

+1, I've usually got 4 or 5 7MM-08's all ready to go, currently down to only 4 but one will likely be hunting most this year. Nothing not to like about a good 7MM-08!!

I own the 6.5 caliber. I have officially claimed it here, now. Many of you owe me a bunch in usage fees. I now accept Paypal.

I own a wide variety but for our smallish southern whitetails my various 22cal centerfires will handle the vast majority of my hunting situations. Second most used are probably my 25s.

Most of them.


Jerry

Most of them here also, but .25 cal takes the lead, have 14 rifles in various 25-cal chamberings.

quite a few .30's and .35's also though....

The most rifles I have in one caliber is 6mm Rem. 7400 ,742, Ruger#1, Ruger M77, and Rem 600

Half of my my centerfires are a .257 of some type, from Savages to 06s with a lot of Bob in between!!

223 and 7-08

.243 .270, 7x57, 280AI, 30'06 300 H&H.

My 6.5’s are catching up too, 3 Creedmoor’s, 3- 264’s, one 26 Nosler

.338 in several flavors

I currently have 2 6mm rifles, 2 6.5 mm rifles, two 7mm rifles, two .30 cal rifles, and two 8mm rifles (32 Special and 8mm Rem mag) plus a .35 Rem and soon to have a .257 Wby. I like to move them all through the rotation but when it's clobberin' time I pull out the 8mm mag.

I get confused about this, but it is one of the following fer sure:

.17, .22, .25,, .28, .30., .35, ..37, ..40, .41, .45, .50. Or maybe it's 20/16/12? FIIK

223 Remington and the 30-06 Springfield for me.

For Whitetails,

30-06
300 Savage
30-30

All kill the same, with the same hit, at the distances I shoot deer.

Been toying with a .243 but haven't hunted deer with it yet.

I love my 270. It was the first really nice rifle that I owned, and I have killed a chitpot full of deer with it. I can never imagine ever getting rid of it, and I once thought of having it buried with me.......just in case, you know. But, having said that, if I ever decided to downsize and only wanted the bare bones essentials in cartridges, it would be 223, 243, and the 270. If I could only have one centerfire cartridge, it would be the 223, and not because it would cover all my needs, but because it would cover the most important one.......security, in the form of AR rifles.

Now, I shoot the 6.5 Creedmoor, the 308, 22-250, 7-08, 35 Rem, 7X57, and probably a couple of more that I'm forgetting. I sometimes think I love experimenting with different rifles and different cartridges too much, and I probably do. If not for the aspect of the 223 and the AR rifles, I'd be perfectly content with the 243 and nothing else.

3-.270's

4-7mm's

4-.375's

i can't escape the Contrarian ranks: 17 Mach II, 6mm Rem, 280 Rem, 300RSAUM, 444 MARLIN

if i had to roll with just one it would be a 180 grain bullet of 30 caliber in a 308 Winchester... which I have never owned...

More 30's than anything else but 223, 257, 270, and 375 as fashion statements.

.264, which is probably why I have none of them, because I'd hate to ruin the romance of fantasy in comparison to all I do have.

More in some cartridge of .308 diameter than anything else, but favorite, other than aforementioned, is .284.

.22LR
.270
.338
.416

.284

.300 Win for Me hands down, I love it!......Hb

For Alaska and the lower 48: .33

For just the lower 48: .30

I prefer the 6.5s. I have a 260, 6.5x55, 6.5x55 AI and a 6.5 Grendel I just built I'm working on some loads for.

.270 Win

.223 Rem

My all-time favorite centerfires...and the only two I have

.22lr
.450BUSHMASTER (AR-15)
.50ML
12ga.
.410ga

I was a fan of 7mm cartridges since elementary school. Even made my forum name a play on 7mm cartridges. But I don't currently own a single rifle in 7mm, and the 6.5's are looking better all the time as they keep coming out with new bullets.

I have favorites. If just one, 338 in the 338 Winchester cartridge.
375 in 375 Ruger and H&H cartridges.
416 in 416 Ruger and Remington cartridges.
8mm in 325 WSM.
7mm in 7mm Remington and 7 WSM
30 caliber in 308 Winchester in an AR platform.
223 and 5.56x45
Those pretty much are my top favorites.

30-06 and 7-08 for me.

6.5 slut here.

25 Caliber
GreggH

Anything less than .308 caliber says MKV on it.

.25 (Quarter of an inch)

I don't see anything looming on this side of the pond(s) for me, that can't be done with a 30-30, 308, or .30-06. Just in case I have several smaller and one larger cartridge on hand.

Jack

turdy fi

Pragmatically: .308

But I love .264, 338, and 358...

For no good reason...

Seems I have a few of each, but .264 and 35's are my favorites

All my life I've been a .30 guy.

.30 cal stuff

.25 caliber seems to be my go to cal

Mostly 7mm .

.224

22lr, 22wmr, 22hornet, 221fb, 223....these do 98% of my dirty work

As much as I like the 30-06 which is what I started with I would not want to be without a 35 whelen.

If I could only own rifles with one bore diameter I'd go with 7mm. Luckily that's not the case.

8mm.

IF I let the safe repopulate after purging about half of it a year ago, it will be with 8x57's. Have a great all purpose one(parked, in a McMillan), Next up will be one with a mid weight barrel in a checkered walnut stock. After that, maybe an unaltered VZ24 or a "tacticool" target 8x57(everyone needs a black rifle, right?).

Or maybe I'll just call it good with what I've got, either way I'm an 8mm guy.

All 30's and my 416 bee

When I was very young, I dreamed of having a 264 Win Mag. And for a short time recently I wanted to mix up a big batch of Creed koolaid. Now I've fallin into a nostalgic trance and believe nothing could be better than a Swede.
So I guess my caliber, or catridge, is.........a dirty thirty?

With recoil not as much fun as it used to be, the .224's and 6mm's have more appeal now....

Seven 270's occupy places in the safe.

I've got 2-270's
1-243
1-7mm-08
1-223
1-7mm rem mag
4-22 rimfires
6-shotguns
8-handguns

I have and use most all of them but really have a soft spot (in my head) for the 8mms, .35s and 9.3s.

I've got as many .30 cal rifles on hand as all others put together, on most any day. Historically though, most of my hunting has been done with a .243 winchester, and I've gone through more barrels for that cartridge than any other.

My overall cartridge of choice today though is the 25-06. I only own one and it is handy, accurate, and light enough at 7.5 lbs.

My preference is the .277 in a couple varieties so I guess I must have caught the gay somewhere along the way!

My stuff in .223, .243, .257, .284 and .308 scarcely see any action aside from the range. I do have a hog gun coming up soon though and I plan on using a 25-06 and 30-06 that need to kill something to earn their continued home in the safe.

Elmer Keith did rather well with his custom .280 cal in Africa and personally wrote to O'Cconnor
acknowledging .270 is up to the task as an 'elkenator'.

Gay, heterosexual, bisexual, cross dresser and even hermaphrodite.....270 is a dress size
that fits them all...
like Marlboro Man, possible alpha-testostrone E.K. kept something hidden in his closet...

I've always liked the .257 calibre and have five at the moment. I have a .243 that I don't shoot and am thinking of turning it into a .25 Souper. Waaaaaaay cooler!

Not married to or in love with one particular caliber or cartridge, they're all interesting and effective. There's 60+ in the toy box from 25-20 WCF to 500 BPE with only two rifles in the same cartridge. Game and what strikes my fancy that day determines what I use.

Whatever is to hand and ready to go, but I gotta say I’ve never warmed to the .243 (still ownedafter 40 years) or 7 Mag. (Sold after 10 rounds). As a former gunsmith I got to shoot a lot of both calibers, and I still don’t like these two!

Hard to beat the .30-06, but I really like my .260 and .338wm also. I’ve a few in betweeners , also....

25.06 and a .260

i'm a .30 guy who also carries a 444

Have/Had .224, .243, .257, .277, .284 and .30 caliber.

For my hunting I like the .22 and 6mm stuff with the .224 doing most of the killing.

Messing with a .284 again right now. Doubt I ever return to a 30 caliber save for a 30-30 that dad has and will be mine some day.

if I could only have one it would be 7mm. Given a second pick I'd take .224

Currently and for the past 20 plus years, these are our “only” hunting calibers. Same rifles, same bullet brand ( changed style as technology improved the bullet), same scope, same zero’s! Mine a .375. Wife a .338 “ One planet, one rifle.....for everything”! memtb

I am with you 100%, do not prefer the 243 or 7 mag.

I like my 222, 22-250, 6.5 Creed(long range playing), 7-08's(aka 270 short), 300 H&H, 338-06, 9.3x64, 375H&H and 404 Jeffery.

7mm (7mm-08) for the last 20 years. But always keep a 300 win mag for when I need the extra horsepower. Finding I need the extra far less than I used to think I did.

I like the sales on .30 caliber bullets so I use .30 caliber rifles, mostly, I have a .308, a 30-06, and a .300 Winnie. But I also like lightweight so I have a .325 WSM Kimber, although I might trade it off for something in 30 caliber.

I like and use CALIBERS 6mm, 6.5, 277, 284, 30, & 323.

I have MORE 277s & 284s than the others. I've been giving this thread some consideration.

I 'could' live, hunt,& be happy with 7mm RM or 30-06 the rest of my life. So there, you have TWO.


Jerry

I hunt mostly with a 35 whelen but have more 30s than anything else.

I hunt mostly with a 400 Whelen but like a lot of the less known or less popular rounds, 17 Rem, 222, 220 Swift, 6x222, 25 Rem, 257 Rob, 256 Mannlicher, 300 H&H, 8x56 MS, 35 Whelen, 9.3x57.

After pulling the trigger on a 270 for over 50 years...being able to buy ammo anywhere from the Pleasure Palaces in the Zona Rosa across the River, to any gas station, diner or C Store in deer country, the surgery I had at VA Dallas in '06 to dig a fist sized tumor out of my neck and wrecked my shooting shoulder in the process, has finally caught up with me.

So I am in the middle of test driving some possible replacements in another 6.5 Swede in a T3, a M70 XTR 7x57 aka the 7-08's grandaddy and will spend all this year also downloading a 270 to see which one caliber will live with me the rest of my life, along with it's sisters and brothers in Sunday Go to Meeting dress up to something that I can paddle the jon boat with in the swamps in East Texas.

I'd never owned a 7mm before this last year, shot some 7Rmg's and thought they were a little too brisk for not that much more than I was getting out of a same length barreled 270. The old M70 Mauser has made a believer of me at 200 yards on paper for extended load ladders and such. The 1st T3 Swede was my go to when I got out of Rehab in '08 but I never shot anything out of it except 120gr'ers either. So that classic phrase of "We'll See What Happens NOW said the Blind Man" comes to mind. One caliber to feed is lot more easy if it'll do everything I want out of it...and an old friend has been using a 7-08 on his last 2 trips across the pond veery succesfully enough to make me go hmmm??
Ron

Verhoo

As for down loading the 270, I started off loading JOC's load w/130 gr bullets. 48-49 IMR 4064 - vel @ 2900 fps. Very accurate.

Sorry about your physical limitations.

Good Luck

Jerry

For me, there are 3 calibers that I am passionate about. I'm passionate to the point that I don't really care about the other calibers, I don't care that they work, I don't need them. I am passionate about the 30-06, 338WM and 375 H&H. I know intellectually others will work just as well, but these are the ones that I KNOW I can rely on under what ever situation comes along.

30 cal

Me too. That includes 7.21 & 7.62

Of all the rifles in the safes, More 270 Wins than anything, as I recall. But short actions seem to be getting hunted the most these days. 260s seem to be grabbed the most with 7mm-08s and 308s close behind. The 300 mags and .338 didn't get carried a single hunt this past Fall.

Never could pick just one.

I like them all, but put the most meat on the table with 30-06.

I own a 30.06, 7mm08, 308, 300 H&H mag, and 222. I use the 30.06 about 95% of the time for hunting.

30 cal

.308
300 WM
300 H&H

.284

I own more 30 cal than anything else, with .284 in second place.

.264 and .284

I have rifles in .223, .224, .257, .270, 7mm, .308, and .375 calibers. I have more rifles chambered in .30 caliber than any of the others, so I guess that's my caliber with my .300 Weatherby being my favorite cartridge.

I suppose I'm a .30 guy based on numbers in my safe. I shoot ,30-06s, .300 savages, .30-40 krags, .30-30s, 7.62X54rs

and if I had to go down to one it would be a .30-06.

But I'm an equal opportunity gun buyer!


-Jake

30

Had a buddy that was pretty proud of his 7mm mag. One day we took the four wheelers out in the hills and sat down to have some lunch and shoot the sheit. As we were sitting there I finished my pop so I jumped on the quad and ran it down the mountain and set it up on the hillside so we could shoot at it. When I came back he let fly with his beloved bolt action magnum and hit 6" low and right. He felt like that was a hit on a deer so he was tickled with himself.

I slid the 99 out of the guncase and got on the ground with my back up against the tire on the atv and laid the rifle across the sticks. I held 17" over and touched it off. That can went 30' straight up like a rocket launch. I got up, slid the rifle back in the case and that's the last I heard about the beloved 7mm magnum. Lasered 425 yards.

Until I got this one I'd hunt a different gun every season, but this one keeps killing deer and bear, so for me, make mine a Savage 99 in .284.

I haven’t had time to try the 308 I got from you yet. Maybe it will stop raining soon. It will be a great piney woods rifle. Wanna sell the 284?? 😁

Uuuuuuuum, no. I've got three of em and they're staying. I had a chance to buy another locally the other day but the guy was stuck at $1000 and I wasn't there.

Depending on distance and game... My 4 below covers anything that walks

250ai - probably most efficient cartridge ever created. 80ttsx @ 3600fps
6.5swede - 120ttsx @ 2850fps
280ai - second most efficient cartridge ever created 140NPT @ 3150
300wsm - all the power you ever need in a short action. 165etip

But if I had to choose just one.... It would be the 280ai

.277”

Well, going by barrel count now, I must be a 7 mm Cal. man.

I now own MORE rifles barrelled w/.284 dia.> NEXT is .270s, & > ONLY Two, 30 Cal.

I honestly don’t rate them (Cartridges) # 1, 2, 3 etc.

I CAN make cases for Every One being my ONLY rifle. OTOH I don’t have A favorite. There are times it’s very hard to choose which I’m going to hunt.

Jerry

I guess if you pinned me down it'd be the .284 (7mm Mashburn Super), 338 (338 Win Mag) and .358's (35 Newton and Whelen).. Those three calibers are probably my picks if I am spending serious time hunting..

.30/06. I have a strange affection for the old girl.

If going by numbers of rifles, I guess .308 caliber would win for me, but for the last ten years or so I've had a lot of fun with .243 and .224.

Gay 270 Win and 338-06AI.

Ditto

Could work for me. Love my 9.3x62
.

257Roberts and 35Whelen. Others come and go.

.308 caliber with a belt! second choice is 7 mag. But all in all, if it is a belted magnum, I am a fan.

Lots of .277, .284 and .30 on the bench. Probably shoot more .270 Win than anything.

I've narrowed my herd to two calibers,7mm and 30 cal.With the wide selection of bullets available for those two,it has me well covered for anything I want to hunt.

I’ve owned a bunch. I still own quite a few. I’m not sure I can fully commit to one caliber, but I can say without hesitation, that I’ve killed more critters with the .277 than any other.
Although the 308 has been calling out at me recently.

Definitely a 7mm guy, with a special mention for .338.

I've tried to like .30 cals many times, but keep coming back to 7mm.

243 Winchester
338 Winchester magnum

honestly could do all my hunting with the 243 Winchester
sold an ugly 280 down the road
338 going to get re-barreled to 264 Winchester magnum or 7mm Remington magnum (leaning towards the 264 WM)

.308 primarily these days. 270 win previously.