Mine has gravitated to the 7X65R. It closely emulates the 280 Rem. The 30 Blazer is a great round, but it requires a more stoutly built gun...thus heavy.

What's yours?

I like the 7x57R. Mine is a 200 yard deer killer with very little recoil in a 7.25# gun. I had a .222 - 20 gauge combo but had no real use for it, so it's gone.

7x57R for me. I only use the rifle barrel in my 2 combo guns for deer and black bear and such, and that cartridge is a perfect match for them. If I hunted moose or grizzly regularly with a combo gun I might choose something heavier. Then it would be 9.3x74r. I've used a 7x65R a bit it Germany, but felt the extra velocity was not needed for small wild boar and roe deer at close range. My .30R Blaser is a kipplauf single shot, not heavy, but a nice mountain rifle or equally welcome on long open country prairie stalks.

I too like the 7x57R, and have used it a lot in combo and drilling. It has enough power for any of the deer species here in Oz, including sambar (near elk-sized), and recoil is modest even in a 6lb drilling.

For most of what I use the drilling for I could even be happy with a 5.6x50R, with a fast enough twist for heavier bullets, though even the 63 gn Sierra does a good job on fallow deer. That would suit me nicely for rabbits, foxes, goats, pigs and fallow deer, but that would be its limit. That is most of my hunting though. 5.6 x52R would be in contention too if it would shoot well with .224" bullets

I'm a fan of 22 Savage High Power.It's just right for the smaller Florida deer and works well on varmints.I'm using the 55gr bullets in my old valmet 312

My drilling for big game is a 7x57R


My most used drilling is a 6.5x58R Sauer that I use for coyote hunting


I have a combo gun in 22HP that is very accurate with Buffalo Arms 55gr .228 bullets plus I have a bunch of S&B 70gr stuff for it


I have another combo gun in 5.6x50R Mag. that is great in that it uses .224 bullets and works really well on coyotes with 52gr Speer FB HP's


I should really get serious about finding a drilling in 5.6x50R for coyote but my wallet is thin and my age puts it in the extravagance category as I don't know how much use I'd get out of it.

I kind of like the 9.3x72R, I have an old hammer drilling in it but the barrel is in rough shape, still minute of deer but between not being able to use open sights very well and not doing much big game hunting any longer it gets used for the shotgun barrels the most as they shoot very well for me. I started playing with paper patched bullets for it a few years ago but the proect got put on hold for the move and the gear is at the bottom of a box somewhere.

7x57r for me as well. In my part of VA, most shots are less than 130 yds, and the 7x57r fits this bill nicely.

As long as we're talking about cartridges, I'm puzzled about that lovely drilling you briefly offered for sale. How is a .41 magnum die used to expand a 9.5x47 case to 10x47?

7x57R in an early/middle 1960s vintage Heym, But my crappy old Savage 24 in 22M/410 gets a lot more use.

I size down trimmed 30-40 brass and don't use an expander, just like we had to do 50 years ago to load for the "J" bore Mausers with standard 8X57 dies; we used 32 Spl bullets to load for the "J" bores. It seems to be a perfect fit for my .401 cast bullets I bought. The 30-40 rim isn't thick enough, however, and the 10X47R will need the 9.5X47R brass.

I noticed something minor that needed attention on the Nagel & Menz drilling and would never sell it knowing it needed attention. It'll go to Lee LeBas for a fix.

Thank you. I am far from a cartridge expert and that was puzzling me.

Sounds like the 10x47R would be a good hill country whitetail round. Similar to a .38 WCF but somewhat more powerful.

7x65 here.

I've only got the one, so it get's to be my favorite. Works fine though.

Would like to know what you're shooting.

How's the dictatorbitch's lockdown affecting you?

I sure like the NZ hunting forum I visit, great bunch there.

I've got a l/h 95K in 12g over 7x65, I bought it after a Chukar hunting trip in the Alps when I only saw Thar on days I wasn't carrying a rifle as well as the shotgun. I've shot pheasants and Sika with it, and there is always a good chance of a pig where I live and chase pheasants now, so once I recover from rotator cuff surgery it will go back into service. They aren't at all common in NZ, but I am happy with it. Might look at a RDS in a QD mount to help with the rifle barrel. Iron sights are great when you are less than 40, and I'm not.

The govt strategy is a disaster, I think. We can't stay closed as a country forever, and they don't seem to have any plans around dealing with a normally functioning society living with the Rona. I'm sort of lucky, I have an engineering company making gear for water treatment projects (essential business) so we just get on with it, but getting material is getting difficult - and bloody expensive. I can't believe so many people voted for the horse faced lying bitch, but people do be strange.

I'm 74 now and have hunted Chukar with a drilling since I was 12, using a Sauer/Charles Daly SL/side-cock in 12ga and 30-30. Our deer season ran four weeks, starting the same day as the Chukar opener. We seldom ever went deer hunting, only. I got our tags filled with the drilling during the bird season. I also like to hunt upland birds with my drillings. I've popped many coyotes and one cougar over my lifetime with that rifle barrel hanging off the shotgun. That 95 is a great gun, IMO. I covet yours.

My Trumpf Dural 16/16/7X65R handles like a great upland gun should, and it fits me well.

Gets quail


Gets Chukar


Gets Blue Grouse


Gets Sagehen

I know that guy and most likely both of the wonderful dogs. Edit maybe all three. Gotta be Rocky, Maggie and my sweetie Rosy posy.

I just have to kill something this year or early spring with that drilling you sold me.

Minty post-war Sauer in 16 2 3/4" chambers and 8X57JRS...Yep, you do need to unzip the case and bust something. That drilling was one of the first Sauer made after the War on their new machinery but with the most modern steels and great pre-war gunmakers...best of both worlds.

We sure miss Rocky the Giant. His nose was radar...best I ever saw in 66 years of following bird dogs.

Rosie will be glad to work for you.

I'm a little late to this discussion,, but my favorite is the 8x57, especially paired with a 16 bore. I live and hunt in the east, in and around the Appalachians. It's prety much thick woods for whitetails, bears, turkeys, squirrels, woodcock, goundhogs, the occasional rabbit, fox and coyote. For me the 8x57 in either J or S is about perfect. I have cast loads for 120 and 170 grains. I have 125, 150, 170 ,190-6 soft points, and 196 grain solids. I've managed over the years to get them to shoot to sights at the ranges I use them at. To top them off, I have a Hammond Game getter for both bore sizes, or I can use 5 grains of Unique under a .321 or .323 buck shot for a rabbit in the garden.
My 8x57/16 combination grew up in Africa, before she came to me, and accounted for a pretty long list of what we now call plains game and a lot of leopards. If I ever get back, she will be with me.
I've had flirtations with a lot of other combination and drilling rifle cartridges, but I like the 8x57 best.
Bfly

Any pics Blackfly?

I am once again stymied by inserting photos. Sadly i used to write code in UNIX and BASIC, but I can't operate in GUI or on a phone!
If I ever figure it out again, I'll post them.
Bflt

Jeeesh!

Get a cheap desktop and an IMGUR account and post pics like crazy.

Wish we could have made a trip to Africa together, BF.

Pics are easy. This is for my iPad
Go here:
https://postimages.org/

Click the blue folder marked “Choose images”

That should open up a link to your computer photo album

Choose the pic you want to add. Click on it

In the upper right hand corner, click the blue “Add”

It’ll bring you to a screen with a bunch of options with codes. You want
“Hotlink for forums”. On the right there’s a clipboard. Click on it and it’ll copy the link

Bring the link here and paste it in the text reply box.
Preview the reply and your pic should be there. If it is, hit Post Reply and you’re done.

Blaser BBF in 12 over .30-06. About perfect for most of the US

Thanks to all. I've tried all those about over and over and over. I think it was a problem with my antivirus or my home firewall. Maybe, this time it will work.
L2S, Oh, that we could have sat before a mopane fire and swapped lies. What a trip that would have been!



The top one is what I call my Leopard Gun. She has been there and done it. The stock was broken between the wrist and action sometime in the past. I have no story on that. There is a small spot of a finger print of blood rust on the barrel, again no story, but I imagine many different scenarios for both. The stock is refinished, somewhat less than professionally, probably after the stock broke. Those all add to her, for me. It also has a little thingy on the extractor that lets me use rimless cases if need be. I have found she does not like sleet, snow and freezing rain. That freezing water gets inside the action and the action does not work when its full of ice. If I could have only one gun, this would be the one I would have!

The second one is my Meffert Hubertus. She is 8x57JR and 16 dural drilling, with a 22 mag insert in the right barrel. I have a Lee die to squeeze down bullets to 318. She was my fair weather bird gun back in PA. Here in Virginia, I only have woodcock and those I can't use a darn Greener safety for quick shots, so its a deer, turkey squirrel gun.

The bottom one is my Sauer Lux 7x57R and 16 drilling. It has a 5.6x50R full length insert in the right barrel. While the engraving is lovely, it's a serious hunting gun, so the wood and metal both show use. I have the 5.6 shooting to the same point as my 139 grain 7x57 at 100 yards, and a cast load for the 5.6 to the sights at 50 yards. A very versatile gun, that i wish was in 8x57.
Here are photos of some of my 8x57 rounds I noticed that i didn't include my 200 grain partition load. And then some of my stash of 8 mm bullets.




Bfly

I love drilling porn!

That would work...

I haven't owned a combination gun in a long time. When I did, my favorite was an exposed hammer SxS 12 gauge x .30-40 Krag. Wish I still had that one.

Tom

I'll bet that was a dandy big game rig in it's day.

T O M

I'll bet that was a dandy big game rig in it's day.

what the heck is an IMGUR account

Awesome photos BlackFly1! I only have one combo a German cape gun in 20gauge over 6.5x52r (25-35 win). Luv2Safari has been complicit in helping me get it set up and was kind enough to sell me a nice 4x Zeiss scope with rail that I am proud to have done a bunch of work plugging old mounting holes in the rail and getting it fitted to a set of claw mounts that I hand fit to the gun. The shotgun is very tightly choked but stupid accurate with the iron sights (perfectly regulated), same with the rifle barrel. I am load a 110 grain Hornady FTX over 26.5 grains of CFE 223 for around 2350fps. Excited to take a deer with it, going to keep shots within 100 yards. I need to find a suitable coyote load for the 20 gauge that won’t blow me up. I don’t reload shotgun shells so I am at a disadvantage.

Probably was. I don't know much about its history before I "bought" (inherited) it. Unfortunately for me, my dad more or less twisted my arm causing me to sell a good many things I'd gotten from my mom's dad's estate before I got to figure out what they were used for. That's the "joy" of being 13 with a father who is a self-proclaimed expert on everything. If it wasn't an '06 like his it wasn't worth owning and I wasn't old enough to know any better or put up any sort of fight-back. Lot of neat stuff went by the wayside.

Tom

I have a 22hp/16ga and a 22hp/12ga, I am searching for the 22hornet/20ga, any one have one, lets talk, Ken