Caliber Suggestions

[deerhunter12345]

I am a beginner hunter and trying to find a good hunting rifle. I looked at different calibers of hunting rifles and sort of narrowed it down to these 4:

- 270 Winchester
- 30-06 Springfield
- 308 Winchester
- 7 MM-08 Remington

Which of the above calibers would you recommend? 30-06 keeps coming up in a lot of places, so I'm kind of leaning towards that one. But I wanted to find out about the other ones. $500 would be my cut off and I would like it to come with a scope. Nothing fancy, I probably won't even know the difference. I guess I just want to make sure that the rifle itself is a good one.

I will be hunting big game in Colorado, although one of the things that's attractive about the 30-06 is the wide range of ammunition that it can take. It said that with lower grain bullets you can hunt smaller game, which would also be nice. Any comments would be very appreciated. Thanks.

you got some good ones there and any would work and well but i still think the 06 if its your only rifle for the reasons you mentioned. welcome to the club

[sir smackabuck]

They are all great cartridges and if this post stays active long enough to get 100 post you will have a bunch of different people telling you different reasons why this cartridge is better than this one and probably have a lot of people tell you the same thing that I am getting ready to say; You can't go wrong with any of these cartridges for deer hunting. They are all great cartridges for deer and other North American game. Choose the one that feels right to you when you shoulder it and the choose the bullet that "your" gun groups the best. In the end it is all a personal preference..........

Oh yeah, me??? .270 everytime, out of these cartridges

[Hunting Man]

I'll keep it short, all 4 are great. If you are sticking to deer (maybe elk someday) then the 270 would be my first pick. Followed : 30-06, 7mm-08, 308.

[Karl.Luhr]

You are looking at a group of cartridges that doesn't contain a bad choice. I would start looking at rifles, my suggestions are the Marlin XL7 and XS7. The letter L or S says wheither it is for long action cartridges or short action cartridges. The 308 will have less kick due to less velocity compared to the 3006 if both are using the same bullet. The diameter of the 270 is really .277 and the 7mm08 is really .284 so they are pretty close. For the same weight bullet say 140gr the 270 will be faster and kick a little more. Any place I have seen ammo for sale 270, 308, and 3006 were available. The 7mm08 is a great deer cartridge but it isn't as popular as the other three. It is simply a necked down 308 and has only been available in factory loading from the 1980s. If you want to hold your spending to 500.xx I would plan on entry level rifle like the Marlin or a Savage, and plan on spending the other 200.xx on a quality scope. Unless you plan on upgrading the scope in a year or two I wouldn't spend 450.xx on the rifle and 50.xx on the scope. Package deals where the rifle and scope are bundled together do not give you much in the way of a quality scope. It was said very well in other posts, get out to gun shops and try several different rifles out for feel. They are that different and one will fit you better than the others. Remember that when hunting deer in the upper midwest at least you should plan on having thick clothing on, this will change the way the rifle feels. I think you are in for some fun shopping.

Karl

[onehorse]

These posts pretty much covered the subject, so there's not too much advice I can add about choices. All of those calibers would be adequate for deer, elk and any other Rocky Mountain game. Your $500 limit would be quite a stretch for a scope AND rifle, at least for anything that was new. You might have to consider a used rifle and scope. Nothing wrong with that as most rifles outlive their original owners. Bill Ruger once said that gun manufacturers were in competition with themselves because the guns they made lasted so long. Here's a tip on getting a used scope: some manufacturers guarantee their scopes forever - even extending this to non-original owners. Leupold and Burris are two companies that do this, and they are both excellent quality. I favor the Leupold because of the overall quality and long eye relief. Good luck.

[Rozman62]

- Marlin XL7 or XS7 for $270 -300 (comes with scope mount)
- Leupold PRW steeo low rings for $55
- Nikon Prostaff 3x9x40 for $160
- Total $485-$515 (within your budget)

You won't be disappointed. The demand far outweighs the supply on the Marlins so the prices are starting to increase. It may be considered an entry level gun but is as accurate as a gun twice the price tag.

[WisconsinDeer]

My recommendation would be a Stevens bolt action rifle in 30-06 (or maybe .270), and it's well within your budget. I've got one in .243 and its a really nice gun. Its basically a Savage 10 without an accu trigger. I would definitely buy one of these again before I would buy something like a Remington 700 or a Browning A-bolt. Very, very nice rifle for the money.

[rdrader2002]

Have a Savage model 111 in .270 and it works great on deer here in Texas. My father-in-law used a lever action .270 (forgot manufacture and model) for decades in the mountains above Boulder for anything from deer to elk. He still has that rifle and it's in great shape. Would hate to be on the other end of that thing if he ever got mad at me for marrying his daughter<grin>(even though we celebrated 30 yrs together this week).

[Hunting Man]

You should be able to locate a remington model 700 and a scope (used in great condition) for $500.