Help me choose a caliber!

[nastynatesfish]

Owning a 280 and a 7 mag is kinda silly. They do almost the same thing. If I was going to do it again Id probally go 280ai instead of 7rem mag. Your comment about 28 caliber bullets but wanting a 7 rem is interesting though...it's the same thing. 28cal=7mm

 

[Catpop]

Pick the old 300 super thirty, it will do anything the 300 Win Mag will WITH LESS POWDER and a milder recoil! 150 grain for punching paper/long range, 180 grain for general hunting, 220 for close stopping encounters of the worst kind.
That said, the old 270 Win pushing a 130 is a highly efficient cartridge that seems to be forgotten in the maze short mags and other cartridges available today
Good luck, catpop

 

[Pete D.]

Pick a caliber. The 7mm Remington Magnum and the 280 Remington (30-06 necked down) and the 7mm-08 are all the same caliber.
You like the .30-06. You like 7mms....go with the 280.

 

[d2wing]

The .270 is fine if you go that route, but you are not gaining anything over the 06 unless you want to shoot lighter bullets with less recoil. You are not extending your range because 30 cal bullets are more stable at long range. The 7MM with tend your range to well beyond normal hunting ranges with power to take down anything you care to shoot. Although to a slightly lessor degree the same could be said of the 06. The .270, .280 and 7-08 are nice but I have found you do not gain velocity by necking down cartridges. The choke effect cancels the lighter bullet to a large degree. 7 MM is the minimum size for LNG range accuracy. But if you are not shooting beyond 400 yards it doesn't matter. I like the 7-08 for a lot less recoil yet effective to that range. If I am going beyond that I have a 7MM and an-06.

 

[Blacksmoke]

You are right about 7 mag being popular here. Ammo is usually available at stores, as is .270. .280 will have to be ordered on line.

I have a .25-06 and it is just fine for antelope, mountains goats, sheep, coyotes. For some reason, our local Walmart always stocks it.

I would go with the 7 mag if I were shopping for a new rifle.

 

[MCgunner]

Why not a short action rifle that will carry well and shoot just as good as a rifle 2 pounds heavier? Think about the rifle, not just the round you'd chamber in it. The newer short magnums are popular for this reason.

I have a .25-06 and it is just fine for antelope, mountains goats, sheep, coyotes. For some reason, our local Walmart always stocks it.

It's a very effective deer round, mulies included. Heck, I even know one fellow that hunts elk with his. A little light for me for an elk rifle, but makes a great bean field gun. When Remington came out with the "Sendero" models with the fluted barrels, for shooting down long Texas brush country senderos or so it was said, the first caliber I remember it in was .25-06. .25-06 is a popular whitetail caliber in Texas.

 

[Gtscotty]

So out of curiosity, did you wind up with the .270 spoke of? I've actually sold the one I mentioned in this thread and wound up with another one... Just curious how your caliber choice worked out.

 

[Werndl]

Cant go wrong per se with just about any reasonable choice, just wondering on what u decided on. Love the .280 but theres a lot of sentimental factors riding upon it. These days a 250gr bullet going 2900 + makes me feel kinda indifferent to most others so take it for what u will. I love this ride we have all embarked upon. Love this life!

 

[Leanwolf]

RPRNY - " ... Never could get it to shoot in the cold. Light primer strikes."

Just a WA guess here, but I wonder if there is either a weak firing pin spring in the bolt of your S&W rifle .... or, is it possible that the channel in which the firing pin & spring travel is gummed up with grease or coagulated oil???

If so, during really cold weather out in the hunting fields, that congealed grease could cause the spring to not move forward with its full strength. Or the firing pin itself might be restricted in the very cold or frozen grease.

If it were mine, I'd take the bolt apart and clean the firing pin channel thoroughly, and perhaps try and find a new firing pin spring.

By the way, I've killed bull elk, Black bear, Mule deer, and antelope with my .280 Remington. Nothing wrong with that great cartridge.

L.W.

 

[B!ngoFuelUSN]

I have a pretty simple theory for these types of questions:
1. If you have money for two bolt rifles for hunting game in N. America buy a 30-6 and a 270. I'd make sure both were Tikka Hunters or T3 Lite's but that's for another post.
2. If you have only enough cash for one, I'd buy a .308 (also a Tikka). It's pretty simple.
3. If you want to add a corollary to the theory, then if you can afford more than the two items in category 1, add a 6.5 Swede just because.
Anything more than that and you're collecting, not buying. Nothing wrong with that though. Just noting the difference.
B

 

[CB900F]

RPRNY;

I've hunted Wyoming and Montana big game for decades, currently living in Montana. The pronghorn can be very successfully hunted with either the .30-06 or the 6.5 Swede. I've taken goats with both calibers. The ought-6 has downed a nice pronghorn buck at 470 lazed yards, and I've hit gongs at 675 with the Swede. Learn to hunt the speed goat and you won't need anything other than what you've got. And speaking of what you've got, you need a .270 like you need another hole in the head.

The .444 will do just fine for short-range large animal work, but starts to resemble a mortar more than a rifle when the range is extended. I've got a .338 Winchester magnum, and I'll freely admit that it's a screaming beach to shoot off the bench. But, for one shot on an elk at range, it's what you want to have and you'll never feel the recoil. Use a 225 grain bullet and it'll go through a 4" pine tree and drop the bull on the other side of it at 400 yards. That 225 will, depending on your load, leave the muzzle carrying somewhere around 3500 to 4000 ft. lb's. of energy. Enough to get the job done on bear, moose, or elk, even if they're on the other side of a coulee.

Know the gun, know the cartridge, know what it'll do, and go hunt. But, study the hunting, you'll make it a ton easier on yourself.

900F

 

[Nature Boy]

If someone is reloading, I would think anything in the .30cal family would provide a lot of flexibility.

 

[Garrobo]

You already

own a .30-06. Why look for another caliber? The 06 is the best all-around caliber known to mankind for N American hunting. Save your money.

 

[3212]

Check out PA long range deer hunting with 25-06.

 

[RPRNY]

Long time since I've checked in. The S&W I Bolt has a well documented fault in the bolt, so it's a design fault not a rectifiable cleaning issue.

Seven months after they offered to replace it, Smith and Wesson have done nothing but make empty promises. Any goodwill they may have gained has been lost. What a surprise.

 

[Reloadron]

In my opinion you have a little of apply & orange in there. For example the 7mm-08 is a great little round, one of several spawns of the 308 Winchester, along with the 243 Winchester and 260 Remington. The common denominator here is the 308 case and case volume. The 270 Winchester is a nice cartridge well exceeding any of the 308 family I mentioned. While not quite the spawn of the 30-06 and actually the spawn of the 30-03 the 270 Win is just one of those all around excellent cartridges and for all simple purposes a 30-06 necked down to a 270, close enough without getting OCD.

From the cartridges you mentioned? My choice, and just my thinking, is the 7mm Remington Magnum. If there is a legimate parent it would be the 375 H&H Magnum. Nice feature is large case unlike the 308 flavors or even 30-06 with plenty of case capacity for propellent. So we get a large case with plenty of volume pushing a relatively small diameter but long bullet with great ballistics which shoots very accurately and flat at long distances.

While this subject can be argued to no end my choice is the 7mm Rem Mag based on the data and location you posted. If you were in for example West Virginia or Pennsylvania I would have said 7mm- 08.

Ron

 

[Skyshot]

7mag is perfect for the area of the country your in.

 

[AKElroy]

.25/06 really needs a 26" tube; not a hairs difference in effectiveness between the .280 rem and the 7mm RM from A 24" tube; factor in the cost of the 7 mag to shoot, and this is an easy choice for the .30-06 IMO. I have not used my 7 mag in 8 seasons now. It really messes up the smallish whitetail in my neck of the woods. I stick with a .308 or .30-30 99% of the time. Since those are not on your list, .30-06 is my choice.