Narrow caliber selection down to best 5

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1. .30-06/ .308 winchester for sure.
2. .270 Winchester is a close second.
3. .223 Remington/5.56 NATO for plinking, varmint/predator, and SD.
4. .375 H&H Mag for versatility and dangerous game capability.
5. .22lr for highvolume plinking and for shooting those 'damn crows'
 
In North America

.22 rimfire, small game

.223 or 5.56x45 varmits,

6.5x55 Swede big game, and larger varmits

338-06 Large game, like Elk, Big Bears

30-30 Win big game, hogs, etc, quick handling, deer, smaller bears


Or

In say Africa

.223

7x57 Mauser

.375 H&H

.458 Win Mag or something similar

.338-06
 
I could cover all I do with these:


.22lr

.223 Remington

6mm Remington

308 Winchester

300 Winchester magnum
 
22 rf for small game and plinking.

44 mag carbine for home defense/utility.

30-06 for general big-game hunting.

30-30 for medium-range deer hunting.

223 for shtf.
 
Well, I don't hunt varmints, we don't have prairie dogs or woodchucks down here, but I can with my .257 anyway, so I don't have much use for .22 center fires. So.....

.22 LR (or I'm learning the magnum can do a lot, too) -- cheap plinking fun and squirrel hunting

.257 Roberts -- I have a long history with this gun including my first deer at age 11. Was my grandpa's gun and it ain't goin' nowhere. It'll work for varmints to white tail deer, mulies, and even hogs. It's really all I need, truth be told. It's one of my all time favorites, light on the shoulder, heavy on the game's shoulder. I have worked up 3/4 MOA loads for this gun, it's the most accurate rifle I have and with handloads can pretty nearly match the .25-06 ballistics.

.308 Winchester -- My model 7 stainless is currently my favorite hunting rifle. The little short action is handy, light, rugged, and in .308 it's deadly accurate and enough for about anything I'll ever tackle. It shoots to 1 MOA.

7mm Remington Magnum -- I have used this rifle on deer, but it's overkill. It's a heavy long action gun and doesn't do well in stands or box blinds, but it's got the power to take on the heaviest game in the lower 48. It's accurate and powerful. The bullets have very good BCs and SDs in this caliber, too. It's very flat shooting and hits hard way out there. Also shoots to 1 MOA.

That's really all I care about in calibers, though I have others. I have a .38/.357 lever carbine I like a whole lot, but I'd say that my last choice would be one of my SKS carbines for plinking, general truck gun, medium game hunting if I want to, but just mainly range fun with surplus or import ammo. So the last one is.....

7.62x39 Russian
 
Here goes:

.25 caliber - Lazzeroni 6.53 Scramjet for varmints and smaller game like antelope.

.30 caliber - .300 Pegasus - 180-gr. bullet at over 3500 FPS is pretty fair performance. I'd use this for medium to large game at distances over 500 yds.

.35 caliber - 35 Whelen (which was already mentioned). A big thumper that can easily handle anything in the Continental US.

425 Westley-Richards - One of the classic African big-game rounds. Had to mention at least one.

458 Lott/470 Capstick - For anything else that's out there.
 
22lr
223. rem
25 06
.270 win
358 win


maybe instead of the 25 06, go with 257 roberts and the .270 could be replaced by the 30-06. 358 could be replaced by the 35 whelen or even the 45-70. 22-250 and 223 could be switched out as well...but I'd have to stick with the 22lr for sure!

Dave
 
I have two sets of five calibers

For hunting specific duties (rifles):
1) .22 Rimfire (shorts, longs, long rifle)

2) .22-250 Remington

3) 7mm-08 Remington, 7mm Remington Magnum, .308 Winchester OR .30-06 Springfield

4) .338 Winchester Magnum

5) .375 Holland & Holland OR .416 Rigby

For intense self-defense duties/When Things Go South... (rifles)
1) .22 Rimfire

2) 7.62x39mm

3) 7.62x51mm NATO

4) .338 Lapua Magnum

5) .50 BMG

For sidearm calibers I would choose .357 Magnum/.44 Magnum or .45 ACP depending on the situation. In all cases I would go with a 12 gauge shotgun for special purpose situations.
 
.22LR
.223
7.62x39mm
7.62 NATO/.308
.50BMG

All of these are available for use in plentiful numbers of bolt and semi-auto rifles. Other than the .50, all are available in a variety of loadings anywhere that guns are sold, and all have plentiful components available for reloading (except .22LR, which nobody reloads).

The middle 3 are widely used military calibers with light or modest recoil, thereby facilitating practice/training. The world will never run out of the first 4 of these until rayguns are invented or until world peace breaks out.

You can handle anything from squirrels to trucks with these, though I'll admit that there's a bit of a hole between .308 and .50 - you'll either be undergunned or using overkill on some animals, but the wide availability of the first 4 outweighs this IMHO.
 
22 lr
223
308
6mmremmy
6.5 swedish.
the first two are obvious, cheap and available.308, if you want to take out some heavier stuff at distance.
6mm remmy is the fastest flatest shooting mid cal round ever made, that is not a wildcat, and Academy sells the rounds for about 10 bucks a box.
6.5 is maybe the best all around , do it all cartridge ever made, from 1000 yd target shooting, to taking down game up to elk size. excellent coyote round as well.
 
this is a list of what i'm going to end up owning. still figuring out what i'll use a 6.5 for ...

  1. 221 Fireball
  2. 243 Winchester*
  3. 6.5 Grendel, 6.5x47 Lapua, 6.5-06 A-Square or 260 Remington
  4. 300 SAUM*
  5. 338 Federal

* i own these already
 
.22 plinking, training, small game

.223 shtf/zombies/bluehelmets/aliens/etc

.30-06 hunting

.375 H&H just in case.

12 ga. goes on the list too, but only because it can shoot slugs and fill in for the '06.
 
.22 LR..............................Accuracy / Economy / Versatility(handgun, longgun)
6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser...Accuracy / low recoil / low trajectory
7mm Mauser......................Accuracy / low recoil / low trajectory
7.5mm Swiss GP11..............Accuracy
7.62x39mm........................Economy
 
Well, I have all these so this is what I'd want:

1. .270
2. .22
3. 7.62x39
4. .223
5. 30-06

The only others I have that aren't on the list are 7.62x54r, 7mm Rem Mag, and 30-30.
 
.22LR - practice, plinking, small game, teaching new shooters, cheap!

.223 Rem - "real" round for 1/3 the price and recoil of common bigger centerfires. Great for recreational rifle shooting of all sorts -- any purpose that doesn't need a big bullet or 1000 ft-lb at distance.

.30-06 Spgfld - hunting most medium to big game. Readily available, bewildering variety of loadings in boxes and in books, great balance between recoil, price and capabilities. Every type of commercial rifle and action are mass-produced in this chambering, or in the shorter version, the .308, if you want a smaller rifle with slightly less flexibility in bullet weight.

12 Gauge - true, it's not technically a rifle round, but with a barrel or two on a decent shotgun, you have everything from a poor man's express rifle to a dove hunting gun. Newer rifled slug barrels with sabots turn in performance a lot like the old big-bore carbines.

.44 Magnum - also not technically a rifle round, but a respectable hunting round at iron sight ranges, and easily shared with a holstered revolver. Stand-in for a .30-30 out to 150 yards, and good for predator defense.

Honorable mention:
.50 muzzleloader - fun toy, hunting gun too.

I haven't messed with the real big centerfire stuff much, so I can't comment about that. .45-70 is attractive but I haven't shot it much. Ditto for .300 Weatherby -- the other day, I shot one with a muzzle brake, and it wasn't bad. Without the brake, forget it unless I have a specific hunting need.:)
 
OK, I'll Play...

.22LR or .22Mag Small game & pest control
.30-30 in a lever-gun for a Bambi-getter
.30-06....Well, no explanation is required
7.62x39 OK, everybody has to have a Soviet Bloc gun of some sort
.45-70 for stuff that need serious thumpin' out to 200 Yds
 
Calibers:
.22 LR
.243 Winchester
.30-06
.45-70 Govt
Damned if I can come up with a final one, maybe 7.5 x 55 mm for a swiss K-31 or else 7.62 x 33 mm for am M1 carbine
 
.22 LR - Plinking, targets, small game, etc., and it's cheap and easy to come by.
.223 Win - Targets, varminting; lots of factory loadings, inexpensive, and easy to come by.
.243 Win - Varminting, medium sized game; good factory loadings, relatively easy to come by, and a great intermediate cartridge between the .223 and ...
.308 Win - Long range targets, most big game; again, good factory loadings available (as well as milsurp 7.62 NATO), easy to come by.
.300 Win Mag - When you really want to reach out and touch someone. I almost said .338 Win Mag, but think the .300 WM will do the job on any North American game, and I'd rather have the velocity of the .300 over the weight of the .338. But I'd be happy with either as top-end cartridges.
 
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