Thinking about an all around rifle. Am I thinking right?

[Loyalist Dave]

.243, .25-06, heck even a 6.5 x 55 would be a good choice, especially if you reload, so look into what's available to you based on budget AND accuracy, and the cost of the rounds if you don't reload. The best cartridge with the best bullet in the world launched from a poorly made barrel isn't the best anymore.

LD

 

[Kachok]

OK here is the beakown.
308. Plenty for any deer, overkill for enything less, ammo is everywhere and cheap. While not "zippy" it has an acceptable trajectory.
270 win. Flat, fast, hits hard. Will drop anything this side of a trophy elk with proper bullet selection, like the 308 is an overkill for smaller game and has a recoil/report to match it's power.
22-250. Darn near perfect varmint round, but like all .22 cal is best avoided for deer and larger, not enough mass/momentum/caliber/SD/BC to be recomended + not legal in most states for deer.
243. A good choice for sure, low recoil and has enough umph to cleanly kill any deer with proper bullet and aim. Good trajectory but avoid marginal shots at all costs due to lower than avarage penatration.
6.5X55. My personal all time fav, virtualy no recoil, acceptable trajectory, legendery accuracy, best retained energy of all small calibers, plenty of mass/momentum/caliber for clean kill on any deer/elk. High SD standard weight bullets (140gr) have gone through and through 100% for me. Tied with 30-06 for the most versitle caliber around.
25-05 My second choice. Super zippy trajectory, modest recoil, flat shooting enough to be a varmint round, and hits hard enough for any deer. like the 6.5x55 handloads are noticably faster then factory fodder, and they both have very loyal fans. Word of caution the quarter bore has a loud bang in shorter barrels.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

You can get 55 grain bullets in Remington ammo for a 30-06 rifle. I love my 30-06 rifle. That rifle plus my 30-30 lever action are my only two hunting rifles and I'm quite happy with what I have.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

I know this is my first post but I have ben floating around here for a little while taking in all the knowledge. Anyway, I am looking fo a rifle to hunt Gound hogs first (only thing I can really use a rifle for here in NJ) but I would like to be able to hunt hogs some time and Maybe a whitetail hunt down the line. My biggest catch is I can only use 100 gr bullets(max) for ground hogs. This kind of limits my cal. choices. The 243 I hought of first but I keep hereing` they will be to small for deer. Then I was thinking 270 but finding a 100gr in 270 is tough...real tough. Which brings me to the cal. I have come to settle on. 25-06 I can find shells in 100gr and If I did my research correctly it is a good compromise all around. My question is...Is my thinking correct? or should I be considering something else?

I was also looking at a savage arms rifle...good choice?

Thanks

This is the reason I picked a 30-06. I can get ammo for any game in North America. Savage 110 are great rifles.

 

[303tom]

.25-06 just my 2 cents !

 

[MCgunner]

I think it's been 30 years since I took a deer or hog with a factory load. Reloading is what serious riflemen do to optimize accuracy and power in their rifles. My .257 Roberts will shoot 1/2 MOA groups if I eat my cherrios and 3/4 MOA even if I don't. It spits a 100 grain Game King out at 3150 fps and a 117 grain Interlock out at 3050. That's plenty of medicine for hogs and deer in my neck of the woods. .308 isn't exactly hard to find at gun shops and anywhere that sells ammo, but I've never fired a factory load in my .308 caliber rifle. Only reason I've fired factory 7mm Rem Mag is a guy at the range gave me a box of Federal Premium 160 grain loaded with partitions. Quite accurate in my Savage 110 if I ever need an elk load.

As to Savage rifles, they're accurate, great guns for the money. Of course there are better rifles out there. Savage is a value type rifle, plenty of hunting rifle for much less than a Remington 700 or X Bolt or Winchester M70. Others, Remington 710 comes to mind as well as the old 788, have offered budget rifles. Compared to some of these, the Savage is THE rifle of choice IMHO. Mine's an old one, pretty much a Stevens 200, no accutrigger. But, I adjusted it down to 3 lbs and very crisp, very good trigger. You might consider the Stevens. The accutrigger, IMHO, is a bit of a sales gimmick. I've shot one, not really any better than my old school 110. I like my trigger at 3 lbs. My Remington triggers will go a lot lower, but I keep 'em all the same. 3 lbs is as low as I could adjust the Savage. You JUST DO have enough feel with winter gloves on for a 3 lb trigger. Any lighter and the gloves have to come off. I shoot just fine with a 3 lb trigger, even won some local bench rest shoots with my old Remington 722 and 3 lb trigger setting, so it works for me. Don't need no stinkin' "accutrigger".

 

[MCgunner]

You can get 55 grain bullets in Remington ammo for a 30-06 rifle. I love my 30-06 rifle. That rifle plus my 30-30 lever action are my only two hunting rifles and I'm quite happy with what I have.

I've heard that the saboted .22s in .30 caliber, Remington Accelerators, are iffy for accuracy. They're expensive at any rate and I've not seen the sabots available for handloading. A .243 would be MILES better for woodchuck and no worse on deer/hogs. A .30-06 would be prefered for big game like Elk, but the OP doesn't mention elk IIRC. So, I'd keep away from 30 cal stuff, go no bigger than .257", to get a good varmint caliber that's also a good deer/hog medium game caliber. The rifling twist will stabilize a varmint bullet as well as a 100 grain deer bullet in .243. In .257, the 60 grain stuff is notoriously unstabile in a rifle with a 1:10 twist. I'd shoot 100 grain in .257 if I varminted much. 87 grain stuff is 1.5MOA at best in MY rifle from experience. My 100 grain handload shoots 1/2 to 3/4 MOA. You're not likely going to get enough accuracy out of a factory load .30-06 in a varmint weight bullet. With a 55 grain full caliber bullet, you'd be lucky to hit paper at 100 yards. You'd need a slower twist and then it wouldn't work with the heavies.

Me, I'd stick with the .243 and live happy. To 300 yards it'll kill deer just as dead as .30-06 and on chucks you'll actually have a chance (if you do your part) to HIT what you shoot at and it'll be a lot nicer on your shoulder in the process. Actually, I think .25-06 is a bit much for chucks, but it's a better choice by FAR than .30-06. .22-250 would work best, of course, but the OP is for a "all around" chuck/deer rifle caliber and that describes .243 quite well IMHO.

 

[wishn4more]

All about ammo availability

Bagel, both the .243 and .25-06 are sufficient to cover your game choices. I have a .257 Roberts, but I keep wanting the others. I think that you should decide by your factory ammo choices, and how you think you'll purchase...
Realize that if you like buying in a store vs buying online, then you probably want to walk your local stores and see what you can actually purchase off the shelf. You will likely see your local market skewed toward one of those calibers. If you decide you only buy online, then it's a toss up, and you just choose. Good luck and good hunting.