Choosing a caliber

S

Sisco

New member
I'm in the market for a rifle, at present do not own any large caliber rifles with the exception of Turk Mauser.
I'll be using it for deer once a year, varmits like coyotes & prarrie dogs the rest of the year. Trying to decide if I want a .243, 25.06, .257 Roberts or 30.06. Leaning towards a Ruger 77.
 
First of all the Ruger 77 is one fine rifle. As far as the caliber goes in my opinion the .243 is ok for deer but slightly on the light side, but is fine on varmits. On the other end of the spectrum that you listed, the 30-06 is one GREAT deer rifle but a little heavy for varmits. That leaves the .257 Roberts and the other one you mentioned is the 25-06. Actually these are not all that far apart but of course the 25-06 has about a 200 fps or so advantage over the .257. Of course you could have the chamber re-cut to .257 Improved but then you would have to reload, fireform, etc. and would still be a little shy of the ballistics of the 25-06. I am prejudiced because I own one, but to me I love the 25-06. With either 75 or 87 grain bullets its a hellofa flat shooting low recoil (but loud) varmint rifle, and with the 117 or 120 grain bullets its still very low recoil but deadly on deer. I one shot kills if you do your part (even if you don't do your part sometimes). I also have no doubt that the Ruger 77 will be just as accurate as my Rem 700, and that my friend is way less than 1" at 100 yards. (but the other calibers you mention will also probably be as accurate)
 
Don't forget the 7/08...

Why just one rifle tho? Look at the Savages... You can get a good deer rifle for $325 (shorter skinny barrel, light stock), and a good varmint rifle for $450 or so (long fat barrel, nice big stock)... Every Savage I've got will shot under 1MOA - My 110 skinny barrel .243 shoots 3/4, my 110FP .308 shoots 1/2, and my 12BVSS-S .22-250 shoots and honest 1/3... My $2,000 BR rifle shoots better than a quarter inch or so... Which means that about 0.15" cost me about a hundred bucks per hundredth of an inch...
 
My brother is the big varminter of the family. He has three Savage rifles for the purpose. .223, 22-250 and .243. The first two are his main long-range little-critter rifles with heavy barrels and such. His .243 with a lightweight barrel is his "Walkin' around" rifle, or, more specifically, his "Walkin' around lookin' for the odd coyote" rifle. Depending on the situation he will use it for little critters, yotes, and deer, although he has heavier calibers as well for the antlered-ones.

My brother is one person who has been on the leading edge of the gun control movement for years. Back a couple of decades ago when they first started talking about "one gun a month" legislation, he took it to heart. Of course, he considered "one gun a month" less as a restriction and more of a goal. If only he would share some of his tuned turnbolts with me. ;)

Rick
 
A Savage isn't out of the question. I'd love to have multiple-calibers, but the wife has adopted a policy she likes to call one-gun-a-year, if that many! In the last 3 years I've bought about eight, so I see a slow-down in my future. (Something about new furniture.)
 
SK, If you don't have a rifle in 30 06 now is the time.
As far as versatility in the bullet weights that it is happy with it has no peer. If you reload you can spend the years that you are purchasing new sofas etc. working up a new load. 52 grainers in sabots, 110 gr hollow points, on up to 220 grainers moving at 2500 fps or so. If you don't reload you can buy most of it at the store.
 
Hank, I have a 22-250 for small critters etc. but i do agree with what you said about the 06 I guess thats why I have 3 of them. Now a question, have you reloaded using the .224 bullets and sabots and what kind of luck did you have with them? I am always open to experimenting :D.
 
everyone should own a rifle in at least 2 NATO calibers

.223
.308
30-06

ya gotta love 1000 round cases of ammo!

dZ
 
Dont rule out these two choices either.

6.5 X 55 Mauser, one of the best small bores.

.270 Winchester.
 
I do reload, that's one of the reasons I was giving the 30.06 consideration. Seems like there is a lot of data and plenty of bullet styles & weights to choose from.
 
My first '06 shooting was on jackrabbits. Back then, I used the old Hornady 110-grain Spire Point. My father, uncle and I would go out at night, particularly after an afternoon shower, and find the jacks feeding...Centerpunch one with the '06, and the coyotes could enjoy bite-sized pieces.

Another fun, although short-range, load was the old .32-20, 80-grain flat-nosed bullet swaged to .308. A large amount of 3031 gives more velocity than the law allows. It also wreaks real havoc on small varmints and coyotes.

:), Art
 
I've given the versatility issue quite a bit of thought, and I have decided that if I had to do all my centerfire shooting with a single caliber, it would be .25/06 Remington. It's flat-shooting, powerful enough for large deer, bullets suitable for varminting are available for it, and it's pleasant to shoot.
 
I fear you...

I can't argue with that choice at all.

The thing that worries me, though, is that if you only have one rifle you will likely become a better rifleman than those of us who have more rifles than we can count. You'll be familiar with how it shoots, the loads, whatever.

I think it was Colonel Cooper who said, "Beware the man who owns but one rifle; he probably knows how to use it."

Rick
 
Dunno - a guy who only owns one rifle and shoots a lot probably has a stuffed barrel :)

Serious, owning many guns means your shooting wear is distributed across them - and any downtime on one you can still use others.


Battler.
 
Concerning that famous quote, IF the Colonel said that, he did not mean that as an exclusive comment. For sure, the man who can only afford one rifle will be proficient with it, but that doesn not mean that a man who owns 1000 rifles is NOT proficient. I'm sure the good Colonel owns more than one rifle, but I'd bet he's proficient with all of them. I truly doubt that the Colonel said that...it was more likely some guy that could only afford one rifle.

BTW, my definition of a "rifleman" is a man who can pick up any rifle and within a few rounds, he can use it within 97% of it's capabilities. Therefore, if a man can use a rifle well, it should not matter whether he owns one, or a hundred.
 
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