Overlapping Calibers for North America

My choices

.22 Long Rifle for everything up to rabbit and perhaps for short range predator whacking up to raccoon size.

.223 Remington/5.56x45mm Nato for predators and close range, precise shot deer hunting as well as varminting out to long range with proper powder and bullets.

.243 Winchester for light recoil deer hunting and overlaps with varminting and predator hunting with a change in powder and bullets

7mm-08 Remington or .308 Winchester/7.62x51mm Nato for deer hunting and short range elk hunting.

7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum or .338 Winchester Magnum for deer hunting, but mainly for elk and moose, with some bear hunting.

.338 Winchester Magnum, .375 Holland & Holland Magnum or .458 Winchester Magnum for elk or moose, but mostly bear

,45-70 Government or .450 Marlin for brush duty or short range deer, elk, moose and bear hunting

12 gauge for overlap with small game, varmints, predators, deer, elk, moose and bear, but limited to short ranges, though can be role change with a barrel, choke and/or ammuntion swap.

The specific calibers might go up or down a slightly depending on the person, but I'd say the selections would cover just about anything in North America. Any two rifles chambered in calibers next to each other on the list could back up the other one, that is, a .22 Long Rifle and a .223 Remington could back up each other, somewhat, to a point. However, a better mach for varminting might be the .223 and .243 or deer with a .243 and 7mm-08/.308 and so on.

Granted, these are just my choices.
 
" Jseime
Senior Member

Join Date: 12-31-2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 769

Ill keep er simple for ya.

.22lr for the little stuff
.30-06 for the big stuff

North America...Done and if you want to throw in Africa add a .375H&H"
WOW! that's my rifle selection!!!!
I'm probably going to sell the 375, and move to an open site, 458 Lott, or, 450 Nitro 2 double.
If the 30-06 won't work, I'm not a long range hunter type, but, I am a short range stopper type. Hence, get the open sites, and shoot to save my hindparts.

Now for meth lab areas, I'd like an M1A, or maybe a Garand. Then I don't need another caliber, or, I could sell the 06, and move to 308.

Course I could dump the 30-06...

For pistols:start at 454, and, my favorites are 480, 475 Linebaugh, 500 JRH, and, 510 Maximum.
s
 
Ill keep er simple for ya.

.22lr for the little stuff
.30-06 for the big stuff
Click to expand...

~+1!

might want a 12 guage just for all round use aslo...

why get all kinds of fancy ammo and need to stock all different powders and things, i like .30-06 and .270 for my centerfire rifles and .22lr for plinking...
 
I go by bullet diameter and case size

In my collection I have:

.22 Long Rifle (Ruger and Marlin semiautos)

7.62 Nato (for a SMLE 2A1)

.30-06 Springfield for M1903, M1917, M-1 Garand

.303 British for two No. 1 Mk. III* and two No 4 Mk. I

.30 Carbine for a Universial M-1 Carbine

7mm-08 Remington for a Lone Eagle single shot pistol

.45 ACP for a M1911

12 gauge for a Mossberg M835

If I were to add more firearms they would be necked up or necked down on the .308 Winchester brass (.243s, ,more 7mm-08s and 7.62 Natos/.308s), be 30-30, .30-06 or .300 Winchester Magnum for the .308 diameter bullets, 7.62x39 and .303 British for the .310 to .312 diameter bullets and add more 12 guage shotguns as well as add a 5.56/.223 rifle and carbine or two, handguns in ..38/.357 and .44 Magnum, 9 mm and more in .45 ACP, perhaps a revolver or two in .45 Long Colt, .454 Casull or .460 S&W (all use the same diameter bullets).

With bullets, powders and primers I can easily standardize on brands with just various bullet weights that can overlap the cartridges. No, I don't HAVE to have that many, but I like variety and I also look to the fact that if I have to scrounge I want to have common bullet diameters with my selections so I could harvest components from what is around. That would mean I could pull bullets from .308 bullet diameter cartridges to load what I have or I could pull from 7.62x39, 7.62x54R or 7.7 Arisaka to get bullets for my .303 British.

For hunting I can afford to use fun cartridges like .243, 7mm-08, .223 and save more potent chamberings for defenesive work. Actually, that is more how I feel about what I have more in military calibers, save them for more serious things and have fun with the less popular rounds.
 
i'll play
22 squirrels rabbits cats plinking

22-250 small game target cats cyotes

308 deer bear cats target

30-06 deer cats bear

338wm elk bear cats plinking .......................................deer

12ga 3 1/2 upland game birds targets cats skeet

curiosity wasnt the only thing!!!!!
 
I'll play too:

.22lr for small eatin' critters

.223 or .22-250 for blowin' up small stuff and for dogs.

.30-06 for any big game in N. America.

Should we not also own a 12ga? Not all game is Earthbound.

A .454 will shoot .45LC for bad guys, birdshot for snakes, and heavy loads for heavy critters.

Now if you want a 7mag .300mag or a .338mag you are not wrong. Or you could split the varmints into 2 calibers. I've tried fast .22s on deer & speed goats, but they don't offer the "BOOM-FLOP" performance of a true deer rifle.
 
CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT...

....But for a while, Maas was the suspect!




I actually have this on a T-shirt, substituting "I" for Maas of course.
Remember: feral cats are hard as heck on small game. Wisconson even
has a bounty on 'em I hear.
 
where can i find that shirt i need it. i used to have problems with cats being droped off at my house. at first it was one or two then it became 23. since i have no neighbors, target pratice would start after work.
 
I tend to think about this too...
.22lr ... you just gotta have one.
.243 can shoot varmints, or whitetail etc.
.300 wsm anything bigger... i guess you could replace this with someting in the .330-.340 range but i think for my real world lower 48 hunting this would do, probably ok in alaska too.
 
I agree with timnic about the .243 (I have one I shoot 100gr for deer and 55gr for varmints such as yotes, prairie dogs, etc...)

so here is my list (I have all the calibers pluss many more "filler calibers")

.22LR for squirrel, etc..
.243 for varmints and small/medium deer and antelope
.7MM Rem Mag for elk and larger deer and small black bear and small moose
.338 Win Mag for Buffalo, moose, elk, bear
.416 Rigby (can shoot .416 remington in guns chambered for rigby) for Grizzly, moose etc.. and the occasianal charging vehicle or dinosaur risen from the dead :D

as far as shotguns a good 12 gauge is all you need for everything that flies and lots of the above animals(just choose different size shot for different game)

A good combo gun in 12 gauge and .243 or .270 would be perfect as a universal/survival gun
 
.30-30 - little stuff, up to mule deer.
  1. 110gr varminter spirepoints at 3000fps +
  2. 180gr stompers at about 2200fps.
  3. 150gr plated plinkers at about 1000-1600 fps using a pistol powder, can do quite well on bunnies, coyotes, possum... Might negate the need for a .22LR
Spirepoints may not be useable in a tube mag, but you still can have 1 in the pipe + 1 in the mag for hunting.

.338WinMag - big stuff, 200gr + projectiles for everything up to elk, griz or moose.

2 guns.
 
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