Best all around hunting rifle?

[Boomer58cal]

No question... 30-06 in the rifle that fits you best. 100gn for varmints and up to 240gn for moose. Done. Simply the best overall cartridge ever devised.


Boomer

[shurshot]

.270, I like Remington, but Winchester, Howa, Savage, all make great bolt guns in .270 too!

[Marksinsoni]

My LeEnfield M4. Chambered 308.

[Kachok]

An all weather, stainless, light weight highly accurate 308. My first pick of rifle would be a Savage 16, Winchester 70 or Tikka T3. I own all three of those brands and they are all superb, find which one fits you best.
Tikka is the most accurate of the bunch, and has the smoothest action and best trigger, but the factory recoil pad sucks. At 6.25lbs it is also the lightest of the three I listed.
Winchester 70 is a Mauser action which I LOVE! It also has the best feel of any rifle I have ever handled.
Savage 16 is the most customizable and comes with the best recoil pad of the bunch.

[dylanf55]

definitely my stainless Tikka T3 lite in .270 with my redfield revolution but i have a 3x9 and i wish i would have gone with a little bit bigger scope but all around i am very happy with my set up it just " feels right " in my hands and to my shoulder.

[JD0x0]

A BAR in .270win.

The .270 with can be loaded with light 83,85,90,100,110,115,120,130 grain for ultra flat trajectory's perfect for smaller game. The standard 130 and 150 grain loads are extremely versatile and can take game up to Elk especially the 150 grain bullets which have fairly high sectional densities, better than a 180 grain in .308 caliber. If the 150's aren't enough you have choices in 160, 165, and 180 grains.

The 180 grain bullets in .277 have a SD of .335
Pretty impressive if you ask me...

.308" (7.62mm) 220 grain, SD .331
.312" (.303) 215 grain, SD .316
.323" (8mm) 220 grain, SD .301
.338" (.338) 250 grain, SD .313
.366" (9.3mm) 286 grain, SD .305
.375" (.375) 300 grain, SD .305
.416" (.416) 400 grain, SD .330
.458" (.45) 500 grain, SD .341

[Meeteetse]

Lots of good suggestions and lots of good reasons for the suggestions. One thing that I have always considered is ammo availability. In today's market and the shortages many types of ammo are hard to find, but even when the market was normal and shelves were full, certain types and calibers are not available everywhere.

I have hunted most of the western U.S and especially the Rocky Mtn states over the last 50+ years. On two occasions, ammo was lost. One case it was a boat accident and the second time it was just plain forgotten by one of the hunters in our group. Easy, we just go to the nearest town and buy more. Problem was we were nearly 100 miles from a big town. The little mountain towns we went to didn't carry much. They had .243, .270. 30/30 and 30/06 and that was it. In both cases I asked if anyone in town carried other calibers and the answer was. . "no, cause no one buys them. . " At that time I made up my mind that I would always have one of those calibers with me, even if it was a back-up rifle. Lack of ammo being available made a big impression on me. It can happen even in this modern age and it made me appreciate how spoiled we are.

So I guess my answer to the question is 30/06 even though it is not my first choice. Usually in a Ruger or a Winchester. But, I will also have a light weight mountain rifle with a quality 2x7 scope in .308. For that I like the Ruger Hawkeye Compact.

I hope I am never limited to one rifle. I like having different rifles and calibers for different jobs. Little for little jobs and big for big jobs and everything in between.

[Paul B.]

It has been said that all a man really needs is a .22LR, 30-06 and a 12 ga. shotgun. Might be kind of boring but there's a lot of truth in that statement.
IIRC, the OP asked about only being able to have ONE rifle and what cartridge would you choose?
Seems like the majority appear to approve of the 30-06 which did not surprise me. I did see some disparaging remarks about the .308 Win. One example "The .308 is a really bad choice for moose and really not very good for elk either." All I can say is, "Oh really?" It is generally agreed upon that the 30-06 on average is about 100 FPS faster than the .308. Big whoopie! How many times have you heard someone say, "The animal won't notice the difference."? it's a;most impossible to find 220 gr. ammot for the 30-06 and the only figures I can find were from some Remington ammo. It said their load was doing 2400 FPS. Of course, no one loads the .308 with a 220 gr. bullet and shortly after it came out, Winchester dropped the 200 gr. load from the .308 line up. Now if the 220 gr. 06 load was considered a decent moose load, why wouldn't a .308 only 100 FPS slower not also work on moose, or elk for that matter withing range? Oh but you say, "nobody would load a .308 with 220 gr. bullets." I say, "Why not? I sure certain individuals are lighting up their flame throwers as I type this. I can only speak from experience. I have loaded the 220 gr. Hornady round nose to 2310 FPS in my Winchester M70 with 22" barrel. Accuracy was superb with groups running from .375" to .75".
The late William David Maitland "Karamojo" Bell who killed over 1,100 elephant, most with the 7x57 Mauser once opined that the .308 Win. with a 200 to 220 gr. bullet, full metal jacket would probably be the perfect elephant gun for his style hunting. While I would be a lot more comfortable with my .35 Whelen while facing one of the great bears, I do believe a 220 gr. bullet at 2310 FPS would do a credible job.
For those curious enough to exlore the matter further, here is the published data.
Powder: Win. W760
Start:42.0 gr./2177 FPS/42,000 C.U.P.
Maximum: 44.0 gr./2295 FPS/46,900 C.U.P.
Winchester brass and standard primer.
From my rifle velocity was 2310 FPS
So to answer the OP's question, yes I would consider the .308 for most hunting I would ever do but my final answer would be the 30-06. The rifle would be based on a Mauser action, preferably Oberndorf but a clone by FN is perfectly acceptable.
Paul B.

[sc928porsche]

For me, 300WM. For "Florida" deer I use 130 gr (I now live in south east alabama). For Ak moose and bear 220 gr does a good job. 180 gr seems to work good on Id elk, and 150 gr seems to work well on mulies (Ut, Nv, Ca, Id and Co). Just personal observation.

I use a variable 4-16 scope.

[20thru45]

I have an all around rifle. It's a Winchester model 70 LH classic stainless in .338 win mag. Floor plate screwed shut, iron sights, 22" barrel and quick detach warne rings. 30-06 is a little small in Alaska when you have bear trouble.

Once you add Alaska to the mix that determines your minimums.

[FiveInADime]

I am thinking that as long as you have a hypothetical endless supply of ammo, any rifle in .50BMG is the best all around hunting rifle. Especially if ocean hunting is a consideration because you could conceivably kill a beluga or killer whale with one. As a bonus you could shoot down aircraft relatively easily. I know someone is going to comment on wasting meat... all I have to say is there ain't much meat in an animals head and if you can't get close enough for that you are probably a coward.

[KBP]

Wow! Nobody even read the question! Their is a difference in a hunting rifle(Ruger M77, Winchester M70, Savage Mod99, Winchester Mod94 etc) and a rifle caliber! Maybe the poster meant best rifle caliber or not, but the question asked was not the best all around rifle caliber!

[603Country]

KBP has a point. Based on what I've hunted with and what rifles I own, for the OP's needs I would go with a Stainless rifle with synthetic stock. It would likely be either the Ruger Hawkeye or the Model 70 Winchester. Caliber would probably be 30-06, though I would consider buying it in 300 Win Mag. I reload and could tailor the Mag to whatever I needed - loading it down to 308 levels or to full 300 Mag levels, while having an endless assortment of bullets to choose from.

[Brian Pfleuger]

If the OP has an actual need, I assume it's been addressed, since while folks may or may not have read the actual question I don't see any realization that the OP was 2 and 1/2 years ago.

Besides which, the question pretty clearly implies both a firearm model AND a cartridge, since it says "rifle" and lists animals to be hunted.

"Rem700" doesn't tell you anything about hunting moose, it could be chambered in .22-250.

If you check at least the first page (you know, 2 1/2 years ago) most responders listed both a specific model AND a cartridge, which is clearly a much better answer to the actual question.

[WildBill45]

Winchester pre-64 in .375 H&H ... Africa to Alaska to Florida... sights would be a fixed power scope, with detachable scope mounts, and express sights...

[jimbob86]

For me? The one I am most familiar with- mine!

Seriously: with all the advances in bullet construction coupled with a good handloading set-up and skills to use it, there is nothing in North America, or pretty much anywhere on the surface of planet Earth that I could not successfully hunt with my .270WIN.

I honestly think that most all of the Caliber Wars are a "Great Lot of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing" ..... within reason, there are not really a lot of differences in the end results between any of the major centerfire rifle cartridges..... the greatest variable in the equation is going to be the shooter ..... the rifle he or she is most experienced and comfortable with, and confident in, is going to be a much more more important factor than a couple hundred ft/lbs of energy or 6" of difference in trajectory....... provided the shooter understands and has practiced with the tool in question, under realistic conditions ..... as long as the shooter understands the problem, and uses reasonable tools to solve it, the minutae of the matter is relatively unimportant.

Nigh a century ago, Karamojo Bell killed hundreds and hundreds of elephants with a .275 Rigby (7x57 Mauser) and FMJ bullets ...... further evidence to me that "It is the Man, not the Machine", that matters.

[Art Eatman]

And five pages is plenty-nuff to provide food for thought. But rest assured this subject will show up again.