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help me pick my next rifle

Most certainly 270.

The 308s not really good ballisticly. I would stay with the regular size cartridges, ie 25-06, 270, 284, 30-06,30-338, 35 Whelen. I cannot stand the jr sized cartridges (7-08,308). Unless your extremely recoil sensitive there's no reason to give up any velocity over standard.

This should be a 270 vs 30-06 thread. And pick between those based off available bullet weights. Whitetail and smaller, 150 max bullet from a 270 will be fine. Elk or bigger possibly? A 30-06 will let you go north of 200 gr bullets.

I'm a huge fan of 7mm bores though. Great B.C.s at common hunting weights. 7mm rem mag will be most common. And its really a pretty light magnum not punishing at all, definitely worth considering.
 
bowhunthard88 said:
I don't disagree necessarily. However; if my group size was such that center of dispersion (with minimal human error) varied enough, at a typical zero distance, to argue with; I would be searching for a better load.
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Are you confident enough in that belief to test it with your best competition loads?

One simple test. Stack five targets on top of each other, same point of aim. Shoot 3 shots, pull off the first target. Shoot 3 more, pull off the second target and so on until you get to end. Look at the zero for the first group and see if it’s still the same zero as the final composite group.
 
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elevatorman said:
Most certainly 270.

The 308s not really good ballisticly. I would stay with the regular size cartridges, ie 25-06, 270, 284, 30-06,30-338, 35 Whelen. I cannot stand the jr sized cartridges (7-08,308). Unless your extremely recoil sensitive there's no reason to give up any velocity over standard.

This should be a 270 vs 30-06 thread. And pick between those based off available bullet weights. Whitetail and smaller, 150 max bullet from a 270 will be fine. Elk or bigger possibly? A 30-06 will let you go north of 200 gr bullets.

I'm a huge fan of 7mm bores though. Great B.C.s at common hunting weights. 7mm rem mag will be most common. And its really a pretty light magnum not punishing at all, definitely worth considering.
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You guys need to pay attention. He said his longest shot was 150 yards. .308 is more than enough for whitetails at that range. No need for more gun.
 
It's 150 yards max, until it ain't. Until he's hunting and gets a shot at 225 or hunts a new property he didn't have this year. A 270 will do everything better than a 308 with no drawbacks. The one and only thing a 308 does better in my opinion is you can shoot military surplus ammo. But noones hunting with military surplus fmj ammo.
 
elevatorman said:
It's 150 yards max, until it ain't. Until he's hunting and gets a shot at 225 or hunts a new property he didn't have this year. A 270 will do everything better than a 308 with no drawbacks. The one and only thing a 308 does better in my opinion is you can shoot military surplus ammo. But noones hunting with military surplus fmj ammo.
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in your defense the lease i joined this year does have some big fields, one of which i could shoot 225 and probably further. Ive never hunted anything that open or long distance but the opportunity does exist i guess...i would say that 95% of the time my shots arent going to be more than 100 yards. its a good point i need to consider none the less....
 
Dmathews87 said:
in your defense the lease i joined this year does have some big fields, one of which i could shoot 225 and probably further. Ive never hunted anything that open or long distance but the opportunity does exist i guess...i would say that 95% of the time my shots arent going to be more than 100 yards. its a good point i need to consider none the less....
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If that's the case then 7mm all day long lol.
 
Dmathews87 said:
in your defense the lease i joined this year does have some big fields, one of which i could shoot 225 and probably further. Ive never hunted anything that open or long distance but the opportunity does exist i guess...i would say that 95% of the time my shots arent going to be more than 100 yards. its a good point i need to consider none the less....
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Sounds to me like you can build a strong case to go forth and purchase TWO rifles! :tearsofjoy:
 
brydan said:
Are you confident enough in that belief to test it with your best competition loads?

One simple test. Stack five targets on top of each other, same point of aim. Shoot 3 shots, pull off the first target. Shoot 3 more, pull off the second target and so on until you get to end. Look at the zero for the first group and see if it’s still the same zero as the final composite group.
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Actually yes, and have, although not in the configuration method listed lol. I've shot 10-shot plus group strings (regular and round robin), used to shoot 4-5 days per week prior to a match, and have tested match length shot strings at distance (if I remember correctly it was about 50 rounds for 4 stages during the tactical matches). I'm referring to my tactical match rifle setup(s), benchrest and long range are a bit different. IMO environmental, human-induced variations, and load "quality" will affect POI more than the physical variations in the rifle itself on day 1 vs. 2 vs. 3. A zero at sea level and 60 degrees will be different than the same rifle at 5000ft and 10 degrees. Also, being familiar with the amount/direction of shot stringing (if present) is critical as your barrel heats up too. I know if I'm not consistent behind the gun, my zero will be off (how much is the question, and consistency will minimize this).

I'm 100% not disagreeing with you, I just don't think the utilization of the theory is applicable to the general population lol. Is a 1/4" fluctuation in POI between 5 groups enough to justify moving it?
 
elevatorman said:
It's 150 yards max, until it ain't. Until he's hunting and gets a shot at 225 or hunts a new property he didn't have this year. A 270 will do everything better than a 308 with no drawbacks. The one and only thing a 308 does better in my opinion is you can shoot military surplus ammo. But noones hunting with military surplus fmj ammo.
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I’d still pick a 308 over any of those cartridges at 225 or even 300.

I understand some people are nostalgic about old irrelevant cartridges and that’s OK. Some of us even hunt with bows(though for me that’s just for an extra tag/longer season). But a short action is better as a whitetail gun, and 308 has plenty of energy to get it done.

If the question was only one rifle for every hunting endeavor I might agree on a 30-06 or a 270, but the question is about whitetail out to 150yd and for that I’d go smaller before bigger.
 
Scentlok Saddlepants said:
I’d still pick a 308 over any of those cartridges at 225 or even 300.

I understand some people are nostalgic about old irrelevant cartridges and that’s OK. Some of us even hunt with bows(though for me that’s just for an extra tag/longer season). But a short action is better as a whitetail gun, and 308 has plenty of energy to get it done.

If the question was only one rifle for every hunting endeavor I might agree on a 30-06 or a 270, but the question is about whitetail out to 150yd and for that I’d go smaller before bigger.
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I agree with a lot of this. I'm fond of my Marlin 336 in 35Remington for no logical reason, only nostalgia. But l rarely have fun with it due to ammo being $8 a round.....but I'm confident in my .308 out to 500 yards. A box of 7.62x39 military surplus ammo is still pretty cheap for having fun at the range.
 
HuumanCreed said:
I agree with a lot of this. I'm fond of my Marlin 336 in 35Remington for no logical reason, only nostalgia. But l rarely have fun with it due to ammo being $8 a round.....but I'm confident in my .308 out to 500 yards. A box of 7.62x39 military surplus ammo is still pretty cheap for having fun at the range.
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Hoping you meant 7.62x51 lol!
 
I wouldn't go with 270 ammo selection isn't the greatest unless you are going to reload. 6.5 cm or I would highly recommend the 6.5 prc. Recoil is low running a touch over 3000 fps with the 143 eld-x. Killed a lot of deer with that round.

Can't beat the tikas and bergeras for factory rifles in that price range. I put together a tikka 6.5 cm for my boy in a chassis. It is a tack driver. He has killed four deer with it so far. The newer rifle cartridges shoot better since the chambers match the current offering of ammo. Some of the older offerings can be alittle ammo picky depending on twist rates and chambering.

My new 7prc first time out with it after zeroed was shooting less than .5 groups.
 
bowhunthard88 said:
That's a beautiful thumper! I personally don't own any rifles with beautiful wood, thinking about changing that...
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I was brainwashed by my father to hate wood stocks because of the possibly of them swelling, effecting accuracy. Any accuracy differences at the distances I shoot are so tiny and insignificant I don't even think about it. I love the feel of wood especially the checkering. My baby I used this year. Only thing I gotta change is the scope rings which are way too high and effected my check weld. 1000047891.jpg
 
bigmike23 said:
I was brainwashed by my father to hate wood stocks because of the possibly of them swelling, effecting accuracy. Any accuracy differences at the distances I shoot are so tiny and insignificant I don't even think about it. I love the feel of wood especially the checkering. My baby I used this year. Only thing I gotta change is the scope rings which are way too high and effected my check weld. View attachment 96428
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I actually have a Winchester 70 Super Grade French Walnut on order for almost 2 years...
 
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