Hunting & Fishing If you could only have one centerfire rifle to hunt with?

#53
I love all of the responses.

My personal call at the moment is a semi custom Left Hand Savage 11 308 rebored to 358 Win (by JES Rebore), Boyd’s maple stock, Timney trigger, topped with a simple Leupold VX2 3x9. 225gr SGK @2465fps. Not the fastest or flattest shooting rifle I own. But I sure love hunting with it.
 
#59
Well, I shoot a Ruger American chambered in .30-06...topped with an old Redfield scope. It's pretty lightweight, puts rounds in sub MOA groups, cost me about 350 bucks when it first came out (rifle, can't remember about the scope) and it's always done me good. Not the fanciest thing in the world, but for hunting, it does the job very well. All my money goes toward my precision rifle stuff haha.
 
#61
Without question I’d take my old M24 chambered in 7.62x51 with the same Leupold Ultra M3A 10x42mm. I had so much DOPE on this gun it would be the only thing I’d ever need. Definitely not the best piece of hardware on the market especially in 2019, but man that sucker was a tack driver and I probably put over 1,500 documented rounds through it with excellent results.
 
#62
Fixing to put such a rifle together. It will be a bolt gun in.30-06, CRF action, probably Winchester, likely a Manners stock, Bartlein barrel, light palma or slightly smaller. Probably a NF of some sort in a set of badger rings. Still looking at all the options, but the end result will be my all-around gun. Informal long range shooting, and hunting from coyotes to moose. Figure on shooting it a lot, and learning it backwards and forwards, the whole beware the man with one gun concept. I was looking at the 6.5 Creed, but the ‘06 does very well at the things I want to do, I am not concerned with the recoil, and I already have the stuff to load for it. And while the 6.5 will work for larger game, the .30 just offers more.
 
#63
Right now, I'm really enjoying my t/c prohunter in 35 whelen. I put an APA little b* on it and it's very pleasant to shoot the 250sgk, which likes to kill stuff. Scope wise, I'll be moving my LRHS over to it when I take the 2.5-10x50 Monarch 7 off of it.
 
#64
My old and trusty Post '63 M70 Featherlight, 30-06, Weaver V-16.

My philosophy about hunting rifles is that they should not emulate something else, like a bench rest gun. Heavy barrels are intended for sustained fire, to absorb the heat without barrel deflection. Shooting sustained fire is for prairie dogs, not whitetails.

My M70 has been, alas, passed on down to the descendants, and I'm attempting (feebly...) to make do with a Savage Axis II 30-06, but in a Boyd's laminated stock that utterly transforms the rifle into something both shootable and promising, accuracy-wise.

Its not there yet but only because there are other projects in the queue. Call it a work in progress...

Greg
 
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#68
Not a big fan of fixed powered optics, but that rifle was something else. So many better options out on the market today, and I’m fully aware of the outdated set up. This gun though was just one of a kind. Deadly accurate, glass was excellent even for a Leupy. Gun was just top notch.
 
#69
My preferred and always attempted POI on game is a heart shot. I've flattened them on the spot with muzzleloaders, shotgun slugs, CF rifles and pistols. I've also had them with the heart blown completely in 1/2 run up to 100yds, with all the above mentioned firearms.
I do everything possible to avoid higher body shots through the lungs. I want two holes low in the body to promote, if needed, the best blood trail possible.
Place that shot correctly and you can kill them with a marble. I also believe it can depend on the alertness of the animal at the time. In general, an animal completely relaxed will drop much faster than an alert animal.
One of my earliest bucks shot with a recurve bow, was completely unaware of me or any other danger. He was feeding just outside the woods in a grass field. The arrow took him through the lungs and stuck out both is sides. He jumped straight up in the air and when he came back down, just looked around. Then he walked a short distance in circles and just laid down. Never knew he'd been shot.
 
#70
My first deer with a bow did the same. 10 yard broadside pass through. She jumped about 10 feet and went back to grazing before toppling over. I thought I had missed at first.
 
#77
Current setup, traded another member here for the xlr evolution. This is the night hunting configuration. Current plan is to chop the barrel to 16.5" and source a folding adapter to get it nice and compact. It will be this year's hunting setup, and hopefully I'll smoke some pigs next week.

 
#78
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#83
If this a shtf scenario and you had to choose one to hunt for survival, taking in cosideration where I most probably would be. It would have to be a .308 win. That and the .270 win. Fill the shelves of almost every gun store or store for that matter in souther MO. And white tail would be the most common game.
 
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