ORIGINAL: 4MSDeer
I might even buy me a rifle too...see, I don' t have a wife NOR a girlfriend at this time, so I' m free to do as I wish
What calibers are good for what?
I' ve heard the 30.06 is good for medium distances in the brush and out. The .30-30 is a good brush gun and the .270 for longer open shooting. Is this all true?
And what about the 7mag.?
This is discussed a lot on this forum as well as every hunting and gun forum I' ve read. So, if you do a search and hang around here, you' ll get as many opinions as people who answer your question
.
IMHO, for " Joe Just-wants-a-good-hunting-gun" as opposed to " Joe Makes-a-hobby-of-it-and-loves-ballistics-and-fine-tuning-performance" there is very little perceivable differences in what the 30-06, .270 and 7mm will do to an animal in the field. Yes there are differences in the three, but they are really " on the margins" for and a typical, even serious hunter probably won' t notice them very much at all, imho.
I' m " Joe Just wants" , but I' m not criticizing " Joe Makes a Hobby" - it is a great and interesting hobby and I learn a lot from him. I think he' ll weigh in on this too.
OTOH, the 30-30 I think is a significantly different type of gun, but won' t do much of anything the other three couldn' t do. If you have a slug gun, imho, one of the other three would give you a more versitile gun set than adding a 30-30 to a shotgun.
Even among those who have favorites, it seems almost universal agreement that the 30-06, .270 and 7mm are all extremely versitile guns. They are kind of the " Big Three" , along with the .308, of all around hunting guns.
There may be " ideal" guns for any given situation and game, but I think a strong case could be made that with shooting practice, familiarity with what the gun can and can' t do, and proper selection of scope/sights and bullet, all three (along with the .308) would work very well for anything you will probably hunt, from white tail in the woods, up to and including fairly long shots for moose and elk. All three (4)are reasonably comfortable to shoot.
I have a 30-06 with a 2/7 variable Leupold scope, and hunt moose and deer and hope to hunt elk and/ or antelope some day. I have absolutely no motivation to buy a different gun among those you mention, except maybe to have a back up. The gun has served me well in all situations I' ve encountered so far. The only *very small* second thoughts I' ve ever had is that a 7mm *might* be *slightly* better for a *small* number of situations I' ve encountered, without sacrificing anything except possible comfort in shooting it. That or a 300 win. mag., even more specialized for moose or elk, would probably be my second gun, if that ever happens. Just MHO, FWIW -zeke