seattlesetters

I was talking to a buddy who lives down in Oregon the other day, picking his brain about a new rifle I want to get. This guy takes a deer and an elk every year...you can bet on it.

I was asking all kinds of questions and wanting to know about which cartridges and what rifles..and he said to me, "If it ain't dangeroous, you only need two rifles for all North American big game, pronghorn to moose."

And I guess he practices what he preaches, since all of his game is taken with a Remington M700 in .280 Rem or a Browning BLR in .358 Win. He said if the country is open, he takes the .280...if there is cover involved, the .358 goes with him.

My question is, if you had to have only two non-magnum rifles to take all your non-dangerous North American big game (varmints not included), what would they be?

I'm particularly sensitive to recoil (two shoulder surgeries and one cervical spine surgery), so I would go toward the low end of everything. I think a Remington Mountain Rifle LSS in .260 Rem and one of the new Ruger M77 Hawkeye All-Weather rifles in .338 Federal would work nicely for me.

Antelope, deer and caribou to 350 yards or so and elk or moose to 250+ is all I would ever need. And, both could in a pinch function as a backup to the other.

I'd put a nice, mid-priced Sightron SII 3-12 x 42mm variable scope on the .260 Rem and a great, light-gathering miracle of a Zeiss Conquest 3-9 x 40mm variable on the .338 Federal.

What are your thoughts?

EKM

For me:

30-06
416 Rigby

HogHuntingChik

I wouldn't hunt dangerous game with a non-magnum, unless it was a 45-70 or .450 Marlin.

GCW

My 2 would be,243win in a Remington 700sps,and a 30/06 in a Remington 700 sps stainless.The 243 would have a VXII 3x9x40 and the 06 would have a Leupold M8 4x on it

dayna0306

I would rather die then live without my 300 mag. It is the best all round cal. for all of north america.

dayna0306

ps a muzzel break is worth it's wieght in gold .

HogHuntingChik

Yeah, the hearing loss and exploded ear drum make it worthhile.

skeeter 7MM

I'd buy a 280 rem and be done with it antelope to moose no problem. If you don't reload already then the money saved from the secondary rifle will easily get you going so you could handload whatever you wanted for the hunting situation. Then again if not the type who enjoys tinkering or shooting, just load up 140gr TSX andbe done with it in the 280 rem. Thesame could be said about the 06' but personally I like the 280 rem using the .284 cal bullets better and real life performance is hair splitting between these 2.

For a deer sized 25-06 would fit your model very nicely. As for what you use for moose and elk, 280 rem, 3006, etc could be looked at.

BrutalAttack

You only need one, not two.

.280, .308, .270, 30-06.

My first choice would be .308 with .280 a close second.

EKM

If you are doing remote/away from home hunts then IMHO you DO need two rifles, one to use and one for back up.
Stuff happens out there.