carbine mike

Hard to beat a 30-06. Reasonable recoil, lots of ammo choices and will take any animal in North America.

CalHunter

I agree on the 30-06 but given your main choice of animals (whitetail, black bear and someday elk), you might also consider a .308. It has a milder (not mild) recoil, is .30 caliber, comes with larger bullets for the black bears and elk and, most importantly, is widely available on the shelf if he's not going to reload.

Jbergy

300 win mag was my first big game rifle and I shoot it just fine. Not saying that is perfect for him but if that's what's available for him then try it. It's great gun. The 300 wsm doesn't have as much recoil so he might look into that one.
As for first big game rifle a 270, 308, 25.06, 264, 30.06 are all good choices too.

Colorado Luckydog

Best big game choice in my book. I'll tell you why. It has great ballistics and will reach out there. It doesn't kick as hard as a lot of the magnums. Not much harder than a 30.06. It has a short action and a short barrel, That makes it easy to pick out the scope you want and easy to haul around the mountains. The ammo is a little expensive but easy to find.

I still have a 30.06 but it is not my go to rifle. I use my 300 WSM for everything from antelope to elk.

MNDan

30-06 does it all. Start with managed recoil loads and move on up to whatever u need to kill anything in north america. There isn't another caliber with more loads, and inexpensive to boot.

homers brother

Remember that recoil goes beyond just the rifle's chambering. Newton's laws apply, particularly the first, and specifically that an object at rest will remain at rest until acted upon by another force.

That rearward force generated when a projectile is launched is countered to some degree by the amount of weight it has to move. A heavy rifle in a heavier chambering is more likely than not going to generate less "felt" recoil than a light rifle in a less-heavy chambering.

Recoil is also impacted by the very weight of the projectile. 90 grains may not seem like much, but there's a big difference in recoil between a .30-06 launching a 220-grain bullet versus the same rifle launching a 130-grain bullet.

And then the physical layout of the stock itself. Think of it like this, the more in-line with your shoulder the bore is, the "sharper" the recoil is going to be. On the other hand, the less "flip" you'll experience with the muzzle. The AR-15/M-16 is a good example of this. Sharp (albeit light) recoil with little to no muzzle flip.

I'm a firm believer that the cartridges in the .308 family make the best trainers (.308, 7mm-08, and the .243). While many hunters "feel" that their marksmanship is adequate, in truth it's often mediocre to marginal - and their errors are compounded when they start talking and trying to shoot at distances beyond 300 yards. If you're proficient enough to hit an animal generally in the body, you're going to have to learn to follow blood trails. If you're proficient enough to hit an animal precisely in the vitals, you're probably not going to be trailing many animals very far. A heavy-recoiling (regardless of the chambering) rifle certainly contributes to poor marksmanship.

Sheridan

This might be worth showing your friend;

http://elkhunter2.tripod.com/rifle.html


Remind him that good shooting form is paramount when handling big bores !


I'd start with something he can use for most deer hunting first.

Forbushman

A Benelli R1 Comfortech 30-06 will be a great gun as a novice and one he can shoot at the age of 70.

150 gr would probably be a great starting round.

Colorado Luckydog

If that is the same comfortech that they have on their shotguns, I love it. I've never shot a Benelli rifle though.

cgsharkhunter

Thanks guys my friend appreciates it. I think he's narrowed it down to 270 and 3006. But like always I don't think he's gonna stick with just one gun.