Looking For New Encore Barrel
#1

I was looking at purchasing a new barrel for my Encore. I was considering the cartridges 7mm Rem. Mag and .300 Win. Mag. I want something with a moderate recoil that can go a long ways. Any suggestions?
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,618

yes a .223 is a good choice that is if your buying your ammo . some thing i discovered some time ago was that a rimmed case cartage is way easer to handle ,mostly to extract ,than a rimless ,unfortunately there are not alot of such cartridges available . and the encore tho accurate is not the most and easiest gun to reload it a hurry so every little bit helps.
for a bigger caliber the 300 mag works very well . but check the head space ,some of them are deaper than they need to be.
for a bigger caliber the 300 mag works very well . but check the head space ,some of them are deaper than they need to be.
#6

From what I gather, you would like the following attributes:
1.) You want a rifle for deer and occationally coyote.
2.) You want a gun that is fun to shoot, which implies that you'd like to shoot it a lot.
3.) You want moderate recoil.
4.) You want it to go "a long ways", which I take to mean you'd like it to be fairly flat shooting.
You asked about the 7mm Rem Mag and the 300 Win Mag. Both certainly meet the power requirements of #1 by a good margin. In fact, if you want to keep pelts, both will probably cause excessive pent damage. I would say that both could be considered fun to shoot in moderation, but as ammo will be moderately expensive it'll cost a lot to put a lot of ammo through it. Also, unless you take your time and let the rifle cool between shots, barrel life in the magnum would be a concern if you use it to plink. You also said you want moderate recoil. This is where both come up a little short. The 300 Win Mag will become uncomfortable quick for most shooters, and the 7mm Rem Mag is also no slouch in the recoil department. While recoil is largely subjective, I personally would not choose ANY maggnum cartridge unless I really needed it, and ten it would certainly not be a rifle I'd shoot a large volume of ammo through. Both meet the requirement of #4 very well, but at a substancial cost.
I'd second the suggestion about the .25-06. It can nearly match the trajectory of the 7mm Rem Mag out to all practical ranges (400 yards), it doesn't kick that much at all, ammo is not terribly expensive, and it will do a very good job on deer and coyote. For coyote you'd still need to carefully select a bullet to minimize pelt damage, but if you just want them dead, it'll certainly do the trick. You also might consider the .243 Win. It's a fine deer cartridge provided you a discriminate about your shot, and is excellent for coyote. It has even less recoil than the .25-06 and is cheap to shoot. Those would be my suggestions.
Just be careful not to fall into the magnumitis trap. Contrary to the opinion of most gun writers these days, you don't have to have a magnum to kill a deer. In fact, in most cases, the people who buy magnum cartridges and all the negative of their added velocity, rarily if ever find themselves in a hunting situation where the added velocity provided then a significant advantage over a standard cartridge in the same caliber. Unfortunately, with all the magnum-mania, there are actually hunters out there who think that cartridges like the .270 Win and .30-06 are marginal for deer and wholly inadequate for anything bigger.
Mike
1.) You want a rifle for deer and occationally coyote.
2.) You want a gun that is fun to shoot, which implies that you'd like to shoot it a lot.
3.) You want moderate recoil.
4.) You want it to go "a long ways", which I take to mean you'd like it to be fairly flat shooting.
You asked about the 7mm Rem Mag and the 300 Win Mag. Both certainly meet the power requirements of #1 by a good margin. In fact, if you want to keep pelts, both will probably cause excessive pent damage. I would say that both could be considered fun to shoot in moderation, but as ammo will be moderately expensive it'll cost a lot to put a lot of ammo through it. Also, unless you take your time and let the rifle cool between shots, barrel life in the magnum would be a concern if you use it to plink. You also said you want moderate recoil. This is where both come up a little short. The 300 Win Mag will become uncomfortable quick for most shooters, and the 7mm Rem Mag is also no slouch in the recoil department. While recoil is largely subjective, I personally would not choose ANY maggnum cartridge unless I really needed it, and ten it would certainly not be a rifle I'd shoot a large volume of ammo through. Both meet the requirement of #4 very well, but at a substancial cost.
I'd second the suggestion about the .25-06. It can nearly match the trajectory of the 7mm Rem Mag out to all practical ranges (400 yards), it doesn't kick that much at all, ammo is not terribly expensive, and it will do a very good job on deer and coyote. For coyote you'd still need to carefully select a bullet to minimize pelt damage, but if you just want them dead, it'll certainly do the trick. You also might consider the .243 Win. It's a fine deer cartridge provided you a discriminate about your shot, and is excellent for coyote. It has even less recoil than the .25-06 and is cheap to shoot. Those would be my suggestions.
Just be careful not to fall into the magnumitis trap. Contrary to the opinion of most gun writers these days, you don't have to have a magnum to kill a deer. In fact, in most cases, the people who buy magnum cartridges and all the negative of their added velocity, rarily if ever find themselves in a hunting situation where the added velocity provided then a significant advantage over a standard cartridge in the same caliber. Unfortunately, with all the magnum-mania, there are actually hunters out there who think that cartridges like the .270 Win and .30-06 are marginal for deer and wholly inadequate for anything bigger.
Mike