Ak473006

I need input. Looking to get a new gun. But first I need to know the best caliber for elk deer and an occasional antelope ( if I ever draw )

stalkingbear

For elk ideally a .33 or .35 caliber bullet pushed a decent speed is hard to beat but overkill on deer & antelope. The 35 Whelen is a great cartridge, 1 of my all time favorites. From the 3 cartridges you listed, I'd grab the 30-06. If it's too far away to shoot at with a good accurate 30-06 with a good load & bullet, in MY opinion it's too far to be shooting at in the 1st place! I recently semi-retired most of my big game size rifles to make my Browning A-Bolt 30-06 my 1 go to do all rifle. There's a lot to be said for the old saying "beware the 1 gun man, he likely knows how to use it, very well"! You get intimately familiar with the trajectory so it enables you to be a better shot cause you already know exactly where the bullet is going. The 30-06 is capable of using any .308 bullet, from 110 gr all the way up to 220 gr. Personally I settled on 2 loadings for the 30-06 to cover all possible uses I'll personally have for it. 150 gr Nosler Ballistic tip and 180 gr Nosler Accubond. You COULD use the 300 mag or 7mm mag but then you're burning more powder for more recoil and higher powder consumption.

Sheridan

Worth the read......................

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

flags

I've been shooting a 7mm Mag since I was just a lad so my nod goes that way. But in all honesty, there isn't enough difference in the 3 to make a lot of fuss over. Any of them will take anything in North America and most of what walks on earth.

CalHunter

From you post, it sounds like you wouldn't hunt antelope very much. All 3 calibers are good for elk and deer but kind of overkill for antelope. If you aren't going to hunt elk very much, you should think about which caliber (and rifle) would best serve you at the distances you normally hunt deer (likely the animal you'll hunt every year). Hopefully this helps your thought process some.

tndrbstr

I give another nod to the '06... but as has been mentioned, the critter ain't gonna have much say in either one of them you choose.

Big Uncle

Since you already own a Ruger .30-06 you must really just have the itch for something different. Your .30-06 is a fine rifle that will do everything you want it to do and the 300 and 7mm magnums will not be vastly different for elk and deer at the ranges that you have previously mentioned.

Why not try something a bit different and think about keeping your .30-06 for elk and deer and adding something like a .25-06 or .257 Wby as an excellent deer/pronghorn rifle?

If I only owned one rifle to hunt North America it would be a .30-06.

uncle matt

IMO nothing to go over here. As Flag, with the proper bullet and load, any of the 3 will do the job.

So to me the question is which ammo will you find readily available and at the lower prices?

9 times out of 10 it will be the aught six.

Mr. Longbeard

I like a 7mm Mag... Great for antelope !!! And for everything else your thinking about...