That's an interesting one...

Not a bad choice. An efficient, effective cartridge, capable of using a wide variety of bullet weights. Has been used to to take game as large as elephants.

280 AI, 22-23" barrel
or
300 WSM, short action, 23-24.5" barrel

both light, but not too light, 6.5-7.5lbs rifle, synthetic, stainless,

I think I need both.

I figured that might raise an eyebrow for someone. I'll admit, it's a fairly subjective choice, not a purely objective one. I rebuilt an ADL in 7x57 as one of my first projects apprenticing under a smith in high school. I built it as a low recoil, long range "practice" rifle, but one capable of hunting any game I might pursue in the lower 48. I haven't shot that particular rifle in over a decade now. I've generally considered it to have been basically the same pursuit as the 6.5 Creedmoor/6.5x47L rifles popular today.

Objectively, I thought about 7-08, 284win, 280, 6.5-06, 6.5 swede - heck, my knee jerk first thought when I saw this thread was 7mm Rem... But the 7 Mauser has held a place in my heart a long time, and it'd do all of these species quite well.

Boring pick.... BUT.... for me it's the .30-06.... Lots of load options. Plenty of umph for everything in the lower 48. Plenty of range. Plenty of available ammo...


Can load light, can load heavy... or can pick a quality bullet in between and have one load for everything...


Lots of good answers to this question. But my safe will always have at least one '06 ready to hunt with.


-Jake

Well, for 35 years I only owned one centerfire rifle, in .243 Winchester, it did fine but we don't have elk in NC...

gonna be different, a mike mille built AR-15 chambered in 358 wssm, with a 2x8 loopy with a TMR reticle and an M1 elevation turret.
RR

I'll have to take my 300Wby. It may seem like to much for the smaller stuff but I have never had a single animal compain it was too much gun to kill them. It is topped with a vx3 3.5-10 Leupold. Load is the 180 Barnes ttsx and max charge of rl19. It has taken every kind of game animal I shot exept Prong Horns.

wild bill g, they complained, you just couldn't hear them after that roaring .300WBY round.