npaden

I would recommend actually physically looking at several different rifles and seeing how they feel to you. One that you may have not heard of that has good reviews for accuracy and quality is a Tikka. It ismade in Finland by the same company that makes Sako rifles. I'm tall with long arms and a long torso so some rifles didn't "fit" me very well. I ended up going with a Browning A-Bolt mainly because of that.

As far as caliber, there is one out there for just about any possible need. I don't buy the comment about short mags being more accurate. They were designed for short action rifles that are lighter and shorter, that doesn't equal greater accuracy necessarily.

The calibers you mentioned are very popular. A .270 winchester is a great all around round but I wouldn't recommend it for elk so if you ever plan on elk hunting you might consider a .30-06 or 7mm Mag.

As far as recoil, the new recoil pads you can buy pretty much tame any gun in my opinion. I could shoot my 7mm Mag at the range all day without feeling any recoil effects.

My 2 cents.

Nathan

ipscshooter

What do you plan to hunt, and where?

I've got Remington 700's chambered in .30-06, 7mm Rem Mag, and .243 Win. My go to gun for deer here in Texas is the .243. Plenty of pop for Hill Country Whitetails, and nice and easy on the shoulder. If I wasn't ever going to hunt anything bigger than a whitetail, I would think that the .243 is all I'd ever need. If you plan to hunt something bigger, and you only have the budget for one rifle, then a bigger cartridge will be a better choice.

Unless you're taking shots at over 300 yards, the 7mm Rem Mag (or any other magnum for that matter) doesn't really do anything that you can't do with the .30-06, and the .30-06 will be a bit easier on your shoulder, and ammo will be a bit easier on your wallet. Other non-magnum cartridges to take a look at: 7mm-08, .308 Win., .270, .25-06. You can review ballistics tables at www.remington.com , www.winchester.com and www.federalcartridge.com . These will give you a general idea about trajectories and down-range energy generated by most any production cartridge. For whitetail sized game, a generally accepted rule of thumb is to require a minimum of 1000 ft. lbs. of energy at the range at which you shoot the deer.

cal516

All,

Thanks for the input. I have some experience in understanding ballistics and what not. I get the concept of bigger cartridges and caliber. I was trying to get more opinions and probe for some input. I am not too worried about the recoil and kick. I am in the military and we shoot a .308 with our M-24 (bolt action), SR-25 (semi-automatic) and .300 WINMAG. I just have not got down in the weeds on all the ballistics. I have a lot more experience in the tactics piece. But again, thanks for all the input. It will help make a more educated decision.

BuckMan8

Well my uncle has a 7mm and it is a great gun. Drops deer in the blink of an eye. But my grandpa hasa 30-06 and it does the same thing pretty much just not as powerfull.

jkelly

Make sure you check on ammo prices before you buy a particular caliber, the short mags are expensive to say the least, especially if you don't reload.