Need a hunting rifle, need advice

[lawrnk]

I've just read the article in guns an ammo about the new savage edge, apparently a very accurate rifle chambered in 223 Rem, 22-250, 243 Win, 25-06, 270 Win, 7mm-08, 308 Win, 30-06 Springfield, with a MSRP of 329. Street prices for the nicer one with a bushness 3x9 is 270!

I only own one rifle that could be considered a hunting rifle, the marlin 336w in 30-30 with a 2x7 scope. This savage does not have the accutrigger, but is apparently very good at getting sub MOA groupings.

Has anyone tried this rifle?
Any recommendations on what caliber for hunting with it? I know the 243 and 270 are popular. Will the 308 and 30-06 be overkill for medium game?

[G.A. Heath]

What are you going hunting with the gun? You say medium game but what do you consider medium game? Dear, hogs, elk?

[Dan20703]

You can use a 30-06 to take anything in north america. A .270 will handle anything in Texas.

[gigag04]

I like the 7 Mag.

[Carry-a-Kimber]

7mm-08 is my go to hunting rifle. It will take Elk and anything smaller. The 7-08 has a super flat trajetory and keeps its energy well. That said, accuracy is more important than anything. You can hit a whitetail with a 2-lung, heart combo with a .223 and its DRT. With a hunting weapon I always try to be intimately knowledgable with both the firearm and the optics/sights, so I know their limits and will have a good, clean kill.

[lawrnk]

What are you going hunting with the gun? You say medium game but what do you consider medium game? Dear, hogs, elk?

largely whitetail and hog, but I may be hunting in Colorado, soci

i'd like to have some options.

[troglodyte]

I have the Stevens 200, the previous "budget" rifle from Savage in .308, .270(sons), and .223. All shoot much better than I can. That being said I would opt for the 30-06 if you think you're going to get to CO and hunt elk. Certainly other calibers can and do take elk but for simplicity, availablility of a wide range of bullet weights, and overall versitility I'd give the nod to the 30-06. It will be an all-around rifle for you until you start to specialize.

The only reason I went with a .308 over the 30-06 is the local gun store had a used .308 on the shelf at a price I couldn't pass. I was looking for the Elk to Hogs rifle and the .308 is pretty much a ballistic twin to the 30-06 (common factory ammo).

If you're staying in Texas, the .270 is hard to beat and some say it is an elk cartridge but I can't vouch for that. If ammo were readily available the 25-06 is a nice little round.

I like to try to keep things simple. I do a little reloading but mostly buy factory ammo until I can really get geared up reloading. I literally made my decision on rifle purchases by standing in front of the Academy cartridge display. The 25-06 was an early front runner but I saw only two offerings in that caliber on the shelf. When I saw boxes and boxes of .270, .308, 30-06, the deer rifle decision was made. When I was looking for a coyote rifle...same thing. .223 v. 22-250, what caliber was represented best on the shelf? Now many may not agree with this techinique but it the way I did it.

Realistically, you will shoot a few different types of ammo to sight in and see what flavor you rifle likes. Then you'll shoot a few rounds each year. Unless you are a prolific hunter, one box of shells will probably do you a year. So, if the 7mm-08 is to your liking, get it. Buy a few boxes of shells, get it sighted in and find what it likes and buy up a few boxes of that specific cartridge. Stuff them in the back of the safe and you've got a life-time supply of a cartridge you know works. After that you can experiment with cartridges as they become available on the shelf or you start reloading.

Good luck and enjoy your rifle.

[RiverRat]

I can't speak to the new Savage, but I can speak to their 110 in .308 and 116 in 30.06. Very accurate. No a 30.06 is not overkill for deer hunting. One thing about 30.06 is it has about the widest selection of bullet types and weights available....from 95 grain to 220 (and more) on the shelf everywhere, from the small country stores to the large box store. It's not that much different from the 30-30 bullet weight that you are shooting in a normal hunting weight for whitetail deer ~150-160 grains.

The accutriggers and the Savages I have are very accurate. I know I said that, but they are. My choice for a universal, one caliber hunting rifle would have to be, without a question in my mind, the 30.06, because of the several factors.

Commonality.....almost everyone has one, which leads to the other advantages;
Availability of ammo, anywhere there is ammo, find a .337x56 round in the general store in Zephyr, TX., they do have 30.06.
Wide range of ammo types, uses, weights, etc
Versatility of rifle used for hunting various game from varmit to bull moose
Cheaper ammo
Cheaper bullets
Cheaper reload sets, particularly used

I have several good hunting rifles in several calibers, and they all have their uses and advantages, but given your quest for a single caliber for a hunting rifle, I would have to recommend the 30.06 as the best choice for an all around answer. There are very few hunting senarios that having a 30.06 would be viewed as a disadvantage. Good luck and happy shopping.

[sgerry]

Marlin XL7, in 30-06. GREAT trigger and $345 online.

Fondle one if u can. it's what im buying.

[couzin]

Dude - you are going to get a lot of different opinions on this one - here's mine. That Marlin 30-30 is perfect for most stalking and hunting across small plots on East Texas deer (and super for those hogs - although I prefer the brush busting .35 rem chambered Marlins). If the shooter is handy with the .30-30 - it will take pretty much any game animal in North America if you can get the range down to less than 100 - 150 yards (yea, yea, I know - 'shot one at 300 plus yards with my Marlin blah blah' - too risky for me and I can't chase a wounded animal). The other great caliber bolt gun for here and pretty much everywhere is the .30-06 and most of the .30 caliber variants (I really like my .300 WSM model 70 - yep, it kicks also, but flat and accurate) - these calibers are good enough for any North American big game animal, except possibly the big bears. Recoil will likely be an issue though with the magnum calibers. As others have said the .270 is a great cartridge and will take pretty much any deer or other four leg with lesser recoil. The only concern I have heard about is using lower grain bullets in the .270 and if you intend to go after mulies or elk you should probably load it with a 150 grain bullet. Of course, then you start losing muzzle velocity. I understand a lot of folks are giving two thumbs up to the 7mm Remington Magnum loaded with lower grain bullets because the recoil is manageble and trajectory is flat as heck out to 300 yards (after that you hold over but not as much??). But then, you come full circle back to the original part of your post - your area to hunt and what animal you are after. Ain't too many opportunities to take 300 yard shots in the woods of East and Southeast Texas. I'd have at that Marlin for a while if I were you and see if you actually have a need to shoot further, and at tougher game.

[G.A. Heath]

The 22-250 and the 243 would be a little light for those in my opinion (More of a varmint round). The 25-06 is on the bottom end of what I would suggest. Everything else you listed is more than capable, in my opinion, of doing what you want if you can stand the recoil. I know a gentleman who swears that my .270 is the devil's own spawn, but has no problem shooting his .308 which is setup identical (Manufacturer, model, stock, scope, ect.) to my .270. My advice is to shoot some bolt guns in the different calibers you are considering and decide which one you like the best. I would suggest you try out the 308 or the 30.06 first. As for the Savage I have to say I have never been disappointed by one, although I have not shot that model.

[cbunt1]

You realize, of course, that asking what's the "best caliber" all around has been a campfire argument since the dawn of the rifled barrel, right?

At any rate, after many many campfire/coffee table discussions with hunters and shooters, knowledgeable and otherwise, along with personal experience with a few different Texas Whitetail hunts...

I love my .270 and my .243. Neither has ever failed me for Texas hunting. Karma has been good to me, and neither has left me tracking wounded animals more than 50 yards either.

I wouldn't hesitate to pump up my .270 with 150gr slugs and go Elk hunting. But that's just me. I've also turned down a number of shots because (1) I didn't feel like gutting a deer this evening before I had to drive home, (2) I didn't feel like extracting 150# of dead weight from the river bottom that day or (3) I was saving a tag for a particular reason...and would have no hesitation doing the same with a .270 on a questionable shot on an elk...

SOOO....if I had to pick ONE caliber as a generic hunting rifle, it'd be a .30-06 with a good 3-9 (or equivilent) scope, due to the wide availability of factory ammo, various loadings and literally tomes of reloading data for specialty purposes in that caliber.

A .308 WIN would be a close second. My reasoning is that these two cartridges have probably spawned more wildcats and "specialty" rifles than any other cartridges out there. They're good baselines, and for hunting "Good enough" is really "good enough".

[The Annoyed Man]

I am partial to .308 myself, but there are other good cartridges. I like this one because it is a very forgiving cartridge that seems to do most things well, and it can be made to shoot very, very accurately. It is not overkill for medium game. In fact, it is ideal for medium game, including humans, if that is your application.

The .308 is limited compared to the .30-06 in available bullet range, topping out at about 180-200 grain bullets, with bullets in the 150-175 grain range being optimum depending on barrel twist. A .30-06 will let you throw heavier bullets up to 220 grains or so, but the .308 is a more efficient case design, which is why you get nearly .30-06 ballistics out of a short action cartridge (which is what led to the .308's development in the first place).

The .308 is limited compared to the .300 Win Mag, both in available bullet range, and in terminal velocity. The magnum will give you flatter shooting, longer range, and heavier bullets. It will also beat the dust out of your clothes and off your hat each time you pull the trigger. A day at the range with a .308 is a lot of fun. A day at the range with a .300 Win Mag is a workout - at least in my opinion - and it will cost you more.

The .270 and .243 are both good cartridges, but consider that the first is a necked down .30-06, and the second is a necked down .308. Both are flatter shooting than the .308, but both are limited in bullet weight choices compared to the .308. The .308, pushing a 165 to 180 grain bullet will bust brush better than either the .270 or the .243. And while the .270 has a pretty good BC giving it accuracy, it has much sharper recoil than the .243. The .308 is better at longer ranges than the .243, and better at extreme ranges than the .270.

For those reasons, I think that the .308 is a better "all around" cartridge than any of the other choices. None of them are bad, and all of them really shine in one area or another, but the .308 is just all around good in all areas.

There are great rifles of all kinds. I am partial to bolt rifles, and a .308 bolt rifle is pretty hard to beat for a lot of applications. But that said, as others have posted, if you're hunting in heavy brush all the time, maybe a lever rifle in a .35 caliber cartridge is a better choice.

If you are serious about the Savage bolt rifles, you could do a lot worse. My son has a Savage 10FP-HS Precision tactical rifle in .308, and it is a tack driver. It is the rough equivalent of my Remington 700 VSF, also in .308. The Savage was marginally cheaper, but not by enough to make a difference. The Accu-trigger works very well, although it took me a little while to get used to it. My Remington's trigger breaks like a glass rod at 2.5 lbs., so I was initially skeptical of the Accu-Trigger, but it does work as advertised.

All of the Savage barrels I've seen on several different models were fully free floated, which is good for accuracy. I can't speak for the quality of their sporter weight barrels, never having shot one myself, but the 24" 1:10 heavy profile barrel on my son's rifle is very good and it throws 175 grain Matchkings into tiny groups all day long.

Sorry about the long post, but I hope all this helps.

[Hamourkiller]

Flip a coin between the 30-06 and 270. Which ever side the coin lands on is your choice, since it is luckier than the other. Stick a 3x9 leupold scope, base and rings on it and you are ready to hunt North America with the best general purpose rifle.

I like both cartridges and cant tell the difference in killing power. At typical deer ranges they kill with authority. You will be well served with either.

[budroux2w]

I have a Savage in .270 and it will take down anything in Texas and accurate enough to do a neck shot at 100 yards. I can't speak for the newer Savages, but for my lil old 12 year old gun I love it and it will always be my go-to hunting rifle.