Best "all purpose" caliber

[rugersol]

7mm Rem Mag!

[minnesotatv]

Hi, I'm new here and have begun a quest to find a good "all purpose" rifle. I'd like this rifle to be capable of long range prairie dogs (my father in law wants to take me to ND with his friend and prairie dog hunt) and still capable of taking deer and maybe elk. I'll have access to reloading equipment and plan to get the most use out of whatever round I chose. I'd also like the round to be capable of taking shots out to 500+ yards when I start to get into longer range shooting. So far I'm looking at .30-06 (because it's so popular and everyone recommends it,) .270 (because now that I live somewhere where you can use a rifle for hunting I see tons of .270 users and it seems like it has potential) and .25-06 (because people have been recommending it to me) Are there any other rounds that would fit my needs better? What one would be my best choice?

go with .270Win and don't look back.
Grand old cartridge that's been around for 88 years.
.270Win is capable of everything from Varmints using 90gr bullets up to moose with the Nosler 160's.
IMO a little less recoil than 30/06.
Just about all the manufacturers produce .270Win ammo, and pretty much everybody stocks it (I've
seen it in gas stations out west).
Just about all the bullet makers produce bullets for it.
88 years of testing and reloading data out there.
And if Berger gets their act together you just might see a new long range 170gr hybrid bullet that's
going to give everything else a run for the money.

Learn to shoot it.

[Holland&Holland]

Well the answer to the true all purpose caliber is and has been for 100 years, the .375 H&H.

Now to answer the OP's question I think you are stetching it by asking it to go prairie dog to elk. If you want to do that either .308 or .30-06 is about all you can ask to do that. If you wanted to go .25-06 and you handload you might be able to make it work using trophy bonded bear claws for elk but that would be asking a lot of this round.

If you wanted deer and pdog then I think the .243 is going to be your best bet, Better bet is to get you .30-06 which will cover just about anything you need and someting in .223 for Pdog.

[BigDog58]

I've had the pleasure of doing just what you are planning to do. I did it all, in a one week stretch. We started hunting Praire Dogs on Monday and ended up taking a Mulie on Sat. I used a Weatherby Vangard in 30/06. I didn't hand load at the time so I convinced a buddy to do it for me.
For the "dogs" he loaded me some 70 gr. Accellerators (I'm pretty sure it was 70 gr but it was 15 yrs. ago) and for the Mule Deer some 180 gr. Ballistic tip rounds. I wish I could contact him to get what the loads were, but he has since passed away. I do know that he called ALL of them "Hot Loads" so I'm guessing he had them at or very near Max powder charges. I'm a Big guy and not once, did the recoil bother me (I was also still in my 30's).

I still have this gun and shoot 300-400 yd targets all the time now. Being disabled, and not knowing anyone to hunt with in MN has stopped my hunting for the last 12 yrs. I hope to someday, make friends with someone here in MN that will help me get to hunt again. I have a ground blind just need the place to hunt and help setting up the blind and putting my wheelchair in it. I can walk short distances just really slow and very short lengths.

[aaron878]

.243.....

I agree... .243 is great but I wouldn't take it elk hunting. I my brother in law has tagged multiple mulies in the 300-600 yard range with one so maybe its not such a stretch.

I used to think that until I saw this...

http://youtu.be/hY0w1c-gf18

I think it comes down to the fact that missing the vitals with a larger caliber has the same results as missing with a smaller one.

[Seismic Sam]

Simple answer to your question: There IS NO SUCH THING AS A BEST ALL PURPOSE CALIBER. You might as well ask what the best all purpose vehicle is, because ANY of them is a compromise of some sort. In particular, asking for a prairie dog AND deer caliber is really stretching it, and if the ballistic differences don't drown you the costs will. Deer ammo: Need to sight in with 5 -10 shots, and use one or two for A deer. Prairie dog ammo: Need to sight in with match grade ammo for 400 yards shots at something the size of a bar of soap, and you should bring 500 rounds of that along with you for actually shooting.

You need to get into this sport and read up on it, because you're asking questions with 50 possible answers.

[Rem700]

WTH?!

I thought it was purdy obvious this was a troll?!





.... sides, yer all wrong!

Yep. Everyone knows the perfect all-purpose caliber is 7mm-08.

Close except its a 260 Remington

[OldmanFCSA]

Or a 25Walker made by Remington.

.257 caliber X 308 case necked down, created by Mike Walker at Remington Custom shop.

Love the versatility.

[Bignuts]

.243.....

Yep

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[BigDog58]

I also suggest that if you have friends with different caliber rifles, see if they will let you shoot it to see what you're comfortable with. Doing a lot of shooting like you do for praire dogs, you don't want to shoot a gun all day that hammers you.

[250savage]

IF you are asking for only one based on the ability to have only one caliber; the 30-06. You can load from 90 grain to 250 grain bullets for the small to the large game. 30-06 is available almost everywhere you can buy ammunition and is still offered in commercial loading's for vermin to elk. In a perfect world you would have a varmint rifle made for that application and a big game rifle made for stalking or mountain climbing. There is a reason they offer rifles in different configurations, they make the particular hunting easier and more enjoyable.

[user293]

get real....

Best all around is the .22 BMG.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009 ... own-to-22/

says if fired, the copper jacket would rip off and disintegrate the bullet....what if an all copper bullet were used? want.. to.. try.

[cobb]

I much prefer the 17 BMG Maximum and the 45-70 Super is a hoot.

As far as the best all around for dogs to bulls, I don't think it exist. If I was to have to pick only one rifle I would go with the .308 Winchester.

[yuppiejr]

7mm Rem Mag!

+1

Not that I'd want to get behind one for a day of prairie dog shooting but if he wants to do 500+ yard shooting + Elk hunting with the same gun a .243 isn't going to cut it...

6.5 Creedmoor would be an interesting choice as well, not as easy to find ammo locally in a pinch though.

[rugersol]

7mm Rem Mag!

+1

Not that I'd want to get behind one for a day of prairie dog shooting but if he wants to do 500+ yard shooting + Elk hunting with the same gun a .243 isn't going to cut it...

6.5 Creedmoor would be an interesting choice as well, not as easy to find ammo locally in a pinch though.

Sorry ... that was jest a shout-out to RAGGED!