Which caliber to get???
Since I am looking for a new rifle I figure it would help if I chose a caliber first...
I think I might have found the rifle I want but caliber is unkown yet. I was thinking .204, .22-250, .223, .243, .270, .308, 7mm-08. I am looking for a 100-200yd target gun that I may use for hunting(maybe a 25% chance), and currently dont reload and have no room for it. Which caliber is cheaper(talking about match ammo)? Are they readily available at most stores? Are any of them "barrel burners"? thanks for any help
I think I might have found the rifle I want but caliber is unkown yet. I was thinking .204, .22-250, .223, .243, .270, .308, 7mm-08. I am looking for a 100-200yd target gun that I may use for hunting(maybe a 25% chance), and currently dont reload and have no room for it. Which caliber is cheaper(talking about match ammo)? Are they readily available at most stores? Are any of them "barrel burners"? thanks for any help
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phxtravis, i can strongly reccomend the .308 winchester. it is a great caliber for up to 800 yards, you can find it anywhere they sell ammunition, and it will kill just about everything you can find except for the biggest of game. it is also a very accurate caliber, official mid range sniper caliber, followed by .300 mag. A .223 is a good choise, but personally i dont like the balistics and rather spend the extra couple of bucks on ammo and get the .204 ruger, if i was looking for something smaller. the 204 and 22-250 have excellent trajectory and energy, but they have there limits on what you can kill with them. overall, i would choose the .308.
Martin Janczak0 -
.308 winchester/ 7.62 NATO without a doubt! Best, Robert
"Endurance"<P><br>0 -
Given your goals, .308 hands down. 0 -
308.........[:)] 0 -
Ok, I'll play devil's advocate. The .308 is a great cartridge, still if most of your shooting time is to be at the range then why beat yourself up. The .308 isn't a bad kicker, but you sure know you have pulled the trigger. Any of the other smaller diameter jobs will have less kick for comprable proformance over a goodly range session. If part of the requirements is "match grade" ammo, then army surplus gets tossed as it can generally be not all that consistant due to long term hot/cold storage conditions. Fun to blast away with though. For good quality store bought ammo the smaller diameter loadings will generally be a little less costly then the larger. Now if I knew what was likely to be hunted we could get down to basics. I will assume medium sized deer, say southern whitetails. Given these then anything from the 243 on up should do the job if placed right. If light varminting, say groundhogs or cyotes are the game, then .223, 22-250 and .243 are hard to argue against. Personally for mid size target and hunting cartridges I like the 6.5x55swede and 7x57mauser so from you list I'd recomend the 7mm-08 or the .243win. 0 -
Depending on what you are going to hunt.
I would go 223 or 308.
If you plan to punch paper more than hunt, the 223 will do fine from 100 to 200 yards. You can get new Federal ammo that perform quite well for 4.00 a box of 20. Also I find that military 5.56 surplus ammo performs a whole lot better than 7.62 surplus. The 223 will not beat you up as much if you want to put lots of rounds down range. However the 223 will limit you on what you can hunt.
308 Win is a good round for 300 yards out to 1K. Surplus ammo is plentiful and decently price, however does not perform like you may want it. Ammo is going to be more expensive if you want to buy good hunting ammo. And it will beat you up a bit more if you plan to shoot a lot in one day. 308 Win will take care of bigger game and also enable you to shoot at longer distances.0 -
Match quality ammunition is going to be expensive no matter what you get, but you will find it most commonly in 7.62x51 (.308) and 5.56x45 NATO (.223) loadings because these are the two cartridges which are, by at least an order of magnitude, used for match shooting (skipping bench rest which requires precision handloads). In fact, AFAIK, there are no "match rounds" loaded in the other calibers you listed. The 5.56 will be less expensive and easier to obtain for match shooting than the 7.62 . . . but the 5.56 is suitable only for small game. Y, I know I'm opening up Pandora's box by saying this because some people use this cartridge for deer hunting . . . but I don't know of many "experts" who suggest it for that purpose. Overall, if you are interested in precison shooting for 75% of your use of the firearm, I'd suggest the 5.56 and use something else *if* you should go hunting - virtually any rifle cartridge is good to 200 yards.
"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the french." (Mark Twain)0 -
If I were to hunt it would probably be Javelina, Coyote, Varmints, and maybe deer(but highy doubt it). I did forget to mention that recoil IS an issue. As this will be a gun that I'll put alot of ammo through per session. And like you Henry0Reilly I am not a big fan of the .223, though it is cheap and I already have AR. So far the .243 and .270 stand out due to the larger bullet and lower recoil, but the 4200FPS .204Ruger is intising. 0 -
I varmit hunt with a .22-250. The recoil is manageable, the velocities available are competitive with the .223 (which I don't care for...), and you can stand to put a lot of rounds through a good, high quality brand.... I prefer Ruger, but the choice is yours... And a friend of mine took a ground hog at 250 yards... 
"Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it." Lord Chesterfield0 -
i would go with the 6mm remington or the .243...great on varmits or deer size game...... 0 -
Target rifle 75% of the time and hunting 25% of the time? If you are shooting 100 + rounds a week the .308 is going to hurt. If not then go with the .308. The .223/5.56 is my next choice. My 2 cents [8D]
Greg
Former Marine
A N G L I C O0 -
I have several target rifles. .223, .243, .308 all good rounds. The .308 is good all arround and can be gotten almost any where any time in a ton of different loadings. I like my .243 but I hand load. I know there are lots of good rounds out there for this but not a common as the other 2. Now for the .223, I know you said you already had a gun picked out but you just have to check this out.
I can not say enough good things about this gun and I have never heard anything bad about them. The story goes that a semi will never out shoot a bolt gun, well this is the exception, I do it all the time. I hand load 55gr balastic tip using mixed brass, and pull surplus powder. I am able to EASLY shoot under 1 MOA. I havent gotten to shoot any dogs with it yet but squirls EXPLODE out to 300m (longest I have to shoot). I never belived the reports untill I bought one, it will make you a beliver.
John0 -
one rifle to suit all the needs your asking it to is kinda on the difficult side i would say that for all you want only four calibers on your list would serve your purposes and some are overkill in certain areas and some are rather light for some other areas for what you mention my opinion is your only options are 243, 270, 308, and 7mm-08 all great choices the 308 and 270 have the most recoil of these four so your down to 7mm-08 and 243 and thats a tough call 7mm better for the bigger critters 243 better for smaller ones best of luck with your decision
Hey Nwcid beautifull rifle thats the one i want you got me drooling over here0
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