HIgh power rifle time to Vote

Any of the ones you picked out better do the job, otherwise have maw do the shootin for ya. I never help the kids plan the deer hunting mob killings ordeals, look at their areal maps, or check my watch to time my movments. I usualy have my deer the first morning, and I just go out and shoot one that gets in my way. It's usualy 99% luck, and 1% me knowing whats going on. Most of the time the kids take more time messing with me than they do shootin at the VERY VERY BIG BUCK deer they realy realy ...almost... killed. They can't seem to find my tools when the borrow them, but they can count upwards of twenty pionts on a mile away deer that I can't tell if it's a doe or a buck.

Best buy one and wish you would have bought the other one like the rest of us do.

If you intend to go after bigger game than the venerable .30-06 will take down, you better get something heavier than the 7mm Mag. Think .375 H&H.

I personally am not a big fan of the 7mm Remington Mag. I'll qualify that by saying the only one I ever shot had defective scope mounts and would not hold a zero, so that did probably bias me a bit. But let's look at the numbers. I pulled out my Lyman reloading manual and here's an example:

The 7mm Remington Mag will launch a 175 grain bullet at around 2700-2900 fps.

The .30-'06 shoots a 180 grain bullet at around 2600-2800 fps.

So the difference in muzzle velocity between the big belted magnum and the old '06 is only about 100 fps! How is this possible? Well, two things come to play: First the slightly larger diameter of the .30 caliber bullet over the 7mm means that there is greater surface area for the combustion gases to push against, which means faster acceleration for a given chamber pressure. (similar to getting more force out of a larger hydraulic cylinder). The other reason is that the magnum has to use a slower powder to take advantage of its greater capacity. So it takes a larger charge of slow-burning powder to attain the the same velocity as a faster burning powder. And that heavy charge of slow powder translates to a lot of muzzle blast.

I think the 7mm Mag is a good choice for long-range hunting out west, because it shoots flat and it shoots a bullet with a high sectional density that will carry a lot of energy down range. But for ranges around 100 yards, give me a .30-06 anytime.

By the way, most rifles lose one round of magazine capacity when chambered for a belted magnum versus a standard cartridge.

I"ve found out of a Remington 700 the 270 shoots a little flatter than the 30/06. I normally put 57 grains of H4831 in the 270 and 58 grains in the 30/06 behind the 110 grain hp. Result wise, head or neck shots at up to 120 yeards are not a problem (and our house rules call for head or neck shots only) and the deer never moves.

But then again why choose? Get them all.

All for the low-low price of about $1,800.

Maybe it does out perform the .308/30-06, you would have to compare the ballistic charts to see what the actual differences are.

Not so easy to decide between those, but if one could find a heavy barrel like the savage my friend bought in .308 recently, which I have shot several times, that would have to cover most hunting applications, not sure if there is a similar set up in 30-06, with that heavy or target type barrel rifle, with a 1:10 rifling, I think it was glass bedded too, really performed well with tight groups. I will go out on a limb and mention, (please correct me) that those .308 & 30-06 are just about ballistically identical, or very much the same, just that the .308 has a 1/2" shorter casing. You have to look at the tables & charts. There is a lot of surplus military ammo available, but that may or may not be of interest depending on what you shoot and how it performs in a particular rifle. Some military brass, I think U.S. made, has thicker wall casing, berdan primed, some things to learn about the interchangability of mil ammo and non mil ammo, not sure how important but there are differences. If you look at the list of factory loads available and the same for making your own loads, there are a lot of options for these .308/30-06. I'm under the assumption that the proper loads would be effective for most North American big game, but if you are after Mule Deer, Elk, Moose or the larger bears, longer ranges might want to look further into that, max effective range and bullet energy etc. not something I'll ever hunt so the .308 is plenty for what I do.

If you need the extra power, I'd go to the .300 Win Mag., I have seen how those perform like I mentioned before. You can find the ballistics for these on the web, you should take a look and see what decent rifles they can be found in, might help you decide. The ones you are looking at are all quite impressive, just have to consider what you will be hunting.

For white tail and midwest hunting I sure like the .270. The pronghorn I shot in Wyoming never knew what hit him from 400 yards away.

For mule deer it is probably a little on the light side, as well as for elk.

Bear? never wanted to hunt something, that if I shot and wounded it, it might get pi**ed and eat me.

You might also want to consider cost of ammo and availability in your area. .30-06 might be more common and less costly.

My 2 pennies worth.

Gene