I am in need of a rifle for hunting. Mostly I will be after whities and mule deer as well as Elk and some moose. Currently I am stuck at 2 ends of the spectrum. I have a good shooting LSS 300 Ultra mag remington, which is a little too much gun at times and too pretty to wreck on a horse. I also have a 243 win in a model 70 coyote that doesn't shoot good enough for me to trust on a hunt. I'd like something in between. I have been thinking about a 280, 7mm Rem mag, 30-06, or a 300 WSM. I am a fan of Remingtons and definately want something that has a stainless barrell on it. But what are peoples experience. Is a 300 WSM still too much gun? Accuracy is very important to me. I also would like something that can reach out a fair ways but not a million miles. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Depending on how dedicated you are to Remington, the .300 WSM is out. If elk and moose are on the list, no, this is not too much gun. If you really are set on a short mag, you may want to look into a Model 7 Magnum stainless/synthetic in Remington's new SAUMs.

I too am a big fan of Remington. I would suggest a stainless synthetic is .30/06 or 7mm Rem Mag. I have a BDL Custom Deluxe 7mm Rem Mag that I love. To me the 7mm Rem Mag seems to have the trajectory of the .270 with the recoil of the .30/06 and the downrange energy approaching that of the .300 Magnums. With a 160 gr Partition, I have a hard time imagining a better set up for Western Montana hunting I do. And you can never go wrong with the 06.

Markus, rebarrel your 243 to 308 and then just hunt the bejesus out of it. I'm a gun guy, and own more guns then I want my wife to know about, but the unvarnished truth is that there is nothing on this continent that can't be taken with a .308. Develop a load that's accurate with a good bullet, and you are set for any animal you are going to come across. FWIW - Dan

How do these suit your fancy:

http://www.remington.com/firearms/centerfire/700bssdm.htm

http://www.remington.com/firearms/centerfire/fi_7awrmag.htm

dan-s right! re-barrel your .243 to a .308- great idea
If you've got a little extra to spend on it- get a nice synthetic stock and pillar bed it and get your trigger worked.
magic bullet is the 165grn NoslerPT
you'll be a very happy camper...

As Farright said, You can never go wrong with a 30-06.

Mostly deer, with an occasional elk or moose hunt thrown in? Sounds like you just described a perfect .30-06 scenario. Keep your .243 for lighter game and varmints, and hold on to your .300 Whizbang if you ever want to do big bears or hunt where long range shots are expected to be the norm.

Would a .300 SquattyFatboy do? Yes, but you'd be trading a couple of rounds of magazine capacity and sure and smooth feeding and ejection for a hundred or two fps of velocity, dicey function, and expensive ammunition rarely available in the hinterlands.

Faright Exactly what I was thinking. Well almost. I am not a very big fan of the DM. But the bdl SS is top on my list so far. I have also been leaning mostly to the 30-06 so far but thinking about 7mm regular mag too.

Yeah I would love a 308 or 300 wsm target rifle but not so much for hunting. It would just be far too much of a temptation for me to play with the rifle and try to make it shoot.

I really wish my ultra mag was a sendaro. hmmm I could shoot the barrell off it quick enough though and get a heavy barrel put on it. Then it would be perfect for long range hunting. It just made such a mess of the Black bear I shot this spring. I am reluctant to shoot anything smaller than an Elk with it. Gophers would be fun though.

markus-
The reason that dan & I suggested that you rebarrel your .243 is because of what you said-

"I also have a 243 win in a model 70 coyote that doesn't shoot good enough for me to trust on a hunt."

Remember that a .243 is just a .308 necked down to shoot a .243 bullet. The conversion would be incredibly simple for this reason. The OAL of the two cartridges is almost identical. The only thing you have to change is the barrel. Put you a nice tapered 22" SS on it and you'll have a great shooter.

Horse or no horse, that 300 RUM would be on that elk or moose hunt. Getting another .30 hardly makes any sense to me for a whitetail or muley rifle.

The 7 Rem mag is a good one but the 300 RUM will do anything the 7 Rem Mag will.

I would drop into a stainless BDL in 25-06 with 24 inch barrel for a deer round. Also good on just about anything up to 400 lbs or so. I would shoot 85s to 120 grainers depending on coyote, pronghorn, deer, sheep or caribou. Punching projectiles from 3700 fps down to 3150 fps, the 25-06 hits really hard and gives you some caliber separation from the 300 RUM with little overlap.

"Accuracy is very important to me. I also would like something that can reach out a fair ways"

I've owned several 7 mags.....never had one that wasn't a good shooter. 139 grain will do for whities mulies whatever.....move up to the 160 for elk or 162 hornady btsp. Think about a Tikka.
Better gun for the money than anything Remington makes...IMHO

Of the ones you listed.....the .280 is the best compromise. The .300 wsm isn't that much below the ultra mag. A .308 would work too.

Add the .308 to my recommendation. It is super on deer sized game, and can easily handle Elk or Moose. It is inherently accurate, which is why the long range shooters like it so much. It is the next best recommendation to buying one of each.

Yeah so far I am still looking at a 30-06 remington BDL mostly, maybe a 7mm Regular mag. The biggest reason I am trying to stay away from the 308 is because I would really like one as a target rifle in the future. and I just would rather try to stay away from having more than one rifle in the same caliber. That way i don't have to worry about mixing up brass or anything like that. The rifles I have been looking at though are the 700 BDL SS, Tikka whitetail laminate, 710 Remington, and the 112 FLVSS savage (same idea as the sendaro but at half the price)

I like to do alot of hiking when I am hunting so I have wanted to stay with something fairly light but thats not a huge concern ( whats an extra pound of gun if you are packing 200 lbs of meat) But I have found a 26 inch barrel is a pain in the ass in the bush. I also really hate it when I scratch a wood stock so I have wanted to try to stick with a synthetic. But that Tikka would be a beautiful rifle. Anyhow thank you very much guys. How does a 30-06 perform on deer sized game?

Just buy what you want out of that range of cartridges and make it work. For a short light rifle though the .308 Win is a top choice. All of those cartridges perform the same on deer as far as I can tell and that performance is just ordinary. They are not a bolt of lightning or anything.

I would not put any money into a M-70 push feed. But this is just my opinion.

There is nothing wrong with having two or more rifles in the same caliber. You have to keep the ammo separate anyway no matter what rifle you select.

Ok Markus, rebarrel your 243 to 7mm-08 and never look back. - Dan

Dan has a good ideal about the rebarrel. Hey the '06 has taken too many big heavy animals cleanly for any whitetail to be a problem.

ya know dan- since he wan't intersted in the .308- I was thinkin the same thing- 7mm08

7mm-08 does float my boat. Great bullet selection. Short action. Fits my M70. Hmmm I will think about that one alot. thank you

Markus,

I would suggest that a lot of calibers mentioned thus far are already very well covered by your 300 UM. My suggestion would be to use that gun for Elk sized game and then add say maybe a 270 to your battery. A 270 shoots much flatter than a 30-06 as well as most other cartridges mentioned and will take Mule Deer sized game with ease. Save the 243 for other uses such as yotes.

Wstrnhuntr
He said that his .243 wasn't shootin to well these days-

quote:

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Originally posted by markus:
I also have a 243 win in a model 70 coyote that doesn't shoot good enough for me to trust on a hunt.

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that's why we've been suggesting an new caliber to rebuild it in to. He didn't like the .308 suggestion but the 7mm-08 makes since.

rebuilding what he's got is cheaper than buying new.

I don't know if this helps but I opted for two new Savages 16FSS at $600 CDN instead of one $1200 gun. I know most the hype over the 300 wsm is HYPE but it should be a great fit between an 06 and the 300 win mag. There is no Grizzlys where I'm going so I'm thinking 243 for the secong gun? What's wrong with your coyote? I too was thinking of rebarreling, but who and how much.

7-08 is a fabulous round, very versatile and accurate.

To keep things simple, handy, and reliable, get yourself a pre-64 Model 70 Featherweight in .30-06, install a Leupold 2.5-8X scope, work up (or buy ready-made) an load featuring good a 180 gr. bullet, sight in for 200 yards, and go hunting.

This is very handy setup if you hunt from horsedeck; it's light to haul up the mountain; plus it's an investment you can always get your money back out of. For the money, a common-caliber/common-grade pre-64 Model 70 (or Belgian-made Browning High Power) remains the best non-custom rifle investment you can make, and the .30-06 remains a great and useful cartridge.

AD

Markus, its been said before, but I'll say it again. 30-06 30-06 30-06. Much more gun then you'll ever need for deer. Plenty of punch for elk and moose. Black bears? No problem. I don't hunt with one, but a friend of mine has since before he was sent to Vietnam. He's killed deer and bear with it, and says he now views it as serious overkill for them (deer shot at ranges from 20 to 400 yds, bears from 60 to 200). His contacts in Newfoundland verify that the 30-06 is plenty of gun for moose. If it kills moose, it can sure kill elk. Everyone and their brother's girlfriend can easily find a number of suitable 30-06 loads for any game in North America at a local shop. As far as rifle choices go, you can get one in whatever configuration you want.

What about a .35 Whelen?

If you take 300yrd shots, this might not be a good choice but other than that it works great from tiny sitka black tail deer on up to brown bears and moose.