I WAS THINKING OF WHAT ONE GUN YOU COULD USE FOR ALL OF BIG GAME.DEER,ELK,MOOSE,BLACK BEAR,AND SO ON.IN THE ENCORE MAYBE TWO GUNS.

The first rule of Contenders/Encores is that you can't have just one barrel.

I don't consider deer or black bear large game so I think most offerings in the 7mm or 30cal would work just fine. If you are shooting stock barrels then a 7mm-08 is hard to beat in my humble opinion.

I have never hunted the big boys like moose or brown bear so I will let someone else speak to that.

Since your talking western states, where the range may be long, I would recommend one of the magnums. The 300 Weatherby would be my first choice followed by a 7mm Ultra or a 7mm STW. For a two barrel system, I would pick a 257 Weatherby and one of the 338 magnums.

[ 07-24-2002, 02:39: Message edited by: OldFart ]

At scoped Contender/Encore ranges there are just to many to list that will fit your bill. They range from the plain jane 3006 to the JDJ calibers. I have three .41s that will fit all wildcats simply because I like .41s. You could have something as commom as the 300Win, 300HH,or 7mmMag or as unique as the .411JDJ. Haven't ever killed an elk or moose but I have to date killed 4 1800+lbs sized feral cattle. All with one shot from .41s, two with the .41RemMag one each with the .41GNR and .41GNR#2 longest range was 110 measured yards, all hits were center shoulder, all shots were pass through, all four dropped stright down. Load was with 250g-265g hard cast from CPBT using very heavy charges of 2400 and 4227. Your are only limited by what you can handle. The guns can do it question is can you?

My 284 Win XP-100 has taken game from PD's to bull elk. I have never hunted bear of any kind. I also have a 7.82 Patriot (300 Win. Mag.) performance that was built with elk in mind and has performed well so far on elk, whitetail and Javelina. I don't think you have to go above this for elk, even though I used to have a 338 Win Mag. Encore barrel (handgun)at one time.
The 308 base cases will work as long as you are considerate of your range (elk). But I would prefer an 06 case capacity/pressure for the way I hunt elk. I have taken a number of elk with my 284 without any problems. Revolvers work great too as long as you use them with in their range abilities.
xphunter

For two yearsI used a TC with two barrels in Alaska as my only gun.

With the .223 Rem barrel it killed partmigan, marmonts and caribou.

As a 30/30 it made an adequate Moose gun and was weak enough to encourage me to walk along way around furry, white mounds in the tundra. However, if needed I have no doubt that the Rem 170 grain RN Corelokt would have done fine.