Thread: Whats your rifle of choice for stalking?

Originally Posted by H&K MAN

Remington mod 7 243 with dan can.light and accurate.
Have used 308 for years but 243 kills quicker.Accuracy is what its about.

Thats outrageous

Originally Posted by H&K MAN

Have used 308 for years but 243 kills quicker.Accuracy is what its about.

Your right about accuracy, but fuck me, I have heard it all now regarding Poo 4 3's......LMFAO!

Maybe you weren't shooting the .308 as good as you are with the .243?

haha I think this threads goin down that well traveled road

I asked this question many times before i got my first rifle. I was gobsmacked by the amount of advice i received. I now know that most was personal preference of the people giving the advice. But one person told me "if you point a rifle at a deer and pull the trigger you need to make sure it is going to fall down dead." I think he was telling me it was more about marksmanship than caliber. But to make sure i got a 30 06 and practiced a lot. And still am.

Well now a 30-06 is a mighty fine calibre

You lost me at 7mm08.



Awaits the shit storm.....

People seem to think the 6.5x55 is magic. Its not. But it is nice. Moderate recoil and noise are its advantages. But its best hand-loaded, and no matter what you do to it, it runs out of legs at around 350-400 yards and kills begin to be quite slow. Especially on large stags and bull Tahr. Its quite emphatic though out to about 280/300 yards.

I've owned a few and shot many animals at all sorts of ranges with them, and that is my experience.

In real life, its no better than the 308 or 708.

Looking back, the 308 takes a lot of beating. A T3 cut to 18" with a suppressor and firing 130 grn Barnes at 3k would have been adequate for every animal I have ever shot in my lifetime.

Originally Posted by Tahr

People seem to think the 6.5x55 is magic. Its not. But it is nice. Moderate recoil and noise are its advantages. But its best hand-loaded, and no matter what you do to it, it runs out of legs at around 350-400 yards and kills begin to be quite slow. Especially on large stags and bull Tahr. Its quite emphatic though out to about 280/300 yards.

I've owned a few and shot many animals at all sorts of ranges with them, and that is my experience.

In real life, its no better than the 308 or 708.

Looking back, the 308 takes a lot of beating. A T3 cut to 18" with a suppressor and firing 130 grn Barnes at 3k would have been adequate for every animal I have ever shot in my lifetime.

I agree with what you say and I also believe there actually is no magic caliber it is down to what you feel comfortable shooting caliber wise and the reality is it is all down to placing that shot in the right spot personally myself I feel very comfortable shooting 6.5x55, .270, .308 and 7mm08 hell my first kill was a 150 pound boar with a .243 which was my first rifle. and personally I have no need for a large cased rifle such as a magnum as I do not shoot any further than 300 meters off of a bi pod and no more than 100 - 200 meters unsupported. And if I did go back to a 6.5x55 I would reload for it again like I did with my last one to get around the anaemic factory loads.

Originally Posted by Tahr

People seem to think the 6.5x55 is magic. Its not. But it is nice. Moderate recoil and noise are its advantages. But its best hand-loaded, and no matter what you do to it, it runs out of legs at around 350-400 yards and kills begin to be quite slow. Especially on large stags and bull Tahr. Its quite emphatic though out to about 280/300 yards.

I've owned a few and shot many animals at all sorts of ranges with them, and that is my experience.

In real life, its no better than the 308 or 708.

Looking back, the 308 takes a lot of beating. A T3 cut to 18" with a suppressor and firing 130 grn Barnes at 3k would have been adequate for every animal I have ever shot in my lifetime.

I don't think the tahr taken at 580 metres on Saturday would quite agree with you. 127 gr LR TTSX was a rather emphatic killer.

Rem Model Seven in 260 rem with 120gr SP and a Gunworks suppressor. Good from muzzle to 350m coz that's as far as I am confident enough to shoot. I have seen others shoot a lot further with it. It works and I like it which is enough for me

Originally Posted by 260hunter

I don't think the tahr taken at 580 metres on Saturday would quite agree with you. 127 gr LR TTSX was a rather emphatic killer.

There's always an exception

Everyone, as usual, is hung up on calibre again...

I'll take a different route, handling. All the centrefire calibers will kill deer.

I mainly do NI bush, no longer range stuff, I carry my rifle more than I shoot it, It sits in both my hands the whole time I'm hunting, being a bush hunter. For this reason I absolutely love my Kimber Montana, it is a pleasure to work with due to it's handling and it's light weight. I found my first one, in 308, was rather light in the muzzle. My later ones have been .243, and being the same barrel profile with a smaller bore they have more weight in the front and point more naturally

Originally Posted by Pointer

Everyone, as usual, is hung up on calibre again...

I'll take a different route, handling. All the centrefire calibers will kill deer.

I mainly do NI bush, no longer range stuff, I carry my rifle more than I shoot it, It sits in both my hands the whole time I'm hunting, being a bush hunter. For this reason I absolutely love my Kimber Montana, it is a pleasure to work with due to it's handling and it's light weight. I found my first one, in 308, was rather light in the muzzle. My later ones have been .243, and being the same barrel profile with a smaller bore they have more weight in the front and point more naturally

Tape a fishing sinker to the end of ya .308 and get the best of both worlds- points good and hits hard!

I don't know what all this rubbish about the danger of emptying a blind mag is. I just point in a safe direction, strip the round out of the mag with the bolt and draw the bolt back. The round is never chambered and the bolt certainly never closed. This is just as quick as dropping a mag and stripping the rounds out by hand and replacing the mag in the rifle so it doesn't get lost.

I've never stalked in bush before but I gather that shorter rifles are easier to manoeuvre. Fatter bullets generally perform better in shorter barrels than narrower bullets and suppress better. Also when you have a short barrel then there isn't really the need to go to a big capacity case. From this the natural conclusion would be the mighty 308, but pretty much anything will do.

Disclaimer: I'm a relatively new shooter and know sod all and have even less experience.