Thread: New to hunting: Caliber decisions.

I don't see the point of going 7mm-08 when you can just get a 308. During covid there was a real shortage of factory 7mm-08 and it looked like a right pain in the ass for everyone who had one. You ideally want a calibre that is popular in the states (such as 308) as there will always be ammo and a good selection of it, you never know what random economic situation is going to make ammo unavailable again.

If you are going to get an ultra-light rifle I would step down to one of the 6.5 cartridges for more manageable recoil. The ballistics on the 6.5 projectiles are such that they tend to overtake the 308 in velocity and energy around 400m or so, with less recoil. Creedmoor is the most popular, very popular in the states and I have never had problems getting a wide selection of ammo for it. Beware though, if you get a Creedmoor you will suffer a lifetime of being called a hipster and having a man bun etc etc haha! I started out with a Howa 308 which was comfortable to shoot but I got sick of lugging it up mountains as it wasn't that light. I went to a Tikka Superlite and decided to try 6.5 Creedmoor for a change. No complaints with the calibre. Seems to recoil about the same as the 308 but on a significantly lighter gun. 243 is also a very popular light recoiling cartridge and I would happily use it hunting deer.

270 is similar to 308 but a bit harder hitting, ok if your gun has enough mass but recoil becomes more significant if you have a light rifle.

7mm Rem Mag and a lot of the WSM cartridges etc have very good range and are great in the open country but the rifles tend to get rather heavy with long barrels, large suppressors, generally large scopes with higher magnification and parallax etc. They also tend to have an intimidating amount of recoil for new shooters. I went bush/river clearing hunting with a mate who had a 7mm Rem Mag. Most of your shots need to be taken off the shoulder/leaning on a tree or kneeling without much time to set up nicely with a bipod in this country. The large gun looked like a real pain in the ass in this situation, difficult to shoulder offhand, long barrel annoying in the bush and likely to scope yourself if you have to take a shot on an awkward angle etc. You also really want to run a big magnum suppressor or a muzzle brake. Big suppressors are heavy and muzzle brakes absolutely ruin you or your mates hearing if you get caught out without hearing protection.