A couple years ago I was looking for the same. I wanted a rifle I could use at the range and for hunting most animals. I ended up buying a Tikka T3 in .243. I looked at 7mm 08 and .260s also but ammo prices and availability are why I picked the .243. People told me the .243 was too weak for white tail. I shot one of my biggest last year at 220 yards and it dropped him in his tracks. I can get 1 MOA groups with the cheap Federal blue box and the recoil is a lot less than my old 30 06 so shooting 40 rounds at the range doesn't bother me. The only draw back is barrel life but ammo is so much cheaper by the time I need a new barrel, I could buy a new rifle with the savings.

It sounds like recoil sensitivity is an issue here, no judgement, less recoil is always better if possible. That is why I am suggesting the 7mm-08. Like 60% of the recoil of .308 and some would argue better ballistics due to sectional density or ballistic coefficient and some other stuff. Other than that go .308. I shoot 7mm Rem Mag, .270 Winchester, and 30-06 in no particular order or loyalty when hunting most big game for most of my life. That being said if Ruger offered its American Rifle Predator in 7mm-08 instead of just .308 I would own one and likely use it often because I am interested in the round and besites it being a handy and sccurate package it would be ideal if a smaller statured shooter or the GF wanted to accompany me on a real hunt.

I'm going to step out of the box a bit.

For a truly all around gun, the .308, .243, 6.5 Creedmore, 6.5x55 are all great.

However, you mention that shooting 100 rounds of .30-06 hurt. I'm assuming you want to be able to do that.

So, I suggest the .223. It will take you up to deer, just fine with proper handloads and proper bullets. You can shoot the hell out of it, pain free.

IMHO, any of the other calibers would be marginal on Elk, anyway. Elk is an expensive hunt for most folks. If you have enough money for an elk hunt, you have enough to buy a rifle of proper caliber for it (minimum of .30-06, imho. .300 RUM, in the opinion of several elk hunters I've known or read).

Easy ... 7.62x51mm / 308 Winchester

Rifle ... Winchester Classic (Pre-64 Style Extractor) in Stainless

Sighting Systems ... barrel mounted iron sights and a 1.75-6x32mm Leupold VX3 with Warne QD Rings




Personally, I wouldn't own a bolt action when there are Scar-17s available.

This is good advice.
Without ammo, a rifle's a poorly balanced club.
Yes, some of you are master reloaders, and can feed yourselves.
Logistics, Logistics, Logistics.

Tikka is 30-06.

In my home State of NM, .243 is the legal minimum for elk.  It's not really considered an ethical round for that purpose.

A guy I work with is tired of the recoil of his .270, I suggested reduced recoil factory loads.  He is over gunned in MS.

I had a few .308s.  I reloaded and after a range day of 100+ rounds, the next day I always had blue shoulder.  Even .308 can be uncomfortable, everyone has their own recoil-o-meter zone.



The caption under the Field and Stream photo was 7mm-08, 650 yards.  If moose wasn't on the agenda, .243 all day, or the Creedmoors.  6mm seems to be a sweet spot for me.

This, if your primary intention is hunting.

Could not have said it better myself.

defense / hunting = .308

hunting = .270

That's my .270 cents anyway

.243 or .308  . If you reload you expand your options . Right now the Thompson Center Compass with the rebates is an honest deal.

Both have already been mentioned, but +1 for 308 and 6.5CM

Depending on your priorities they will trade back and forth.

Something to consider is that you can get different stocks for different roles. For example, if the rifle is primarily a target rifle you can leave it in a nice chassis setup 90% of the time. Then, before taking it hunting, you switch it to a suitable hunting stock and confirm zero and adjust as needed for the desired hunting load and ranges. Since you'd have to do that anyway there is no extra work involved other than the stock change itself. The only downside to one gun is that you're limited to one barrel unless you get into changing those around too. Certainly doable, but a bit more work than most folks wanna do just to avoid having a second rifle.

In both cases, buying ammo is reasonable unless you plan to stock a lot more than I'd expect for a bolt gun. If you reload, great, but for premium ammo neither is super expensive, nor is either particularly cheap.

After these two, as shown by this thread and many others there are a dozens of great general purpose rounds out there, you're literally talking about the most common role for a rifle in history.

I would have said 30-06 if you had not already ruled it out so I say either .308 or .270

I'd say biggest thing is how knowledgeable you are on precision shooting. If you don't want to figure out your bullets' velocities, air density, etc; then a flatter shooting caliber is what you'd want. If you don't mind or you already do precision rifle, then .308win is no problem.

As far as prepping goes... if it isn't loaded, I figure I won't have the ability or opportunity to load it. Since prepping is about playing it safe, figuring other things may go wrong makes more sense.

I don't know if you'd really load up enough 6.5CM, but I automatically doubt it.

Don't go .270 thinking there's no draw back. Shooting that caliber always makes me feel the world is exploding in front of me. Also it's a long action, which I'll stay short action if possible.

Another vote for .308

My go to hunting rifle is a ruger scout rifle in 6.5 creedmoor

.308 winchester.

It may not be perfect but it's good enough in enough areas that , for me , it gets the nod as "the best, all around, bolt action, caliber".

You cannot beat .308 or .30-06 for these applications....  

You are good for anything that walks north america, save perhaps the brown bears.  Otherwise, deer, antelope, elk, caribou, moose, coyotes -  that are all entirely viable with these two cartridges.

if you do not enjoy 30-06, then 308 is typically a bit lower recoiling.  There are other lower recoil cartridges -  .270, 6.5 Creedmore, etc -  but none of these have the universal availability, modest price, etc of 308/30-06.  The 308 is likely the best of these two, since milsurp is more readily available....

If recoil is an issue, buy a heavier rifle....

if recoil is an issue you could screw on a suppressor. it's a win win.

Hearing safe for a few shots from some of the top end cans, reduces recoil, and aside from the mirage if your firing alot or the added length I find very little con's.

Another vote for .243. Picked one up last year, and after shooting it a bit wished I had gotten one years ago. Great all around caliber.

Yep.

When you are talking up to and including elk, I would ask how many of the guys responding here have ever actually killed an elk.

Killed 1 elk?

Killed 6?

Killed 12?

What amazes me is that guys will give advice on what it takes to kill elk, including minimum cartridges, but have never actually killed one...

The nonsense about needing .300 Win mags and 30-06s to kill elk is just that.

While I do hunt elk often enough with a .300WM due to the extended distances I tend to shoot, because of the open terrain and other environmental factors, I also use/and have used the .308 extensively.

In fact I have killed more than a dozen elk with a .308 and not one ever needed a second shot.

Also, my 14 year old daughter has killed 2 elk with her personal .308 out to a laser confirmed 375 yards.



Daughter's 375 yard elk:



Here she is showing the entrance wound. Exactly where I told her to place the bullet:




The .308 is extremely capable of killing elk. Saying you need a .300/.338 shows a serious lack of experience.


OP, I would suggest you simply put a brake on the a high quality rifle. My daughter started shooting a .308 of her own when she weighed 85 pounds. The recoil does not bother her at all.



This one is from last December:




OP,

My daughter has been killing elk, each with a single well placed round from her .308, and you can too.  

your going to get a lot of different opinions about hunting calibers. Here is my thoughts; caliber of choice is of little concern so as long as you know that calibers limitations and is lawful to hunt with. Make sure you can shoot it. shot placement is paramount over caliber. Get the best designed bullet possible for lighter calibers to ensure a good clean ethical kill. Nosler partitions are frequently recommended. People have killed Elk with a wide range of calibers. I know a guy that swears .25-06 is best all around rifle round he hunts deer and elk successfully (6 elk and 4 deer at last count) a lot of people would argue that. As for me I hunt elk with .300 win mag and deer with .223(ar15) or 7.62x39(CZ527). Some folks may scratch their head at my selection. I like the .300 win mag because I hunt elk in the high desert of Oregon cross canyon shots are common. A specific tool for a specific job. I hunt deer in cascade mountains and sometimes in high desert( if I pull a tag). In The cascades most of my kills have been less than 75 yards given amount of brush in the area I hunt. I choose .223/5.56 and 7.62x39 because I stock ammo and shoot those calibers a lot; ammo is cheap and common, both will kill a deer with the right bullet selection. So my recommendation is find something you can shoot well and often.

I killed a 175 lb doe at 373 yards with 75 grain hornandy tap in 223. The lungs were totally destroyed and the bullet punched a quarter sized hole on the way out the off shoulder.

Impossible I know.....

270 WIN

Solid advice.


I would not hesitate to kill elk with a 25-06 and have a buddy who is not a "gun guy" and considers his 25-06 his do-it-all rifle. His freezer is always full.



Projectile selection is far more important than headstamp, and the ability to place the projectile really what is most important.

Frankly I have a Lilja tubed 6MM remington that shoots into the .3s, very consistently, that I would be quite content hunting big bull elk with. I would limit my range a fair bit more as compared to some of the higher ballistic coefficient .30 cal Berger VLDs that I tend to use, but I doubt it would make a difference in regards to the amount of meat in the chest freezers each year.



The bottom line is that a large degree of previous success is due to the fact that I don't shoot 2 boxes of ammo in the fall prior to a hunt. I shoot year round. Both up close, confirming dope at the actual elevation I am going to hunt, and at extended distances, in the environmental conditions that replicate where I hunt.

As an example below is a target from one of my .308s. I shot it prone from my porch. You will note that this is not the typical 1 single cherry picked braggers group. The rifle had been zeroed for a different elevation and where I was hunting was about 2K higher so adjustments needed to be made for the new elevation/density altitude. Making sure the rifle is shooting EXACTLY to POA/POI helps for making longer shots later at extended distances.





And here is my dad at my cabin range checking the target board and one of the steel plates. The black speck in the background is our 1 ton truck and shooting location BTW.






Constant practice is a bigger factor for success that what cartridge a rifle is chambered for.



The bottom line is that if I were to pick one single "all around" rifle cartridge, it would be the .308. I have used them for everything from small game to elk as well as used it in a professional capacity overseas (M24 and M110/SR25) as well as here in the states, and I can attest to its effectiveness. It is the 1/2 ton 4x4 pickup w/a chevy 350 of the rifle world. There are many cartridges that might do some single task better, but it will be tough to find one that does everything as well as the .308 and be so readily available, and so easy on barrels.

One thing about 308/7.62x51 is some of the oddball stuff out there.

Those blue plastic hk training rounds are interesting.  Really light but go through a 2x4 according to some folks.

Kind of depends on how much you want to play around.

I settled on 308/7.62x51 years ago cause of cheap surplus.

Surplus is no longer cheap.

But a whole lot of people load for 308/7.62x51 and are getting into loading or out of loading so depending on what I got for cheap I could see going different directions.

I would go ahead and make a serious load and a plinking load.  I do it for my revolvers.  Not fun to go to the range and just shoot full power loads all the time.  I enjoy light recoil, but using the revolver with speed loaders and what not is part of what I am after.  Finish with the good loads. 

I've never killed an elk. And I'm sure you have much more hunting experience than me, although I've killed plenty of critters including quite a few white tails.

I also think you're quite the exception when it comes to average ability and skill. Not that one should go after game without an appropriate amount of both, but you're quite a bit above minimum, obviously.

However ( and this is also the opinion of some well respected elk hunters who are published) the larger-than-minimum calibers have some things going for them that you've not addressed.

For most people, elk is an expensive hunt. The country where you're likely to hunt them can be rough. There can be private property. The extra oomph in a rifle can mean the difference between anchoring the critter where you shot it, and it wandering onto private property or stumbling down into a ravine.

Yeah, yeah, pick your shots more carefully. That's fine until you're on the last day of a 3k dollar elk hunt and your tag is empty and your elk is not in an ideal spot.

Then we have the "less than ideal shot" where you might be on the edge of the range of a .308 or your animal is not cooperating and giving you the nice broadside shot and your bullet is needing to traverse a few feet of guts or muscle to get to the vitals.

Robert Ruark had some hunting experience. Wrote a book: Use Enough Gun.

I'll never understand the thought process of going to all the trouble to go hunting and then bring a caliber that is less than ideal.

I can kill a deer with a .22lr. But why would I if I could use a .308?


I agree with pretty much everything you said. Especially the practice/shot placement/know your limitations and that of your gear.

I'm also a big fan of the .308 Win/7.62 NATO cartridge. It's my first pick as a do-it-all round. I've got a model 70 that would be plenty accurate on elk past the range I'd trust a .308 to drop one. But if I were to plan an elk hunt and spend all that time and money, I would buy and wring out something bigger before going just for the reasons I mentioned.

Just my .02

Since you load and cast

Hodgon Youth Reduced Loads

I already have it. 300 Winchester Magnum Classic with a stainless barrel. Shoots minute of angle.

if you have a rifle, then use that one.

If you are wanting to get a new rifle, get one of the Ruger Predator in 6.5 CM

Thanks you have shown proof I have no recoil problems just something about the 30-06 I do feel it more don't care about the 300 win mag but not looking for something like that!

I'm just looking for a caliber can do what I need without having to have several calibers!

Has anyone mentioned 6.5 Creedmoor yet?

Again I would say that since you already have the STG .308 is the obvious choice.

This

I would go either 6.5 Creedmoor or 7mm-08. .243, .270 or .308/.30-06 would also work. I wonder if you issue with the .30-06 was due to that particular gun. I know the first one I shot was a 70s Win 70 with a hard plastic butt plate and it hurt. Later I shot a similar one with a proper pad and it was just fine. It was the hard plate banging into my shoulder that hurt so much. I've shot much bigger stuff that was fine with a pad.

Do you like your .30-06?  Other than it's recoil?  You said you cast & reload.  Well, with those two skill sets there is no reason for the recoil level to bother you.  It's fully under your control.  I don't really care for full '06 recoil either, but I still shoot my 03A3 plenty.  This last Sunday I shot a bunch of 210 grain/1400 foot second loads.  Kicks like a .223.

Put your skills to work.  Unless you just need another rifle.  That'd be different . . . :)


Cat

Can't say I enjoy it as I have maybe shot 20 rounds out of it but did notice that supported there was more felt recoil then when shooting it off hand.

Love my Springfield because I brought it back from the Dead! Took a lot of time and love to make her live again! .

6.5 Grendel is what I would pick if I already didn't have a plethora of other rifles. Small enough cartridge to carry a lot of ammo. AT platform or Howa makes a bolt gun.  Will kill Idaho deer just fine, I suspect elk maybe but I have to go to high up for them and not economical in a bug out or survival situation.

Another .308 vote.

1. Plenty of bullet weights and loadings
2. Plenty of bolt action .308 rifles to choose from.  (Remington, Ruger, Savage, Winchester, Mossberg,  just to name a few)
3. .308 is popular, easy to find in most stores, and used by our armed forces.

I personally like my Mossberg MVP Patrol .308, as is, without a scope.  

You and I think nearly identical. The 308 is my optimim do all caliber. I would NEVER feel undergunned with my 45-70. You can get the insane Lever Evolution rounds that pack one hell of a thump. OR you can get easy shooting reproduction loads that are nice and easy on the shoulder. You can load your own with home made black powder if needed in a SHTF long term situation, as long as you have lead to cast bullets and brass to reuse. 45-70 is a badass caliber that I even used as my home defence rifle.

If I was stuck in the commie state of CA or NY/NJ, I would for sure be using a 45/70 bush rifle as a home defence firearm. Either the stainless laminated Marlin guide gun, or the long barrel with matching long tube for as much capacity as possible. 10rds of 45/70 may not be ideal in a firefirght, but DAMN its a lot of punch if you're proficient with it in a survival situation. if you know what you're doing you can even make home made shotgun shells for it. the 45/70 cases are great for that as well.

No just sensibility...another vote

This would be my choice.