Before Cooper went African, he was similarly content with .30-06.
I like C.E. Harris, too. Seems a sensible fellow, he is not going for that last nanometer from the bench, he is loading reasonable stuff to shoot.
So was Jac Weller, he said his objective with a rifle reload was that it should shoot into the same group as factory from prone with a sling at 100 yards.
Code Name: JET STREAM
Limiting oneself to shoot within a certain distance has much to do with caliber selection. A 30-06 might not suffice at 300 yards, but one of the .30 magnums probably would. I'm not a rifleman and limited my shots to 150 yards regardless of the caliber. Now I speak as an arm chair sportsman so had best limit any other comments to shooting rocks, dirt clods, and stumps. I promise not to repeat the already told true story about my shooting a flying bird with an AR.
If my memory serves Jack O’Conner loved the .270 Winchester for elk and sung it’s praises for years. I never got the pleasure of shooting one with mine but I have no doubt it would do fine with a Partition or similar bullet.
Lots of calibers work fine when you get the right shot and hit but it seems we are always searching for that better mousetrap instead of obtaining a solid skill set.
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Ol Jack also wrote that if there were bears about he would carry a .30. "I can't leave camp with a .30-06 in my mitts without running over a bear." He thought .375 H&H was a big powerful gun for all African game, too.
Code Name: JET STREAM
Growing up, all I hunted with was the .270. My dad loaded nothing but 130 Partitions for Mule Deer, and 150 Partitions for elk. My mom and dad both carried .270s. My mom put down some big bulls with her old Savage 110. My dad had a cheap surplus 1917 Enfield he had rebuilt into a .270 sometime before I was born. The first centerfire rifle I purchased for myself after working on an outfitter and guide ranch in the Frank Church was a Browning .270.Originally Posted by Spartan1980
It was only when I was in college that the rifle bug really bit.
Soooo much money wasted lol
Growing up, all I hunted with was the .270. My dad loaded nothing but 130 Partitions for Mule Deer, and 150 Partitions for elk. My mom and dad both carried .270s. My mom put down some big bulls with her old Savage 110. My dad had a cheap surplus 1917 Enfield he had rebuilt into a .270 sometime before I was born. The first centerfire rifle I purchased for myself after working on an outfitter and guide ranch in the Frank Church was a Browning .270.
It was only when I was in college that the rifle bug really bit.
Soooo much money wasted lol
Think about how much better you would have turned out if you started and ended up with just a pre 64 model 70 in .270.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
A buddy of mine started carrying and shooting a super lightweight .270, and shooting 130gr Hornady Whitetail soft points (because they happen to shoot exceptionally well for him), which are a non-bonded old school cup and core bullet... He's killed several elk, and plenty of other lesser animals with that gun/load now, with single shots. Good shots with adequate bullets will get the job done. Plenty of game is still killed with "old crappy cup and core bullets" these days. Contrary to popular belief, elk are not bulletproof.
He used to shoot a .338 Winchester Magnum with 250gr Nosler Partition bullets for everything... And I watched that big cannon fail to anchor a couple antelope and deer with some rather high hits, high enough to hit the spine, or at least "knock" the animals down, only to have them get up an run off again. He had the gun sighted in quite high, as most shots were at longer range, in the area we hunt. The hits were probably still 100% lethal, but other the knocking things down, I don't think the big boomer helped him any, most of the time. He wised up, and generally only carries that big bore on late season cow hunts, where he doesn't have to hike far with a heavy rifle.
I started hunting big game with a .30-06, and will probably not change that any time soon. I found a load with 180gr Nosler Accubonds that shoots very well, and it has successfully anchored a pile of antelope, deer, and elk, including a big cow at 425 yards! I found one of my two bullets that I hit that cow with, on the far side, just under the hide, fully expanded like a Nosler advertisement picture. I think the other one punched all the way through.
Moral of the story: Shoot a gun you can shoot well, and put the bullets where they need to go, and you'll have a full freezer. Marksmanship matters a hell of a lot more than what bullet you are shooting.
I think the main benefit of .270 and .300 magnum calibers is flattening trajectory to better place a shot rather than additional killing power from the magnum.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
I cannot think of a thing in North America that would not be completely handled well beyond 300yds by a properly placed bullet from a .30’06.
I decided a long time ago that if I couldn't do it with a .30-06 it didn't need to be done.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
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