Best Possible Caliber

[gumpokc]

Duffy,

welcome to the board.

the 30-30 or 30/06 are both good, if your not going for hides.

I personally like to use my 8mm mauser, but thats just me

125gr bullet at 3100 fps, does a number on yodeldogs

[Evan03]

how bout a 325wsm

[Evan03]

hmmmmmm

i shot one yote with my 270wsm, with home brewd loads pushn a 140gr nolser balistic tip somewhere in the neigbore hood of 3100fps, maybe alittle faster than that. bullet impacted at 300yds but didnt exit. dog dropped like sack of bricks. no kicks or nothing just instantly dead. i was wide eyed to say the least

to start with i couldnt belive i made the shot. he spotted me at about 100yds from me and took of up the snowy mtn. deep snow. this dog was high jumpn and fast. i had the cross hairs on him waitn for my chance, when hed stop and look back or get tired and slow to a walk.
he decided to stop and look back, worst mistake he ever made. he no morre than started to turn his kneck to look at me and i sent the wsm to singing. it was far enough shot that i rebounded and saw the impact through the scope. pretty cool.

i hiked my lazy but all the way up because i just had to see what the bullet did. i knew thered be a football sized exit. i get up there and theres no blood spread all over the snow like the 2506 would have done.

i kick and nudge and prod trying to find and exit and i for the life of me couldnt and could only guess at the intrance because of where i was holding.

thats one of the reasons i stayed withh the load through deer season.

i got the unexspected a semi heavy balistic tipp id of thought would have blew him to peices. instead it seemed to have just scared that yote to death.

Evan

[SeaBreeze]

Welcome Duffy,
If memory serves me right they used to make a '06 accelerator. Not sure if they still do, but if so it may be an option.

[Duffy]

Thanks again for all the valuable advice. I think I might wind up with a .223. Given what people say and what I've read, it might be the best overall for what I'd like to do.

ANd SeaBreeze, I have heard of the '06 Accelerator round, but I haven't seen any for a long time. Worth looking for, I'd bet!

[Rocky Raab]

Amen, Duffy. EVERYBODY needs a 223. It's the centerfire equivalent of the 22LR.

Cheap ammo, great accuracy, very easy to reload, good for muzzle to 300 yards, no recoil, made in every action type available, and just a hoot to shoot.

If you want to be a walking varminter, seek out a small, light rifle. Rem-7, Ruger Lightweight, Browning Micro-Hunter, CZ American are just a few to check out. Even a T/C Contender carbine is great if you only need one shot.

[highthrill]

Best all around that I have found is a 22.250 period. It will out shoot the 223 and if your reload, you can shoot pretty easy out to 300 yards with it.

[gooser]

I use a .223 out to about 300yds. 55 gr hp
sight in at 1 1/2" high at 100. your dead on at 200 and only 7" low at 300. this is with factory loads at 3240.

[Evan03]

i do alot of shooting, hunting, varmiting and reloading. these are few things ive found.

well start first with the 3006. as an all around hunter varmit rig.
im right now loading 180 nosler bts and 165s for deer. the rifle shoots these very acurately and i got to varmiting with the 165 loads wich do recoil a noticable amount.

i liked the rifle so much i decided id turn the bullet weight down some and try 125gr nosler bts to keep speeds up and get the recoil to drop. what i found is that to shoot these bullet acuratly the recoil was still almost as much as the 165s. so i see no reason to load the 125s but i didnt have the right powders to try going for slower reduced loads. wich would have been cool to try.

the best varmit slash hunting caliber ive used is the 2506. this rifle produces mild to moderate recoil in most rifles with full power loads usesing 75-120gr bullets. recoil is light enough that i can shoot rock chucks all day or spend time putn lots of holes in paper the recoil just isnt a concern. my 2506 has taken more coyotes and other varmits than it has big game, but just this last deer season i took my buck with it. useing 1 100gr nosler bt at about 3200fps.

i also own and shoot a 220 and 22/250 the 220 is kinda my new fun gun and has seen a few thousand rds in alittle less than a year that ive owned it. with this rifle im loading 40gr nosler bts and have loaded 55 bergers 55 vmaxes and 53gr tripple shocks. one good thing about shooting a flatt flying lazer beam like this is that you can hold the cross hairs on fur at out to 300yds with no hold over. mines actualy sited in 1" high at 100 and is printing 1" low at 300.
i now own one 22/250 and have owned 2 others in the past. this caliber is basicaly the same as the 220 pushes bullets about exackly the same almost within a few fps with most loads. but its case capicity is a few grains less.

one thing i have found is that i shoot alot of varmits at 200yds and closer. this is wear a 222 221 223 would be a very good caliber. burns less powder makes less noice and still gets the job done 80% of the time.

but its that other 20% of time out west here in idaho that the bigger 22 cals shine through. ranges can be long and wind is often into the 20's

i guess to boil things down youd have to take into concideration the area you hunt. what ranges youl mostly likly be shooting critters at. if youve got the possiblilty of shots over 300yds for that other 20% time is it worth shooting a small 22 or wondering why you missed that coyote that you thought was 200yds out. when it was actualy 300.

all that said i would like some day to have 223 in lighter weight walking varmit rig. and have lots of enespensive ammo loaded to shoot at whatever whenver i pleased.