What caliber would best suit my needs?

[rem 700]

well, bill allen, i would recommend the 25-06 cartridge. it has a very small recoil, and is effective past 400 yards for deer. the ballistics are excellent. foot lbs are around 2500 and drop isn't much worse than a 22/250. the recoil is also around the range of a 22/250, and it seems to fit your needs. perfect for a wide variety of shot ranges, and has excellent accuracy. shells vary from about $15-35

[wrenchman]

One of the things i find is if you are going to have one gun and the 308 has been working stay with it you know the round and it works.
Then you can be like the rest of us and buy the ones you like and go frome there its like a pringel one is never anuf just dont try to splain it to the wife.
I have 15 long guns and 7 hand guns and still look at others and say to my self< self i would like to have one of them>
I also dont know how many guns i have owned and sold off to get others.

[Brithunter]

Hi evan03,

Changing the name of the .234 would not work, sorry. The 6mm Remington cartridge intriuges me I think due to the troubles with the early ones because of the barrel twist, also the cartridge length is basically the same as the Mauser case. However it's doubtful I will ever get on, in reality it's too close to the 6.5x55 Swedish cartridge and I already have two rifles chambered for that + another two chambered in the 6.5x54 and 6.5x53R.

The 243 Win is a strange cartridge it seems, some will shoot the 100 grn bullets very well whilst another rifle will not. The 100 grn Bullet is required by law for Deer Hunting in Scotland! I have shot precisely one Deer with the 243Win and that was using Federal 100 grn laods, despite a heart shot the Doe ran and it took us over 45 minutes to find the body, I have never had that experieince before only with this .243. I had to borrow a rifle that day as being the daft bugger that i am I picked up the wrong box of ammo when I left home and discovered it at the wood which is 100 miles from home Ipicked up a box of 6.5x54MS with 160 grn bullets whilst the rifel was sighted in for a 120 grn load

That the .243 Win can kill large game like Deer is not in question, it's the way in which it kills I am not enamoured with so I choose to use other cartridges. The firned whos rifle I borrowed has shot hundreds of animals with it over the years form Fox to a 22 stone (308 lbs) Red Stag in Austria. He is a Game keeper by pprofession so spends a lot of time in the field with the rifle. For example he has shot 16 Fallow deer this Year and about 25 Roe deer in the Cull plus a fair few Foxes.