What caliber would you choose?

[Roamer]

25/06 in Ruger No, 1 I have one and we started my nephews on it. The gun is safe. If the lever is down the gun is unloaded. It's a little heavier and makes recoil a nonfactor. It'll take anything on your list. Light for an elk, but if I was close enough, I'd pop one. I have had two 25/06 rifles. My 700BDL is over 30 years old and when I was rifle hunting, it was a killing machine.

I shoot the Ruger No.1 in 7mm mag and the recoil is pretty much nil to none.The guns own weight helps to stop the felt recoil. I would recommend any caliber in a Ruger No.1.

For children I would go with the 6mm, my brother shoots one and it is like shooting a 22 as far as recoil goes. He kills deer, varmints, and hogs with it.

I would not worry about replacing your rifle. I would just buy one for the kids. That way you do not have to worry about them doing something by accident to your personal rifle. 6mm are pretty common in Pawn shops.

Have a great day and happy hunting!

[DRow]

Before you buy anything i would check out the balistics on the 270WSM! Most all around allsome caliber out there IMO. Oh, and I WOULD without a dought take a shot at an elk with it! And, as far as the recoil, id let my 11 year old cousin (a girl) shoot it. And she'd laugh afterwards.

[Fish Slime]

25-06 no question about it

[Eric Pence]

I have a .257 Wthby my wife shoots
I have a .257 Roberts my kids use ages 8-10

My wife also uses a Tikka in a .308 I just bought her.

[skeeter]

.308

Remington makes managed recoil ammo for the .308. Good out to 200 yards.When the kids are big enough, use the full load. Santa Claus brought me a .308 Mohawk 600 when I was 11. I still have it. It kicks like a mule, but a kid aint gonna feel it kick when they are shootin at an animal.

Now, if I wasnt gonna shoot anything bigger than a mule deer, 25-06.

[Old Goat1]

Well you have a lot of opinions to choose from. I bought a TC a couple of years ago. 243 and 45/70. The 243 heavy barrel is a tack driver with off the shelf ammo and 105 grain lead. No telling what it would do with handloads, just haven't tried yet. 45/70 is loaded mild has good accuracy. I have really enjoyed that gun and the versatility.

[tvc184]

Lots of good guns but of the ones asked about in the original post, the 25-06.

[white devil]

Dont forget the 6.8 spc and 6.5.There killing machines with 223 recoil.

[texag93]

I do not believe there is a better trigger on the Market in a stock, factory rifle then the accu-trigger!

The Remington 700 trigger is by far the best trigger on the market......maybe not out of the box, but they are easily adjustable. The new X-mark trigger is good out of the box and great when I get done with it.

The Savage Accutrigger is not bad. I have shot a couple and they are light, but that little "Glock" lever is annoying and takes away from what a rifle trigger should feel like.

[Old Blue]

This has .243 written all over it. They are flat shooting, not hard kicking, very accurate, and fun to shoot. Plus ammo is readily available. I had a .270...it stomped worse than any one ive owned, musta been the plastic stock.

MY VOTE IS A CZ IN .243 I held one of those the other day..and MAN what a fine gun, you CANT go wrong with it.

Go with a 270

[Boomerang]

Here are the calibers I've been looking at.

- 22-250
- .243
- 6mm
- 25-06
- 257 WTHBY Mag

All excellent calibers. The only thing to mark against the .22-250 is you mentioned possible out of state hunting. Some states may have regs against a caliber with smaller diameters? The .257 WMag is nice, but you pay for expensive shells.

From what you have said the .243 and .25-06 would be great choices. The 6mm is basically a .243 so look at what calibers you think will give the widest choice of ammo. With that logic in mind, I would go with the .243.

[Loneaggie]

Another 7mm-08 recommendation. Its a very low recoil round and it packs a punch for a long ways. Was originally a wildcat cartridge for long range silhouette shooting. Very accurate round as well. So it was designed for comfort, accuracy, and still having a good thump at long ranges.

[Texans42]

25-06 or 7-08

[Hollywood]

.308 - you can get light low recoil rounds for the kids and should you go elk hunting, you can buy 180 grain nosler partition bullets loaded by federal.

.308 is a VERY accurate, VERY versatile gun.

X 2 , both of my boys 10 & 15 shoot a Rem. 308 with a bull barrell. We started out with the Rem. light rounds & graduated to a quicker round.

[W-L-F]

i have a 257 whby mag. tack driver but 60.00--75.00 a box of shells
just ordered a custom .260 with a suppresser