Quote:
Originally Posted by aigel
My advice always is to stay away from uncommon or "fad" calibers. Will be more expensive, less bullet choices and not readily available, i.e. when you forgot your ammo on a trip. When I bought my first magnum rifle, the short magnums were all the rage and I almost bought into it, but then I read that ammo availability argument in someone's column and it clicked. You know what happened to the short magnums ...
.308 will be fine and if you have to go long range, you can do so with the right scope and a range finder.
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Sage advice...
You guys know I play with a lot of oddball, obsolete calibers, and often hunt with them. When I used to travel a good deal to hunt, however, I stuck to the "standards" - .30-'06, .375 H&H, and .458 Winchester Magnum. One can find any and all of those in any Third World 7-11 store. And, well, sometimes upon entering the Third World, the god damned customs agent takes your ammo. Because he can. Best to be able to buy some "locally".
Quote:
Originally Posted by aigel
That said, it isn't just the rifle. The scope is also challenging if you need to cover a wide range of distances. Long range scopes should be >9x but then you can't get a 3x at the lower end of the magnification. For me it ended up being a 3.5-10 and it still is a compromise. Don't like it past 250 yards and close in, I can struggle locating my target through it quickly enough.
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The only scopes on any of my big game rifles these days are 1.5-4x, and I cannot remember the last time I turned one up over 1.5x. Nothing worse than having something surprise you at closer than expected range, bring the rifle up, and see nothing but fur through your 9x scope. Scopes are for
aiming the rifle, after the game has been identified, no more, no less. It really doesn't take much magnification to do that.