New Rifle/Caliber debate

[buggy]

I appreciate all of the feedback!

Full disclosure, I do have a 30-06, 300 wsm, 6.5 CM that I could tinker with but I'm trying to justify buying a new gun so don't be logical and tell me to use what I already have.

[spoonman]

6.5 prc
6.5rpm
6.5-300
7mag
26 Nosler
28 Nosler
 And I’m sure plenty more will be great rounds to shoot to a 1000 yards and enough to harvest animals to 500-600. Spend more on your glass! Most of those calibers mentioned come in Browning, Savage, Tikka, and others. $2000 is tight for good glass and a decent rifle. Good glass starts at $1200 or so and up. So maybe a SHV on a Tikka or Xbolt would be a good setup. Get a brake if you don’t like recoil. I have a Xbolt long range in 300wm and a SHV on top and it’s a half moa setup for a bit over $2000.

[GWP]

Oops. Typed this while you posted your last one.
Well, first I would suggest taking what you have, setting it up good, and see if your skill level is up to a K gun. If you have a capable 1 MOA and shoot 3 MOA at 100 yards, you may reconsider and just make what you have better.
If you just want to spread holes all over a target at 1K or want to be able to state you HAVE a 1K shooter, then never mind and go for it.
I have seen this a LOT over the last 50 years. Long range guns are cool, but they don’t have to be a ‘one off’ or expensive, but they are cool to have. The main part to shooting accurately is to shoot a LOT and work on your breathing skills. Most guns by themselves are pretty accurate once you find a load they like.
One of the most accurate guns I have ever owned is an old military 7X57 with the original barrel, trigger and a miss matched stock it was bedded to. Probably not worth $300. On par in accuracy to any of the three custom ones I have had built.
 

[ASHQUACK]

Here's my .02....
I have a 7stw, 338 RUM, 280AI, all custom and I handload for all of the above.  Each has it's sweet spot I really like how heavy I can load the 338RUM and it's a sweet shooter but it's a little over the top for deer. It's taken 3 elk out to 600 with zero hesitation. I've also shot a couple of mule deer with it. It is however a bugger to find factory ammo or brass.
7 stw shines for deer it's a long range flat shooter but like it's cousin 280 AI it's limited in bullet weight to 175grn. It flat out smacks deer.
280 AI I've only shot it a little bit (new gun), but I really like it's performance so far. I simply need to shoot it more.
The 6.5 I have is a factory Tikka and it shoots right outta the box. I bought it as a pinker to punch paper with. Never planned on hunting with it but, I have loaned it to 2 youth and a female hunter because of the low recoil and each has taken deer to 350 with it and all one shot kills.

I guess what I'm saying is there really isn't a one stop shop for what you're trying to do. If I had only one in my safe it'd be the 7stw.

[HUNT JR]

I shoot a 28 nosler. I shoot the hornady precision hunter and they shoot 1/2 minute in the Christensen I use. I think as far as long range shooting in the .284 that it is hard to beat. It shoots a lot flatter than a 7mm rem mag which gives you more margin for error. I have struggled to find ammo for it this year though. I think you could go with a browning xbolt or a tikka veil with a quality scope that tracks accurately (Zeiss v4) and have a rifle more than capable of 1000 yard shooting.

284 win shoots a lot flatter than a 7mm rem mag?

I meant it to read that out of the .284 options, the 28 nosler is a great option that is flatter shooting than a rem mag.

[Duckslayer89]

I shoot a 28 nosler. I shoot the hornady precision hunter and they shoot 1/2 minute in the Christensen I use. I think as far as long range shooting in the .284 that it is hard to beat. It shoots a lot flatter than a 7mm rem mag which gives you more margin for error. I have struggled to find ammo for it this year though. I think you could go with a browning xbolt or a tikka veil with a quality scope that tracks accurately (Zeiss v4) and have a rifle more than capable of 1000 yard shooting.

284 win shoots a lot flatter than a 7mm rem mag?

I meant it to read that out of the .284 options, the 28 nosler is a great option that is flatter shooting than a rem mag.

Hardly flatter shooting though. You get like 100fps more with 10 grains more powder. So it’s up to the shooter if that’s worth it

[jasnt]

Buying a new gun is great but put 2k in a rifle ya got could be way better.

[jjness11]

Lots of good stuff said already. I am one who just likes having different rifles/cartridges, and tuning loads for each one. For the last few years, my go to has been my 280 AI. If I were heading out on a hunt tomorrow, it’s the rifle I would grab. Just a notch below a 7 Mag for velocity, but less powder, and less recoil. 7’s are a great choice, anything from a 7mm-08 to a 28 Nosler. There is a ton of options in between. I am in the process of building a short barreled 7 SAUM to hunt suppressed.

[huntnphool]

7mm Rem Mag

He said manageable recoil beyond a couple rounds 

 I’m bald, without a man bun! The recoil has never been a issue, all my trophy’s have been one shot!

 7mmRM has always worked for me.

 YMMV

[hunter399]

7mm Rem Mag

He said manageable recoil beyond a couple rounds 

 I’m bald, without a man bun! The recoil has never been a issue, all my trophy’s have been one shot!

 7mmRM has always worked for me.

 YMMV

I second the 7 mag.
Recoil not that bad.
I hand load ......so all that balistic you see on the back of a factory ammo is pretty weak ,and way under powered.
140/150 grain pushed to the max ,gets that bullet moving.
The very best thing about 7 mag is since I've been using it a few years now.
NO BLOOD TRAIL cause it dumps them in the dirt.
I have yet to see a deer I shot with plow dirt more than 10 feet.
I'm currently using 150 grain ,but also my go to is 160 grain.
Just out my head,150 grain bullet is pretty dang close to 3200 fps ,that puts some smack down within 500 yards.

[fishngamereaper]

7mm Rem Mag

He said manageable recoil beyond a couple rounds 

 I’m bald, without a man bun! The recoil has never been a issue, all my trophy’s have been one shot!

 7mmRM has always worked for me.

 YMMV

Shaved head here...and a beard

Lots of years behind a 7mag. Lots of dead animals... guaranteed to work just fine...but bad shoulders, and I like to shoot allot. 30-40 rounds thru a 7mag is not a fun range day. Kick that up to a 100 when  developing a range card for a grand and it just sucked.

Got a 6.5prc last year. The things a dream to shoot. Way less recoil, quicker follow ups,etc...It'll run neck and neck with the mag ballistically. And it's one shot killed everything I've hit this year.

7mag is a safe queen now...the PRC gets to have all the fun.

[Karl Blanchard]

If I had to buy a rifle and factory ammo today 12/16/2021 I'd get a 6.8 western aka a slightly slower 7 wsm    it is based simply on the fact that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME I go to our horrible cabelas here in Yakima there is a shelf full of 6.8 ammo on the shelf. Just yesterday they had 14 boxes. Find ammo, then worry about the rifle.

[hunter399]

If I had to buy a rifle and factory ammo today 12/16/2021 I'd get a 6.8 western aka a slightly slower 7 wsm    it is based simply on the fact that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME I go to our horrible cabelas here in Yakima there is a shelf full of 6.8 ammo on the shelf. Just yesterday they had 14 boxes. Find ammo, then worry about the rifle.

Back the the "old days"
Which is still true today, that's how they fazed out old calibers. Make a ton of ammo for the new stuff.
We sell more rifles that way.
I'm not saying the 6.8 is bad or good.
I'm just saying be careful cause that's how they play us like a fiddle.

[kselkhunter]

My personal rule is to always spend more on the glass than the gun if buying a factory gun (obviously it's different for a custom build).  My rifles mostly wear Swarovski and Zeiss glass.


If going factory ammo make sure you find a large enough stock and buy it if it's in same lot code.  Or make the decision to reload and start gathering up components.  It would suck to pick a cartridge for your new rifle and be waiting 6 months to a year to get ammo.


There are far too many cartridges available to try to influence a direction for you.  On the recoil topic, stock design also comes into play.  New rifle with effective recoil pad.  I recently picked up an old used Mauser 98 in 25-06.  Beautiful but heavy wood stock, total weight with scope is 9.5lbs.   Shooting 120gr partitions that little sucker kicks more than you'd think.  That old rubber recoil pad is past it's prime and needs replacing, and the stock design could be better.   I shoot my 8lb 35 Whelen with 250gr Partitions, and it thumps but the new recoil pad I put on it makes a huge huge difference (no brakes on any of my rifles).   There are various ways to manage recoil.


To the Opps desire of shooting to 1000 at paper and 600 yards at animals with factory ammo, before I started reloading I bought a new X-bolt Long Range in 7mmRM and topped it with a Swarovski Z5 5-25x52 scope and had custom turrets made for factory ammo (and later for my hand loads) specific to the Nosler 168gr ABLR factory ammo.  I bought up 15 boxes of that ammo at that time of rifle purchase (yeah, good luck finding that much today) I regularly practiced out to 600 yards and that rifle was surprisingly accurate with that factory ammo.   Recoil was not bad at all.  I really like the X-Bolts for a factory rifle.   But pick a cartridge that is more available at the time you go to purchase the rifle and buy as many boxes in the same lot code as available....


Good luck with your decision.

[HUNT JR]

I shoot a 28 nosler. I shoot the hornady precision hunter and they shoot 1/2 minute in the Christensen I use. I think as far as long range shooting in the .284 that it is hard to beat. It shoots a lot flatter than a 7mm rem mag which gives you more margin for error. I have struggled to find ammo for it this year though. I think you could go with a browning xbolt or a tikka veil with a quality scope that tracks accurately (Zeiss v4) and have a rifle more than capable of 1000 yard shooting.

284 win shoots a lot flatter than a 7mm rem mag?

I meant it to read that out of the .284 options, the 28 nosler is a great option that is flatter shooting than a rem mag.

Hardly flatter shooting though. You get like 100fps more with 10 grains more powder. So it’s up to the shooter if that’s worth it

Where are you seeing only 100 fps slower? My 7mm rem mag handloads (at or just over max load) are roughly 230 FPS slower than my factory 28 nosler shooting the same 162 gr eldx bullet. I would argue by handloading I could make that gap 300fps if I wanted.

To the original question I think the 28 nosler is the better choice performance wise and would be what I would shoot. With a muzzle break on my rifle, it shoots easy and recoil hasn't been an issue.