I went with 30.06. That said every store i have been in in the past two months looking for ammo always has .243 and .270 on the shelves when the rest is gone.
my local pawn shop has 6 or 8 boxes of 30.06 150 gr ammo. and the new range/pawn shop on hwy60 in brandon has a lot of ammo in stock in numerous calibers.
I stay with the 270 or one of my 30-06s.
I have a Remington 700 .270 but would rather have a .308!
in all honesty who only has 1 gun for hunting? it would be like 1 fishing rod or 1 golf club, except maybe a young/poor kid, like I was once. and then a mossberg pump with a slug and a bird bbl filled the bill very nicely for my first 8 years or so. if I were limited to 1 rifle it'd be a 30-06. but when you own severall it would go something like: 22lr/22mag, 223/22-250,308/7mm08,25-06/270,35wheelen/300win mag. 5 guns like that should be able to do practicaly anything, not counting levers or shotguns.
I shot a hog this morning with my new (to me) Remington 700 in 243 Winchester.
I found this Remington BDL rifle at a pawnshop about a month ago at very reasonable price due to cracked stock and some rust on the receiver and barrel. The bore looked fine so for $200 I figured I couldn't loose. I took it home and cleaned it off and refinished the metal surface with gun metal gray color KG Gun-Kote and purchased a plastic ADL stock on e-bay for $35. I had a set of DNZ mount/ring sitting around so I mounted my Leupold 2-7 scope on it. At the range it would consistantly shoot 1/2" groups at 100 yards with Winchester 100gr PSP and Remington 100 gr. Rem Core-lokt pointed soft point as long as I kept the barrel from getting hot.
This morning I took a shot at a 135 lb. sow from 258 paces using Remington 100 gr. Rem Core-lokt pointed soft point and it was an instant drop. The bullet entered at the right shoulder traveled through the neck and exited on the left side of the head just below and forward of the left eye... total of about 17" of muscle and bone. The caliber and bullet did an excellent job on the hog.
