Magnum rifle, need or want?

These days I do most of my hunting with a .308 Sako custom, it’s a great rifle for 80% of my hunting needs. 10% other is covered by my .22RF and 22/250 and the remaining 10% by my .300Win and .375H&H (yes very rough figures on aimed at putting the discussion in context). For MANY years (about 20) the .300Win was my go to rifle, it was what I had. It all depends on if you need the extra range or grunt one of the .30 up magnum rounds delivers. The .375 is a brilliant round !! I much prefer to shoot it than the .300. I could certainly live without it, but I have owned it now for 35yrs so I am attached, but it is an enjoyable rifle to bust hogs with and it needed for Asiatic Buff and most useful for Sambar deer. It was also my constant companion in Africa.

The need is defined by your circumstances, but there is also both wrong with want as a reason either.

 

Not planning a safari...but for the majority of my brother's African game a .270 worked quite well. Now Cape buffalo was a job for a .375......but I don't have those around here.

IMHO, magnums are more of a want than a need for most folks.

 

Most of my non dangerous ( bears, cougar, wolves) hunts, I can pretty much get by with a .30/06, especially when range gets out there ( I'm usually on the wrong side of the canyons) but where the magnums really come in is when there is a magnum size elk, or big ass bear that I need to take, so for hunting the .338 gets the nod, usually my Ruger Alaskan M77 or newer and slicker Hawkeye Guide. In a defensive situation where I absolutely have to stop a charging animal, especially the bears, the .375 H&H blown out to Weatherby chamber is my preferd tool, but in several instances, especially if I'm shooting as back up to some one else, the Marlin XLR .45/70 lever gets the nod, it's got the needed punch and a much faster follow up shot(s) on a charger! Other then that, I offed my .300 magnum, and while I have always wanted a 7mm mag, I just cannot see it offering my any advantages that other rifles have c overd, and especially with the .270 win, it's so close it' not worth arguing about!

 

I agree on the 7mag and honestly I feel the same about the .30-06. Those two calibres have just never tripped my trigger. Both are fine and I'm not knocking them in any way, I just don't need them. The only '06's I have are in Garands and '03/03A3's. I've taken Muleys in the Rockies with my M1 and Rem Core Lok bullets worked 1st shot every time. But I prefer my .300 winny for most northern big game.

 

One of these days, I gotta finish my "Old" 9.3X74 Magnum, I have a Domuline Mauser action and custom Kindred Dark barrel for it, and a really sweet set of German made iron sights! I figure it will be the last modern smokeless rifle I even build, and am going to do it up mid 1920 style African Stalking rifle to go along with my replica .500 Jefferies Zelous rifle! Neither is particularly useful for any hunting I'm likely to do, but these are more for show and awesomeness! How many can say they have a bolt action .500 rifle!

 

Here is the current works in progress circa 1944 M1903 Springer!
and My .375 Weatherby Mag conversion!

 

A better angle! Took me and Grand Parents 2 years to do this up! Gramps taught me how to carve and shape the stock and do all the metal work, and Grand Mom did her renowned checkering for it, little did we know, this would be the last rifle she ever did checkering on!

 

I have just started and I mean 1 trip to the range with the 6.5 creed +143 gr. Hornadys
I have no real time data to share since I'm still experimenting with diff. loads of powder
20''bbl.with Omega 300 can, It however shows real promise!

 

LOL, Folks don't believe I actually hunt with it, hell, that's what a nice rifle is for, life's to short to hunt with ugly rifles, Right?!?!? LOL

 

That is a gorgeous rifle mate !! And yes, you most certainly should be using it or it may just be a ornament!

 

Gun porn wood & steel almost as interesting as beauty and bikinis.

 

Big guns are photogenic...

 

VERY NICE! Love that one!

 

Yes, that’s my old .375 catching some late afternoon rays out west about two weeks before I left for Africa. I was actually out hunting rabbits when I snapped the pics.

 

Nice rifle............wait..........you hunt rabbits with a .375? MAN, yall got some SERIOUS rabbits !!!

 

Lol, I have taken Jack's out beyond a thousand, with a .338 Lapua Magnum! Pretty impressive! Lol

 

Yep, I have actually shot lots of bunnies with the H&H. I worked on the principle that if I could walk, flush, swing shoot and crater rabbits then targets the size of Cape Buffalo and such would pose less problems of marksmanship