If you could only have one gun/caliber for California Hunting

[jbao]

What would it be?

 

[Common Sense]

a .22 will kill anything in CA

 

[JustGuy]

Wow, now you opened the biggest worm box possible LOL...
.223 IMO

 

[hunterdoug]

a .22 will kill anything in CA

shot placement is everything, my late uncle, many years back, finally confessed to never being without venison...we'll leave it at that, he said he took more deer with a 22 hornet, I decided to stay on the right side of the laws...I had a ruger #1 in 22 hornet loved it, but a very limited round, one gun...lever 30-30 win period, will not only kill any animal in the west but will drop them in their tracks, cheap ammo, accurate, and Deadly, even for home protection, think about when the west was wild...what did they own....they owned a rifle in the same caliber as their handgun...32 cal lever and 32 cal 6 shooter, they could protect the family and bring home the bacon. That being said I love 22-250, .270, 30-06, 243, 7mm, 223, etc, etc. You can't have too many:archer green:

 

[hunterdoug]

Second choice .270, my gf's fav

 

[Deleted member 33033]

.300 winmag...you can't kill something too dead.

 

[baco]

3006 for me

 

[JustGuy]

.300 winmag...you can't kill something too dead.

Sure, it is a great gun for survival situations: to hunt for birds, squirrels, rabbits, also great for home security, you shoot the intruder and take a couple of pesky neighbors with him on the same occasion LOL...

I just thought, a Mossberg 500 with 3 barrels is a great combination, 18 in. security barrel for home defense, 28 in. field barrel for small game and bird hunting and rifled barrel for big game hunting.

 

[sportyg]

one of every shooting iron made, hmmm yep that would be one,
also more then one

 

[Bankrunner]

Remington 870 WM with a 28" ventilated rib and a slug barrel. From doves to elk it will do it all. Load it with buck shot and you have your home defense covered as well.

 

[Brnsvllyjohn]

Bolt action 270 or 30-06 for big game.
870 12 gauge for everything else.

I now hunt with a 7 mm Rem Mag.

 

[Bankrunner]

Remington 870 WM with a 28" ventilated rib and a slug barrel. From doves to elk it will do it all. Load it with buck shot and you have your home defense covered as well.

Almost forgot, I'll take that 870 in a .729 caliber/12 gauge.

 

[k_rad]

Only one caliber huh?
well then count another for a 12 ga.
Hunting without slugs or bird shot would cut my hunting in half if I could only do one or the other...

 

[flipback23]

My handy dandy .308

 

[Bankrunner]

One Gun.........
Upland game dove hunting, the 870 WM with a long barrel loaded with # 8's is great for dove's.
Tracking a wounded bruin into thick cover, the 870 with a 22" slug barrel loaded with slugs and triple ought buck is great for wounded bear in close quarters.
# 1 gun to own, 12 gauge 870 WM.

 

[adam32]

.264 Diablo for any big game in the Western USA...but just having 1 gun for all hunting in CA is impossible...

 

[outdoorsman35]

depends what you are hunting of course. if not deer, pig, bear, elk, etc. then shotgun but if bigger game 30.06. I like 30.06 better than 308 because you can make your own rounds to hunt bigger game in other areas / states easily and not have to buy another rifle. of course if you can shoot a 243 really accurately and flinch with a larger round then go for a smaller caliber. I don't think you need a large caliber for big game. you should work on shooting as accurately and as comfortably as possible. good technique will kill more animals than a bigger caliber. and besides it is more fun.

 

[eoats]

20 ga for me.

 

[jbao]

LOL yea it's the biggest can of worms... but always an interesting topic to me. What's not surprising is that 90% of you broke the rules of one cal/one gun

I think 12ga is the easy answer, but in rifle calibers, I've been debating a good "do-all" rifle (outside of a shotgun or handgun).

my opinion: I can't operate a bolt action smoothly for repeat shots, and while I love a good lever gun, the round selection (for the majority of levers) is limited -- hunterdoug is spot on with a 30-30 for winning the west but I also want the ability to go out a liiiittttle further. I'm excluding magazine-fed levers as they just don't seem right

I think I've settled on a remington 760/7600 in 30-06 -- a fast repeating pump-action rifle with versatile loads for everything from 110gr to 220gr. Shoot at craters on the moon or at your friends and feet while a boar charges and gores you.

 

[pschooley]

One gun/caliber for California Hunting

I'll put myself out on a little limb and say that since you asked what gun/caliber that shotguns are out of the picture (since 'cept for the .410 they are all gun/gauge not gun/caliber)
:skeered:

That being said I think the venerable 30-06 wins due to the huge number of loads available.... if you know how to handload or take the time to learn how to do so you can take even greater advantage of this.

If you know how to handload and keep your load dope handy you can carry around loads good for coyote, pig, blacktail, bear etc and all you need to do is correct your aim for the load and you're in business.

If you don't know how to handload and don't want to learn then you have to experiment with different factory loads with lighter and heavier bullets to have loads good for bigger and smaller game. The only thing is those loads might not be the best loads for any given bullet weight in which ever rifle you get.

I have an '06 and I've worked up different loads for different bullet weights.

Bottom line is that caliber alone is not good enough for the one gun/caliber concept - you will have to use different loads for different scenarios and the '06 gives you some of the greatest range of combinations available.