In your discussion you gave up a rifle for a 9mm pistol I believe that they should remain separate - I mean the pistol augments your 5 rifle collection.
Plinker - I liked the .22 caliber as the first rifle you chose - Air rifle or rimfire - they both can shoot a projectile at 1200 fps
Range rifle - in your discussion you were back and forth on the AR platform with 5.56 ammo - have you considered the 6 MM ARC. Ballistics are great and the recoil is pretty small. Also, with the AR you have a multi-caliber platform so you can go close range big bullets or long range tiny bullets.
Deer Rifle - Just about any rifle works for deer. I have mostly used 30.06 but .270 and .308 work equally well - it is more of a preference - they all recoil about the same.
ELK Rifle - The 300 WIN MAG is a long time favorite of Elk hunters - the recoil is up there but manageable. I personally like the 7mm PRC or 7mm Rem Mag. The recoil is not that much different between the three. In Alaska I used the 7mm Rem Mag and a 30.06 for all of my hunting needs.
Safari Rifle - At minimum I would choose 375 H&H - although the 300 WIN MAG is enough gun - big animals deserve big bullets. And believe it or not the 375 H&H does not kick much more than 300 PRC. Alaska has Musk Ox and Buffalo in the wild not to mention bears to hunt. Big Bullets equal peace of mind.
I like the podcast a lot and the discussion was really informative.
On your range berms you were saying you would bring in dirt. Why wouldn’t you just bull doze the berms from the existing ground?
yeah - I thought the 7 and 300 were a bit redundant on the podcast list. And no shotgun.
223 (vs 22lr seems more versatile)
357 mag (toss up with 9)
6.5 prc ( everything up to mulies)
300 wm (everything else)
12 ga (prefer 20 but not as useful for ducks, geese and turkeys)
22LR certainly gets a whole lot more use around my place than a 223. It’s can be used with a rifle or a pistol. It’s helpful for Pest and varmint control, hunting small game and much more fun to plink with. And it’s the absolute best host to put a suppressor on.
But it’s very hard to argue with an AR 223 being pretty much the quintessential , most optimal Home Defense weapon ever invented. And a 223 bolt gun could be quite helpful and useful in the woods with everything up to Deer size game.
I would definitely choose 9mm over 357, although I absolutely love them both (heck, i love them all). You can put 9mm in a full size handgun and have near 20 rounds of very useful, easy to shoot ammo. You can also put it in one of the new more modern Micro Compact guns with much less capacity but easier to conceal. However still quite shootable. You can also put them in pistol caliber carbines and that’s quite fun. A full size 357 is either 6 or 7 rounds. You can go smaller but as they get smaller to become much more difficult to shoot. You can always switch to 38spc for the smaller gun, but that’s another cartridge.
A lot of people use 12 gauge around here for deer as well as black bear with the appropriate loading.
9mm is optimal balance between shoot-ability and effectiveness.
The podcast mostly focused on rifles - so that is why I didn’t push the shotgun as one of the must have five cartridges/weapons in my comments.
You can even kill an Elephant with a 12ga. Shotgun slug if you had to - I don’t recommend it - but it is a powerful weapon. Hunting guides use these Slugs in Alaska to stop dangerous game - Polar/Brown/Grizzly Bears etc…
I chose 357 over 9 for the power factor and longer range. Plenty of edc 357’s available. I have a s&w m60 in ss with a chest holster that is my carry gun when hunting. sure - not a 10mm or 44 mag but it is no slouch either. But can’t argue against the other option either. I think shooting a 357 revolver is more fun than a 9 so that was the deciding thing for me. Easier to reload a bit too.
And podcast had pistol - so not just rifle. The 12 ga is the most useful and versatile as a survival weapon. Slugs, buckshot, bird shot, self defense, gophers, does it all!
In another thread I pointed out that I shot a moose with an 8mm RM. A sow grizzly came a snorting and a popping and tried to bluff me off the kill. She kept her distance though but I would not want to be there with a 243 as my rifle. The guide said she was a sow. I was not good at figuring that out. She did get within 20 yrds in a pine thicket. A whole
pile of moose guts were gone the next morning. And moose have a lot of guts. The guts weigh more than most deer.
Interesting. I don’t if any of you have ever watched the Discovery Channel “The Last Alaskans,” or not. One of the families they track, is Heimo. Apparently, having enough meat harvest for the winter is everyones top priority and a Moose sits at top of the list for every family. In one episode, Heimo shot his Moose as it was getting dark. He had to wait till the next day to return. So, before he left, he started a huge fire close to his moose to keep the “bears” away. The only thing he took home from the moose was its tongue. The next day when he was getting ready to return to harvest the dead moose, he packed a “shotgun” in addition to his rifle. He said, he needed that just in case a bear was present and would contest the kill and they are very persistent departing from the kill and only a “shotgun” would have them retreat in order to claim his moose back.
Nice list, but re: 20 gauge; I have switched to 20 for all applications now except home defense. When it comes to hunting, I don’t miss 12 at all. I have had to switch to some more expensive ammo options, e.g., TSS for turkey. But there are folks now using 410’s in the turkey woods with TSS loads. I think that’s a little odd myself but have had great luck with the 20 gauge.
Hard to beat a 12ga with a 1oz slug at close range. Still though - I would prefer to avoid a confrontation with a bear in any circumstance where food is involved.
I enjoy all varieties of shotgun and own several of each. I grew up hunting birds, but we never did anything with rifles, and I never hunted deer as a kid. Got into that on my own as an adult. Anyway, lately my go-to choice for upland game has been a Benelli Ultralight in 20 gauge. I can carry that thing through the fields literally all day long, as it only weighs about 5.5 lbs. But there are many good choices these days that come in around 6.5 lbs. which makes for easy carrying also. For waterfowl and turkey, where I am most often sitting in a blind, I don’t mind a heavier gun. I have used everything from Remington 870s and 1100s, to Benelli SBEs, to Mossberg 500s, to Browning Citori O/Us, and others. My next hunt is going to be fall turkey and I’ll be taking a Mossberg 500 Turkey with a red dot (again in 20 gauge and using 3" TSS loads).
Thats nice , I was wondering what type of light shotgun to use, especially walking in marsh.
Ill try to look for that benelli super light , 5.5 lbs sounds good to me
Where I live in Yukon its grouse and ducks mostly.
My actual shotgun is 9lbs
ThaNks for the cues
The problem with the ultra-light stuff is that you might have to be careful what loads you use. These are going to have more aluminum, less steel, etc., so I probably wouldn’t take this on a duck hunt personally only because I’d be wary of sending steel shot through that ultra-light barrel (in the US at least you pretty much have to use steel shot for any waterfowl). I have never seen any data or researched this specifically, so it’s just my opinion, but suffice it to say I am not willing to test the theory on my own equipment. This was designed for upland game and traditional loads. That having been said, the Benelli Super Black Eagle doesn’t weigh that much more in 20 gauge and would be a more versatile gun. And actually, between that and the cheaper Beretta A300, I think the Beretta is maybe even more reliable. That thing can take a beating and just keep on eating, as they say. Also, if cost is not a factor the Beretta A400 Xtreme Plus is widely considered to be the creme-de-la-creme of semi-autos these days. But the A300 gives you like 85% of the features and value for like half or less the price of the A400, so…
