Yep. A controversial or unpopular opinion.

.280 Remington for me.

6.5 Swedish, 7X57 Mauser for the “real world” applications, and .416 Rigby for everything else!

Have some rifles in the first two, have yet to be able to find/justify one in .416…

Bill R

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
I would have to grab my 257 Weatherby magnum as my choice.
The 257 Weatherby shoots flat and has more energy than a 25 cal should.
Recoil is modest.

This right here!

I’m partial to the .250 Savage, preferably in a Savage 99.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
6.5 Swede. Great ballistics (especially after they went to a Spitzer bullet in the 1940s), manageable recoil, and no stupid rim (I'm looking at you, .303 and .30-40). And it took over 100 years for the American market to realize what the Swedes had already been doing for a century. Yeah, the .260 guys knew about it, but it didn't really go mainstream until the 6.5 Creedmoor came along.

10/10 agree.

7x57 (especially when referred to as the 275 Rigby)

416 Rigby

6.5x47 Lapua

30.06 as in good ole M2 ball,

and AP



got lots, got a double handful of stuff to shoot it thru, and used to compete with both a 1903, and M1



second, Rule 303

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Hot take: .30 Carbine. Not "holy" or "mythical", but I do think it's very underappreciated.

Partly due to limited guns being chambered in it, and partly due to some frequently spread bullshit old wives' tales about how "my grandpappy shot a marauding Chicom eleventeen times back in Korea and the .30 carbine just bounced off them". (No, your grandpappy missed!) These same folks tend to overlook the actual fact that loads of soldiers and cops from the 1940s through 1980s carried M1 Carbines by choice - even over other alternatives - and that it was well liked and has an actual good track record of putting down bad guys.

Sure, .30 Carbine is barely a "rifle cartridge", being more like a souped-up pistol round. But it's equivalent in performance to .357 Magnum out of a lever gun, just in a light and handy semiauto package, and has way better performance than the 9mm PCCs that are quite popular. Surprisingly accurate, and effective out to a couple hundred yards if needed. (Basically usable out to iron sight distances for most shooters.)

I planned to take some hogs with one of my M1s loaded with Hornady Critical Defense, but my hog hunting friendship petered out before I could make that happen. I have zero doubt it would have work well.

Not my very top choice in a modern defensive or hunting caliber, but quite far from the worst, and if I needed to defend myself with a M1 Carbine with modern loads I wouldn't feel undergunned.

If you didn't already have one (or more), what would be your top choice or two or three? I could conceive of getting one...

Top choice or two or three of M1 Carbine?

Stick to WW2 production USGI carbines, because the quality and reliability of the various post-WW2 non-USGI commercial M1 Carbines are hit or miss (mostly miss), and often use proprietary parts. Though if you've got money to blow, Fulton Armory currently makes high quality M1 Carbine clones, but expect to pay about twice the price of a decent USGI carbine. That's your best option for getting a good quality non-USGI commercial carbine, though.

The supply of surplus USGI carbines from places like the CMP dried up years ago, but you can still get them on the secondary market if you're patient. Cruise the classified section of milsurp gun forums like the CMP Forum or Gunboards, and you'll see them pop up for sale fairly regularly.

The various manufacturers' USGI carbines are all the same in function and quality, so the production numbers and therefore rarity of the manufacturer is what dictates the price difference between them. Inland made the most WW2 carbines by far, so that's your least expensive option for a USGI carbine. Winchester is next. The other makers are pricier because they're less common - IBM, Rock-Ola, Underwood, National Postal Meter, Quality Hardware, Standard Products, and Irwin-Pedersen.

(Note that there's a newer company called "Inland" making new production commercial M1 Carbines. That's not what I'm talking about. All they did was buy the rights to the name and use it to try to market their commercial carbines.)

One of my favorite, oddball, obscure cartridges that I think is a great lever-action cartridges is the .375 Winchester.


Hard to find and expensive. A very overlooked round. The .375 Winchester a good all around lever-action cartridge.


6.5X55 Swede, I really like this round, soft recoil, good performance. I still have a surplus Swede Mauser, I had a nice sporterized ( done in the 70's ) at one time, but I traded/sold it away.

ARman

quote:

Originally posted by reflex/deflex 64:

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
I would have to grab my 257 Weatherby magnum as my choice.
The 257 Weatherby shoots flat and has more energy than a 25 cal should.
Recoil is modest.

This right here!

Me three. It was plenty good enough for Roy.

I'd go with 45 Colt as well. Doesn't get much better out of a pistol, and is pretty danged handy in a lever gun out to about 150yds+.

Thanks for the info, RogueJSK.

6.5 Swede
30-06
7.62x54R

338 Win Mag!!!!!!

556(its great for what it does), 6.5 anything, 308, 30-06, 45-70, 50BMG.

I'd love to try a 375H&H some day, likely due to all the Capstick I've read.

quote:

Originally posted by Hamden106:
.280 Remington for me.

Let me add 257 Rbts

.222

quote:

Originally posted by Anubismp:
I'd love to try a 375H&H some day, likely due to all the Capstick I've read.

You definitely should, it's in those books so often for very good reasons.

Gents,

Hands down a 7.62 x 51mm (.308 Winchester) from an M-14 or any .308 bolt gun. The .308 IS the Lord's Caliber, IMHO!
After that:
.223 Rem/.223 Rem Ackley Improved 40 degree
.250/3000 Ackley Improved 40 degree
7x57 Mauser
.30/06 Springfield
.35 Whelan Ackley Improved 40 degree
That's it...no belted magnums!

Just my favorites.

Wes