Which caliber?

[Mark Nichols]

If you are looking for one rifle to hunt anything out west I would recommend a 7mm magnum (284) caliber. The 7mm family offers a great combination of velocity and energy and high BC bullets. Unless you reload, I would not recommend the 6.8 Western. There are too many other calibers out there that offer similar or better ballistics and are much easier to find and cheaper to buy/load/. There is nothing wrong with the smaller and lower velocity calibers such as the 6.5 Creedmore, the .308, 7mm/08 etc IF you are willing to limit shots at elk to 400 yards or less.. and for some of those rounds 350 yards. Elk are very tough animals and you need to maintain 1500-1700 foot pounds of energy for ethical shots. Sometimes elk only offer marginal shot opportunities such as frontal or quartering away and you need deep penetration and retained energy. Generally I feel the 30 calibers such as 30/06, 300 WSM, 300 Win Mag and 30 PRC are the best overall elk calibers if you are comfortable with a little more recoil. But they are arguably a little overkill on antelope! There are so many choices of caliber these days but if you are trying to find one round to do it all then I would pick one that has superior ballistics, availability and recoil level you are comfortable with and then go from there. I own a 6.5 PRC and it is an incredible cartridge and although I would not hesitate to hunt elk with it if necessary I would always choose my 300 WSM or 28 Nosler as the better choice for an elk hunt. I set up the 6.5 PRC for antelope and deer and its my go to rifle for those critters, but the 28 Nosler would be a fine choice for those as well. So if recommending one round to do it all I think the 7 PRC, the 7mm Rem Mag, and the 28 Nosler are all great places to start. If reloading, the 7mm STW. I'm very intrigued with the 7 PRC and if I didn't already have the 28 Nosler that would be the round I would choose.