Gents, lets pose the question. You have to hunt whitetails, muleys, elk, antelope, moose, pigs, and bear with the same rifle!!! Whats its gonna be. Just a fun hypothetical!

Ill lead off, Ive gotta go with the 30-06 since its all I truly have experiance with and its so versatile.

Lets hear it fellas.
Dano

A 308 would fit the bill, with bullets ranging up to 220 grains. And all this in a short action light package. Add in that you can buy surplus ammo to shoot for practice, its really tough to beat. In addition its a good long range rifle too, can easily get to 1k yards.

300 Weatherby.

7mm mag

Coin toss between 257 Wby Mag, or 270 Wby Mag. Both could take down anything in N. America.

agreed 100%

.270 WSM would easily be the choice. Better ballistics that the Wby's and 7mm. Short action makes the gun lighter for those spot and stalks, plus with the ammo technology these days a 150gr will do the trick.

7mag

i plan to put the 257wby to work this season - so i will see if its my new #1

+1

Not better than the 270 Weatherby but close.

257 wby and 25-06 a close second

Between 250 to 300 fps avantage goes to the 257.

I hunt with a .270 Weatherby Magnum, love the round. Hate the price of ammo though. LOL

.35 Whelen with hand loads.
Because it'll shoot 160's ~ 250"s and makes a bigger hole.

264

Here is an article about a guy who did do it all with one rifle. He killed every North American big game species recognized by Boone and Crocket, except the big bears. The rifle was a Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/guns/rifles/2005/09/can-one-gun-do-it-all

If I had to only hunt those animals you listed... it would be the 300 RUM.

338 Federal, 45-70 or the 375 Ruger

I agree but with the the ammo differnce its a toss up. Therefor I came to the conclusion life is to short not to have both.

Would agree with many of the post here for smaller diameter bullets except when you throw in bears, especially coastal Browns or Polar. I would want something that with a large chunck of lead. The old 30-06 has been used on them and is considered minimum by many of the guides and then with heavy bullets.

Of the guns I currently have my choice sould be the 350 Remingtom Mag or 45-70. If getting another gun for such, 300 RUM

.338 lapua magnum

308

Having shot a 308 for a long while i do agree that it would work on all game in Texas but, I found that the 264 Win Mag is a good caliber to use and with a well placed shot the ballistics on the 264 will put a large elk down as well.

While I think other calibers do certain things better than a 308, if factoring in ammo availability, easily accessible reloading supplies, the 308 (and 30/06) are hard to beat

300 wby, its what i have.

I think you could kill them all with any of the calibers liested, but would want a little more bang when I got to shoot the bears. When hunting something that can and might try to eat your but after you shoot it i would always go with more gun rather than less.

matt