From now until you die. Pick only one. Not necessarily an end of the world situation. You are just limited to one.

I would pick .357 mag. Can use in pistol or rifle. 110 gr all the way up to 200 grains. I've shot everything from rabbits to deer and pigs, it's cheap to reload and can be made very accurate in a rifle.

.30-06 bolt.

Too many variables in your question such as if the TP&W code must be adhered to or is it a scenario based on factors free from such restrictions.

.308...very common and can be easily acquired.

Hard to beat .357 or .44 mag if you can have only one caliber for both handgun and rifle applications. Same logic could apply to 7.62x39 and .223.

375 H&H as long as you allow me to have any ammo I want. With solids you can use it for small game and also the biggest stuff on earth. With regular ammo you can hunt everything else. You can get ammo for it all over the world. In a pinch you could use a reduced load with a wadding and lead shot out of it. Pattern wouldn't be very good but you could use it for short range birds.

.357 for me , revolver and a lever action

You decide. I'm not that serious about it.

This is the correct answer. Provided you can shoot hand loads, can cover every animal walking, with manageable recoil and good trajectory.


I love the .300 win but don’t want to shoot Cape buffalo or Big brown bear with it.

If I was restricted to the lower 48, then a .300 win no question.

45-70

9 mm. This one's crazily easy, yet I almost left 9 mm off my top five pistol list, because I don't really love it. But, it fits in most of my carry guns. It will work for the matches I shoot, and the matches I shoot are 99.5% the shooting I do. I can put it in a PCC if I wanted to go hunting with it rifle. I could even get real crazy and get a bolt gun built around it and crank the pressures up to something stupid and have a 75 yard rifle, maybe even 100 LOL for hunting. And if I decided not to hunt with it at all I can still hunt with a bow or crossbow and kill everything up to and including an elephant with that.


Also, 9 mm is very cheap and available

22 WMR. Suitable for small game and predators, mild report with a silencer and will kill anything in Texas with proper bullet placement.

20 or 12ga. Ducks, dove, deer, pigs, squirrels, rabbits and anything else that needs to be hunted. Home defense as well.

12 gauge. You can load it down, you can’t load a sub-gauge back up. 12 gauge does it all, there is no contest.

I feel this scenario would only come into play at an end of the world situation so I’m going to say 9mm, you can do a rifle and pistol. Short range you can kill what you need.

I like your thoughts on this. A S&W 686 and a Marlin 1894 would be most effective.

I second .357.

12 Gauge- can be used for anything. From brown bears to Quail.

This but 30.06

I can agree to that, have it already and hunt with it often. Have a couple Ruger Security 6s, barrel for the Contender and Marlin 1894 16 inch barrel for it. Those have worked well on critters small from snakes, squirrels, rabbits, deer and hogs up to 240lbs. Load light or heavy for how you want.

.357 is where I was at first. I already have the S&W 686 and Marlin 1894. Thinking more about it, man this is a tough question. I do love to plink with handguns. I work at that and really enjoy it. I am also a big game hunter. I also love to bird hunt and really enjoy bird dogs. If push came to shove, I would give up handguns before the bird dogs. I most often use a 20 ga for bird hunting. If I throw big game in the mix with birds and small game, then 12 gauge it is. Not my favorite for anything but would work well enough for all.
The real answer is “nope. I ain’t gonna do it.” Thank goodness it is a hypothetical question…

This is the same way I ended up at 9 mm. Look at what you do, and what you can make work best within those parameters. I don't really like 9 mm, but it does the most things in the most ways for what I do, so if I can only have one that's probably what it would be

The real question is what if you had to settle for one gun? Do you pick the most practical or the most sentimental, or the finest? Or do you have something else, something on your wishlist or dream/bucket list of guns you would opt for if you had to choose one?

77/22 Mag

That's a handsome rig, Trapper.

45 Colt in both revolvers and levers. It does everything I would need it to do.