Varmint-Deer Combo Rifle

[JD338]

What do you fellas think about a varmint, deer and antelope rifle. What do you think is the best set up, rifle, caliber and scope?
I am thinking my M700 Classic 257 Roberts with 110 gr AB's, topped off with a Leupold VXII 3-9x40mm scope.

JD338

 

[DrMike]

Jim,

I would think that the 257 Bob would be a great candidate for a varmint-deer combo rifle. I'm sure that some would argue for the 243, but the quarter bores just seem made for such work.

Here is my 257 Roberts in a Remington CDL, together with my 350 Remington Magnum. They used to be my only Remingtons, but I've recently added a 260 to the mix.

 

[FOTIS]

No flies on that on Jim.

Although I am super heavy in varmint guns my duely would be the Kool Blue 6mm.

 

[jmad_81]

Welll, I'm not a huge fan of the .257 cal for some reason. They work great, but for some reason they just bug me. If I'm using this for deer and speed goats on a regular basis, I'm afriad my beloved .243 would be a bit on the small side for what I like. I would have to go with a 6.5-06 AI. Shoot the 95/100 gr BT for yotes and other small critters, and shoot the 130 AB for everything else.

 

[BK]

Depends. If you lean more towards deer hunting, my Remington Classic .25-06 would be #1, if more interested in varmints/predators, a .243 or (ideally) a 6mm Remington. I wish the CDL LE 6mms would start shipping!

 

[nodak7mm]

Jim,

Define Varmints...... Yotes on up, I'm with u on the Bob 110%. Smaller than yotes your in 243/6mm territory....

Rod

 

[Powerstroke]

I'm becoming torn between the .257's now and the 6.5's hmm....

Will have to agree with jmad on this one -
Back to the good ole .260 platform - Rem 700 BDL Varminter. Straght 12X or 16X Leupy
95gr V-max / 100gr B-tip for the little stuff - and the ole reliable 130gr AccuBond to get-er done on the big end.
This one has handled yotes to elk :grin:

 

[JD338]

Jim,

Define Varmints...... Yotes on up, I'm with u on the Bob 110%. Smaller than yotes your in 243/6mm territory....

Rod

Woodchucks, rockchucks, coyotes, bobcats, deer and antelope.
1 gun for everything. Don't forget to include optics.

JD338

 

[Woodycreek]

Rem 700 .243AI with Leupold EFR VX-III 6.5-20x40mm Fine Duplex shooting 95gr BTs and 105gr AMAX.

 

[YoteSmoker]

If I could only use 1 rifle and 1 load for everything from groundhog-deer it would have to be my SS 243 A-bolt with SS 3.5-10x40 Vari-X III loaded with an 85 BTHP Gameking zeroed at 200 yards. This would get me by, but not the optimum choice of caliber in anyone category be it varmint, furbearer, predator, or deer size game. That's why I keep having an ongoing mental love/hate relationship with this cartridge. I have better choices in calibers for all NA species using 22 hornet, 22-250, and 7mm Mag.

 

[cloverleaf]

My 250 Savage- !00 Gr. BT @ 2900 fps or a 75 Gr V-max at 3100+ and less than an inch. Need I say more...? Besides if JD made all that pink snow with his .25 mine should work OK. Or did you use the 338. CL

Here ya are Dr. Mike. Please excuse the poor pic. Its the only one left since the fire. Maybe santa will bring me a new camera (and an Antelope tag) Incidentally, a coyote is on my "bucket list".CL

 

[DrMike]

Cloverleaf,

You need to throw up a picture of that 250 without any distracting critters hiding its beauty from us! :grin:

 

[257 Ackley]

A 25-06 with a 4.5X14 scope shooting 85 grain BT's for everything up to yotes and the 110 AB for speed goats and deer. You know I love my "bobs", but it doesn't have the range I would want for shooting p-dogs, chucks and some of the other small stuff.

 

[BK]

Fellas, are we insane? One rifle? ONE?!?! Obviously, a bobcat rifle is not a 'yote rifle is not a p-dog rifle is not a deer rifle. YOU NEED A SEPARATE RIFLE FOR EACH SPECIES BEING HUNTED!We owe it to the game being hunted (not to mention our obsessive/compulsive need for new toys).

 

[Ashman]

Jim, I'd opt for either one of these. There a many other rifles in the gunsafe, but the .257 has long been my favorite for whitetail and I'd have faith in it for varmits if I shot it as well as it is capable of at long ranges,.... probably if I had to pick ONLY ONE for varmit and deer it'd be the 25.06 given the scope would help me see farther. But I like BK's thinking. :lol: never enough rifles.

(Left) Ruger M77 .257 with a 3-9x40 (Right) Browning Medallion .25/06 with a 4-12 Leopould (edit) sorry picture quality is so bad.

 

[SJB358]

I don't really have a varmint-deer combo. My sons 243 w/ Leupold 2x7 on it, that is pretty close though. I guess my runner up would be the M700 25-06. I think with the 4.5x14 it would do okay? Scotty

Sons 243

25-06 (bad picture) This was before the bedding and pillars!

 

[jmad_81]

There is some nice iron on here! Lots of 25 fans as well. Maybe I need to take a better look at the 257 cals someday.

 

[desertcj]

This is the catagory that my Savage 12 .243 falls into. I posted some pics of it a week or so ago. It's got a bushnell 3200 tactical 5-15 mil-dot scope. .243 is all you ever NEED for varmints and has enough umph for deer size game out to farther than most people will shoot at them. Every deer I've ever shot was less then 300 yards, in fact most were a lot closer to 100 yards including some that were taken with a .223! With "Varmint rifle accuracy" those shots were in the bag before the safety even went to fire. I really miss my 7mm Rem Mag, but there is no way I'd use one on varmints.

 

[nodak7mm]

I am truly with BK on this!! 110%x10

Fellas, are we insane? One rifle? ONE?!?! Obviously, a bobcat rifle is not a 'yote rifle is not a p-dog rifle is not a deer rifle. YOU NEED A SEPARATE RIFLE FOR EACH SPECIES BEING HUNTED!We owe it to the game being hunted (not to mention our obsessive/compulsive need for new toys).

Cuz in my "varmint shooting world", we have the Bench PD rifle, the "Other" Bench PD rifle (the one that cools while shooting the other), the Carry PD rifle, the Short range PD rifle, the Long range PD rifle, the Truck gun coyote rifle, the Calling coyote rifle and the Big coyote rifle.

But in Jims world, the fat chuck is the smallest avg varmint he may pursue. Chuck shooting does not involve fast, volume shooting and he would like to shoot Mulies too, so I would consider the 25/06, 75gr Vmax for chucks, 100gr NBT's for Yotes & 120gr NPT's deer critters..

But it shore looks like to me Jim, ya really need a minimum of three rifles and one back-up. One must be prepared!!

Rod

 

[Guest]

I think we have similar varmint hunting potential in Alabama as to what you have up in Michigan, Jim. Not the same species, but comparable stuff in size and scope, and in how it's hunted. I've long been thinking the same thing you're thinking - a nice double-duty rifle that would do either one very well.

My conclusion has been that I'd like to have a medium contoured 243Win for the job. I have a 243Win in a Browning BAR that belonged to my dad, and it's certainly never left a deer standing when it's been used on one, other than a miss once, which wasn't the rifle's fault. I have no doubt the round is plenty for deer out to 300yds or so, and more than enough for yotes and such at those ranges, as well.

I've been leaning toward a Howa 243 Varmint gun, which I'd scope with something in a 4-16x class. I'd start out looking for a good mid-weight load, and would be very interested to see if the 85gr Hornady Interbond (or 80gr GMX) would maintain the same point of impact and overall trajectory as the 87gr VMax. That would give me a single, universal loading that would do whichever I needed to do. The only trick would be keeping the ammo separate as they'd all be red-tipped bullets and I'd hate to go after deer with a VMax in the tube. Think about not having to think, though, when you shoot - it would be awesome to have a single bullet weight and be able to hunt varmints or thin-skinned game and just know the rifle was "on" no matter which. One of these days I'm going to put that theory to the test.

I don't really believe the 243 gives up much if anything to the 25's (until you get into the really high velocity 257Wby and such), in that I'd use either for white-tails and antelope, but would move up to a bigger bore for anything larger. The 243 has the advantage of being soft on the shoulder, though the 25's are supposed to be soft as well.