Benonymous
New member
I have a good friend named Peter. He's a good bloke and a very experienced hunter. He's been shooting since he was a teenager and has made hunting part of his life. For many years he's had a two gun arsenal when it came to rifles. For close-up stalking he's had a Marlin 30-30 lever gun and his long range varminter has been a Tikka 22.250. Pete taught me about gun care and maintenance and subsequently, my Tikka 6.5x55 and his guns all look good as new after many hundreds of rounds. I remember him cautioning me on touching the blued metal. "If you touch it with your fingers and put it away, when you get it out in a few months, it'll be rusted" Subsequently, my last act before storing a rifle has always been to wipe the barrel down with an oily rag. Works a treat.
Anyway, Pete came to me with a problem.
After owning only three firearms in more than twenty years ( he has a Beretta shotgun too) He was about to take the momentous step of buying a new rifle.
On delivery of this news I waited for an earth tremor.... but none came.
"What are you going to get Pete?" I asked with anticipation, "I haven't made up my mind, I want to ask you a few questions " At this point I didn't know whether I had been honored or cursed. Was I going to give Pete the final word on make and caliber?
Basically, Pete wanted a decent center fire caliber that would be sufficient for everything from foxes to asian Buffalo. He'd talked about a trip to the Northern Territory to get a Buff so I was unsurprised at his insistence on a hard hitting round. He also wanted to get some deer with this new piece (no shortage of feral deer in Australia let me tell you) and this was the first task he would undertake with the new gun.
To save us a bunch of neurones, he'd shortlisted three calibers, these were:
.270
.308
and
30.06
Pete was interested in my experience with .308. I have two rifles in this caliber. A Steyr Scout and a Steyr Scout Tactical Elite, both of which I had found accurate and at least with the Scout, very effective on Australian game. ".308 will drop any Aussie game " I said confidently "and the contract shooters in the NT used to use FN SLR's to pop Buffalo from choppers". Pete wa unconvinced. "How many rounds did they pump into them with SLR's?" Good point. What about .270? Unknown to me, I've only shot a Remington Superlight in .270. Very accurate but hitting power unknown. 30.06? No idea..... We were getting nowhere.
Reset two weeks later. I had downloaded and studied a boatload of ballistics data (I'm a handloader and so Pete considered me an expert
) Pete brought some charts that he'd been studying so we sat down at my dining table, spread out the paperwork and got down to it.
From the outset, it was clear that .270 had the edge in velocity and trajectory. You could throw a blanket over 30.06 and .308. there was a discernible advantage to 30.06 vs .308. It was slight, however it was slight in the right direction. As we pored over the charts, the advantage in 30.06 became clearer. 30.06 would carry a heavier slug than .308 for comparable velocities and trajectories. .270 was outclassed in this area so at this stage it was dropped. Further investigation showed an overall advantage for 30.06 over .308 so eventually it was 30.06. One hurdle surmounted.
Pete went away happy. Caliber TICK! Then the next question, what make of rifle... we might be in for a long wait.
I heard no news for a few weeks and the whole issue had passed into the background for me. It was a different story with Pete. He had left no stone unturned, no shop unquestioned, no dealer unquizzed. When he had worn out every person able to provide a morsel of advice, he did what many a pragmatic man has done and bought the first rifle he'd looked at (of course it wasn't the ONLY rifle he'd looked at! ) His final choice was a beautiful Sako Hunter in 30.06. A symphony of Walnut and blued steel. To crown this pinnacle of hunting tools a Schmidt and Bender scope. Magnificent. Now don't be hard on Pete for going into the top end of the market. This is not only the first rifle hes bought in over twenty years but it is also likely to be the last one he'll ever buy for himself.
The next installment will be the arrival and sight in of the Sako.
Stay tuned.
Anyway, Pete came to me with a problem.
After owning only three firearms in more than twenty years ( he has a Beretta shotgun too) He was about to take the momentous step of buying a new rifle.
On delivery of this news I waited for an earth tremor.... but none came.
"What are you going to get Pete?" I asked with anticipation, "I haven't made up my mind, I want to ask you a few questions " At this point I didn't know whether I had been honored or cursed. Was I going to give Pete the final word on make and caliber?
Basically, Pete wanted a decent center fire caliber that would be sufficient for everything from foxes to asian Buffalo. He'd talked about a trip to the Northern Territory to get a Buff so I was unsurprised at his insistence on a hard hitting round. He also wanted to get some deer with this new piece (no shortage of feral deer in Australia let me tell you) and this was the first task he would undertake with the new gun.
To save us a bunch of neurones, he'd shortlisted three calibers, these were:
.270
.308
and
30.06
Pete was interested in my experience with .308. I have two rifles in this caliber. A Steyr Scout and a Steyr Scout Tactical Elite, both of which I had found accurate and at least with the Scout, very effective on Australian game. ".308 will drop any Aussie game " I said confidently "and the contract shooters in the NT used to use FN SLR's to pop Buffalo from choppers". Pete wa unconvinced. "How many rounds did they pump into them with SLR's?" Good point. What about .270? Unknown to me, I've only shot a Remington Superlight in .270. Very accurate but hitting power unknown. 30.06? No idea..... We were getting nowhere.
Reset two weeks later. I had downloaded and studied a boatload of ballistics data (I'm a handloader and so Pete considered me an expert
) Pete brought some charts that he'd been studying so we sat down at my dining table, spread out the paperwork and got down to it. From the outset, it was clear that .270 had the edge in velocity and trajectory. You could throw a blanket over 30.06 and .308. there was a discernible advantage to 30.06 vs .308. It was slight, however it was slight in the right direction. As we pored over the charts, the advantage in 30.06 became clearer. 30.06 would carry a heavier slug than .308 for comparable velocities and trajectories. .270 was outclassed in this area so at this stage it was dropped. Further investigation showed an overall advantage for 30.06 over .308 so eventually it was 30.06. One hurdle surmounted.
Pete went away happy. Caliber TICK! Then the next question, what make of rifle... we might be in for a long wait.
I heard no news for a few weeks and the whole issue had passed into the background for me. It was a different story with Pete. He had left no stone unturned, no shop unquestioned, no dealer unquizzed. When he had worn out every person able to provide a morsel of advice, he did what many a pragmatic man has done and bought the first rifle he'd looked at (of course it wasn't the ONLY rifle he'd looked at! ) His final choice was a beautiful Sako Hunter in 30.06. A symphony of Walnut and blued steel. To crown this pinnacle of hunting tools a Schmidt and Bender scope. Magnificent. Now don't be hard on Pete for going into the top end of the market. This is not only the first rifle hes bought in over twenty years but it is also likely to be the last one he'll ever buy for himself.
The next installment will be the arrival and sight in of the Sako.
Stay tuned.