One rifle to hunt every species of big game from Arizona to Alaska

What if you could only have one rifle to hunt whitetail deer , elk , moose , grizzly , etc.?

Thankfully most of us don’t have to make that decision.  We can afford at least a few different weapons specifically for the purpose of smaller and larger game.  Still its an interesting question, what if we could only choose one?  What caliber would be the best?  What caliber will work for both a sitka black tail deer and the continents top predator the formidable brown bear .  What caliber has the finesse to knock down the speeding antelope and also raw power to topple a bull elk ?

This is a tough question as most people get wound up in personal feelings instead of looking at it from a neutral position and thats what I’m going to atemp to do.

First, lets wipe away anything under .30 cal, in this authors opinion there is no weapon below this spec that truly belongs hunting grizz.  Sure you can kill one with a .270 but more often than not this would end in a disaster.

Secondly, our weapon of choice must have the capability of shooting a long distance with a flat trajectory in order to perform admirably on sheep, antelope and mule deer hunts.  So with this in mind lets put aside those lumbering, however powerful rifles chambered in .375 call and beyond.

This leaves a small batch of rifles chambered for .30 to .338 caliber.  There are several rounds in this group that can fit the bill.  You can load them with 165 grain bullet and hunt those high Alaska peaks for Dall sheep or stuff a 220 grain bullet in them and hunt a coastal brown bear .  When you really narrow it down, there are three rounds that  emerge in my opinion.  The 300 Winchester Short magnum which has all but made the 300 Win and Weatherby obsolete.  The 300 Remington Ultra Mag which really revolutionized the big caliber wild cats and also the 30-378 which is right along the lines of the 300 RUM.  Ammunition can be readily acquired for all three which is also something that must be considered.

So which one is the best?  Far be it for me to say, but they are all capable in my opinion of taking any game animal in North America.  The 300 WSM may be just a bit underpowered for brown bear and the other two may be slightly over powered for coues deer and antelope .  In the end there is no perfect round for every specie, but in my opinion, these three have the best chance of doing a serviceable job on any animal North America has to offer.