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No question in my mind it would be my 44mag. Easy to cast for and will work from mouse to griz I'm feeding 3 of them SBH and my M94 same load for both of them just wish they would shoot the same sized Boolit. The 429244 slides through the M94 like butter and right at 260grains fully dressed I'm not scared of nothing.
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Month to month could be a different answer ..... a 1936 99 Savage takedown in 303 Savage.
Horace
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"If you could only have one..." is always such a hard question, no matter what the topic.
30-30
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30 cal with a GC in a 30-06 because they shoot very good with so many different powders. tks ken
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My go to bullet weighs out at about 290gr when cast from WW alloy in a .338 round nose NEI design. Have played with it in .340wby and intend to work it in .338/300win, .338win and maybe .338-06 this Summer. Amazing penetration from my water-dropped WW loads and in this super-long roundnose design I am sure can count on the boolit to take any Moose or Bear could ever encounter or hunt.
Also have begun casting the Lee 220gr .338 boolit. Looks most suitable for the .338-06.
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30-30 in my handi. 5.5 gr unique pushing lee 180gr or 17.5 gr 4895 pushing the same boolit. dead on accurate to 300. good for paper, steel or meat :)
otter
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only one to shoot cast in. my .30-40 krag. killed a 8 point buck with it and a 200 gr cast bullet. after that any of my winchesters i have shot cast in all of them. then any of the reproduction rifles. i get a new cal. i buy a mold for it.
onl one rifle i would say a model 94 winchester. rifle 26" barrel 2/3 mag. in .30-30
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38-55 or .375 Winchester. They are both large enough to take any game in North America with cast bullets and small enough not to be totally out of place with smaller game like deer, pigs, smaller bear, coyotes. I imagine one could take big bears, moose, elk with a 7mm to .30 caliber gun with cast bullets but I would prefer a bigger hole and deeper penetration just in case.
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only one. umm just one?
that would be hard.. lol i guess it would be betwen the 45-7- or one of my 30 cal.
with the 45-70 i can load roundball all the way up to 500+ grain. [ the draw back would be the short range.]
any of my 30 cal. would be good the '06 being the most versital maybe.
the 30-30 uses less powder.
and the 308 is great all around with brass being cheap[when it's not being horded].
a 150 grain flat nosed gas check boolit will do good things in any of them. even with out the check for slower loads.
so i guess i would have a hard time picking the gun i leave home with for good. LOL
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A year ago I would have said the 45-70, but since I started working with cast in the 358 Winchester, I am going to change my mind.
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.45-70 government
can be loaded up hot enough to kill anything on earth,
can be loaded with a single round ball over just a few grains of powder for a gallery load,
or...like said earlier, can even be loaded with some shot as a small more shotgun if needed.
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I sure am glad I'm not limited to just one, but if'n I had to choose one it'd be the 45-70.
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Many times in these posts the 35 remington keeps coming up. So it keeps reminding what a doofus I was for not buying the Marlin at a local pawn shop in 35 Rem. It was in great shape and under $300. I went back a couple of weeks later and it was gone. I am pretty sure it was not a micro groove also. I was concerned about having to get additional dies and cases etc..That was before I got religion. Now I don't even know how many dies/molds I have and will rarely even blink on picking up a new caliber unless it is some very obscure wildcat or proprietary cartridge. So I think the discussion is ridiculous since I will never have only one. So speaking of ridiculous selections I opt for the 6.5x55 swede. Here is my reasoning First it is my favorite rifle and cartridge. I have experimented with it more than any other caliber I own for both j@#$% and cast and feel confident I can place my shot where I want to. It can definitely work as a varmint round using 85g bullets. Since there are limited cast molds for 0.266 I guess I will need to cobble up some cruise missile molds for that purpose or just shoot a 140g . As for heavy bullets I have the NOE group buy and a couple of cruise missile molds. I just can't see a 45/70 as a varmint load. I wish I had bought the 35 rem!
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For me it would be the 40's: 40-82 and 40-65. I use the same bullet in both. If I didn't cast for them I couldn't shoot them. Nobody has made a bullet for them that I could afford in a long time. But then I could say that about most calibers. I store my cast bullets in old commerical boxes that originally held copper coated bullets, and the price labels on the old boxes usually say something like five or six dollars. The other day I was in Sportmans Warehouse, and I saw the prices they are getting now for those same bullets. I almost choked.
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I've had the best results with the 30-06 and the RCBS 30-180-FN. I would stick with that. It's accurate and looks deadly for hunting.
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easy -- I have two of them .358 Win
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It is interesting to see the "love" for the 35 calibers. Years ago I found my M-600 in the 350 Rem-Mag and have enjoyed the rifle in all styles of shooting. It allows me to shoot the pistol boolits up to the heavy weights, so slow to blistering fast. Edd Badgley got me interested in the 35/30-30 a while back. Its long neck seems more appropriate for cast and I'm enamored with the M-94. I think that might be my second choice. I have the 350. I long for the 35/30-30.
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30/06 has to be the choice for me. Most versitile.
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From your OP I'll add where and why, why this question or for survival, hunting, target. If I was in the Brooks range then a lever 45-70 for big critters and can be loaded with shot for snowshoe and ptarmigan. If I was in most of the 48 then a 760 rem in 35 whelan because it can handle all of the big game species from close to extended ranges plus the capabilities of a plinker load. If in Ohio where big game can't be hunted with a centerfire then a bolt .223 for target, small game, and predator because brass is easier to get. For target, whatever discipline you where wanting to shoot would choose the appropriate gun and caliber. Or is it just because its the only gun you have or one of your cast boolit babies?
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308 for O so many reasons