Good all around caliber?

[6.5shaggy]

Ever body is right about cartridge selction, more info please.
My suggestion is there are plenty of good factory guns out there, but stay away from the "ECONOMY" rifles (i.e. savage edge or rem 710 or 770). Get a mid priced gun from a line with aftermarket support (rem 700, win 70, sav 10/110, sako/tikka, howa) in a cartridge that is applicable to your use, put THE BEST GLASS YOU CAN AFFORD on it, wear it out, then rebuild it with the custom touches you have learned YOU need, not the new coolest stuff on the internet.

[RT2506]

Get a Savage rifle (not the Edge) with the Accutrigger. As has been said more information on what you intend to hunt etc. is needed to pick the caliber. With the Savage action you can later re-barrel with what ever make, length, size and caliber barrel you want easy. Savage rifles are one if not the most accurate out of the box rifles going and the Accutrigger is pretty good. I also agree with getting the best scope you can afford.

[Trickymissfit]

Originally Posted by noneck180

7mm Rem mag

at 500 yards the difference between a 154 grain bullet in the 7mm mag and a 30-06 shooting 165 or 180 grain bullets is just about 100 ft. lb. of energy, but when you factor in the much more robust bullet construction of the 30 caliber bullet, the 30 caliber is a clear winner here. But the .338-06 shooting Speer or Hornaday 225 grain bullets is almost 250 ft. lb. ahead of the 7mm mag. And this round is plenty good enough for elk and most anything else but big bears
gary

[Bobcape]

If you're just starting out you don't want to start bad habits. I would recommend a Savage Accu-Trigger in .243 Win. Plenty accurate and fine for deer sized game. It should take quite a while to wear the barrel out. You will learn a lot with it. Light recoil, low priced ammo and accurate.

Bob

[FAL Shot]

If you are new to long range shooting, you will need lots of practice, and will burn through lots of ammo. .308 Winchester is the best cartridge if you do not handload, as quality surplus ammo is available for practice and a source of economical brass. The .308 bullet family is very extensive as well.

A CZ 550 (Mauser 98 action) .308 Varmint with HS-Precision stock and 26" heavy barrel is available for around $1000. Every new CZ rifle comes with a factory test target, and every new CZ rifle I ever bought shot as well or better at 100 yards as the factory test target at 50 meters.....provided you feed it quality handloads or premium factory loads and do your part correctly.

No need to steer clear of certain CZ models, as they do not do the cheap crap rifles nor do they gold plate a standard model and jack up the price to ridiculous levels. Just buy the right one for the job at hand and you will be happy. CZ builds bearings, gears, gearboxes and does a lot of special contract work for the automotive and aircraft industries....not to mention government agency munitions where they got their start. There is less hype in these other markets than in the consumer firearms market, and you must please real experts to make sales, not redneck bubbas eating pizza and drinking beer while watching "Bone Collector" videos. so if CZ can succeed there, then they are probably more than qualified to stand their ground in the consumer firearms market.