looking for new whitetail & a few western hunts cailber

Hey guys, I'm having a hard time deciding what caliber to go with for my new hunting rifle . I Hunt whitetails in Indiana and a lot of the time my shots on whitetails are under 100 yards. I'm also finally getting financially stable enough to hopefully start doing some western hunting next year or 2 at the most ( pertaining I draw tags).i'm leaning towards a .300WM or a .270 win. Im a little worried the .300WM is over kill for whitetail especially at the distances most my shots are. Im not apposed to having to buy 2 rifles just not right at the moment, so im unsure if i should just buy a whitetail specific rifle for now and then get something larger later on for the bigger western game. first few western hunts will just be mule deer and antelope so a deer rifle would work on them. Just wanted your guy thoughts. Thanks guys

What rifles do you currently own. I feel like all the time people ask this question and they already have exactly what is needed for the job.

Now, if you are just wanting to buy a new rifle, I totally understand that as well. I have both calibers you are asking about and would go with the 300 WM if you plan on going out west. There are a ton of bullet weights out there for the 300

280 AI...is a great midway use on everything kind of rifle..funny thing is I do not own one--but my nephew does and I am impressed every time we are together--it shoots flat--easy to load for and is easy on powder for the performance you get. Seems to work best with 140-165 grain bullets but we have had good results with 175s out of it too...

300 wm you can always go with a reduced load if recoils an issue for your home state but when you get to the sagebrush out west you'll be glad for the flat shooting extra horsepower of the 300, transitions well to elk and moose also and with a good brake your only feeling a 308 anyway

Aoudad shooter1975 said:

280 AI...is a great midway use on everything kind of rifle..funny thing is I do not own one--but my nephew does and I am impressed every time we are together--it shoots flat--easy to load for and is easy on powder for the performance you get. Seems to work best with 140-165 grain bullets but we have had good results with 175s out of it too...

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This.

I'm a picatinny rail away from finishing my 280AI build and was looking for a do it all rifle as well. Hope to run the 150 ELD-X for SE whitetail and the 175 Berger elite hunter out west.

I like the 7 rem mag for a do it all rifle.
180 class bullets at 3000 ish will do everything a 300 win mag will do as far as hunting goes but I can handle the recoil without a brake. The 300 win mag with 200+ bullets seems to be right at my recoil threshold.
I have a 280ai and it's a great do it all rifle as well, but you can't buy ammo for it if your in a pinch. This doesn't bother me a bit, but I hunt relatively close to where I live most of the time.
If I was going to be traveling with my rifle, I'd want one that I could buy match grade ammo for if something happened to my ammo during my travels.
There is no such thing as "over kill" in my book, but I also killed my antelope with a 375 cheytac.

My go-to for the last 10 years hunting Western US and Canadian Whitetail, Mule Deer, and Antelope has been the 6.5x284 loaded with 140's in the 3000FPS range. It has proven to be exceptionally effective, with dozens of animals taken from 100-1000+ yards. Exceptional accuracy, low recoil, light weight, and ease of reloading with quality components are major attributes.

Velocity (excessive) or very fragile bullets are the primary causes for meat destruction. So, for a caliber that doesn't match the "speed of light" (less bloodshot meat), but is an outstanding "do it all", "all around" .....338 WM!

Lots of various factory ammo readily available, and many components available for the handloader! memtb

i do already own a .308 which would work but it is a heavyish bench gun.. Im really just wanting another rifle and trying to decide what to do with it.

300 win mag Gods caliber!!!

I live out West but I'm from the East where I cut my teeth on whitetails using 12 ga slugs (talk about overkill).

It's been a long, slow, education process for me. As I have said before, I can be a slow learner (read stubborn and obstinate).

I started out here with a pumpkin-chunking 30.06, it wouldn't group any better than 2-1/2", and with a cherry stock shooting 180's, it hurt like he!!

Since that gun didn't shoot, and since I listened to some macho advice from the Cabelas gun counter, I found myself with a used 7RUM in a stainless Remington with a pencil barrel. That gun also wouldn't shoot, and because I like to punish myself with bad experiences, I bought a takeoff 300RUM of the same barrel profile. Drum roll please..... that one didn't shoot either!!

During the course of trying to get those three rounds/rifles to shoot, I was so frustrated that I didn't actually rifle hunt (electing to just do archery). There's some fun discussion content - I felt that I needed a RUM to kill western critters with a rifle but I was happy to hunt them with a pointy stick...
To make matters worse, I became recoil sensitive during this evolution and really dreaded any further load work (no brakes on any of these). It took a lot of shooting with smaller calibers to grow out of that.

Finally, my financial means and some side work found me with a sparkly new custom in 300 WM (Bartlet, Defiance deviant, MH1, Jewell with a Leupold vx-6 and a brake). This was a game changer, shooting bug holes and finally having a rifle that exceeded my own abilities and allowing me to learn the finer points. I killed several mulies and an elk with that before I decided that it was too heavy for my tastes (98% of the time afield I was just taking it for a walk with 40 other pounds of food and backpacking gear).

So, I had a lightweight 7RM built that is just over 8 lbs with that big *** Leupold on top. I've had it for one season, harvesting a black bear, a Sitka blacktail, a big 6-point bull and a nice 4-point mulie. All shot with Barnes, either 139 LRX or 150 TTSX.

FOR THE HUNTING THAT I PREFER, and the animals I pursue, I have found MY perfect round and setup. I would happily shoot whitetails with the 139 and not feel overgunned, I'd also take the 150's for moose/elk (but I'd probably try to get a 180 load worked up if I had time, for moose).

It's a versatile round with a very wide range of quality hunting projectiles.

With that, I'd feel guilty if I didn't try to portray multiple sides of the story..... this thread is concerning, but I have not had issues getting my rifle to shoot (proof barrel, stockys CF stock, trigger tech trigger, Remington action).

https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/cant-miss-7-rem-mag-load.210287/

Of the two you mentioned I would go with the 270 win. I am a big fan of the 270 win! I have never lost a deer with it. It kills em quick and easy. If you work up the right load it's a fairly flat shooter out to 500 yrds!

yeah until a couple years ago we had to use shotguns in indiana too. just recently changed.

Are you allowed to use anything besides straight wall cartridges now?