modern mountain man rifle

H&R makes a single barrel rifle that's cheap and you can order extra barrels for. I'd go for .22LR, .308, and 12Ga.
 
Either a 30-06 or 300WSM with 180 gr ammo in a stainless bolt action or a 12 gauge 3" chamber and a spare scoped rifled barrel. OO buckshot for the regular barrel and Federal barnes sabot slugs for the slug barrel.
 
First, let me say I have never seen a rifle, no matter the caliber, that I did not like. I grew up shooting everything from a .22 to a 340 Wby. Magnum.
I love small bore .22's that shoot fast, 22-250, .220 Swift, .223 military on and on. I own 2 different 22-250's that I shoot regularly at both targets and varmints. Loading these to velocities close to 4000 fps is one of my fave things to do.
I like lever actions too. 30-30, .338, 45-70. Cool guns and fun to shoot. Probably nothing will ever top the 30-30 as to amount of deer harvested with a single caliber by hunters in North America. Nothing looks the part more than a Marlin lever action. Great rifles that are affordable and useful in brush out to 150 yards or so.
And, I have never seen a bolt action rifle in any caliber that I did not find useful under the conditions it was designed for from 17HMR to .416 Wby.
The question though was.... "What rifle would you take if you were trying to live off what you would find in western Canada?"
I think with that as the premise you would need to pick a rifle based on four factors.... bullet weight (should be at least 150 g. and 180 g. would be better), retained velocity at 200 yards (should be at least 2000 fps in order to be flat shooting enough for longer shots) and retained energy at 200 yards (should be at least 2000 ft. lbs in order to have enough impact to be deadly at this range) and last but very important, manageable recoil. All shooters have different levels of recoil they can tolerate, but the truth is the lower the felt recoil, the better the marksman in most cases and shot placement is probably the most important factor in any shot.
With that said... there are several calibers that would fit within these guidelines with several different bullet weights and several different velocities all of which would work (from .264 to .300 Winchester) However, when you take one last factor into account, "availability of ammunition", the best choice to be made in my opinion is the reliable .30-06. It has slightly better ballistics than the .270 and is much easier to shoot than the .300 magnums and meets all the criteria listed above.
Just my opinion....yours may vary.
 
I am not familiar with the mountains of western Canada. I could do fine in the thick Piney Woods of East Texas with a pump shotgun, using slugs, buck, and birdshot. I would want a .22 of some sort; a revolver would do. Ideally, I would have a quiver of spare shotgun barrels, for different purposes. If it has to be a rifle, the choice is easy, a Browning BLR in .308; I have a few of those around. A more traditional lever in .30 WCF or similar chambering would also work fine; we have a "household" Winchester 94.
 
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I am a lever action guy so I would get the Marlin .30-30. I have always wanted a short barrel bolt action with one of those big sights on the front and no scope. That is sexy to me.
 
My Ishapore 2A1 [Enfield] in 7.62x51 NATO
Zeroed at 200 yards.

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Interesting comments. We might want to ask what the concept of mountain man is: the opinions may differ greatly. I am inclined to think of such a man being armed with the likes of a 30-30 lever weapon. His 150 grain bullet at 2400 fps would take most deer down at reasonable ranges, not to mention fitting easily on the side of the horse. The lever guns smack of nostalgia and the old west, and yes, I like them.

To my mind, the top picks here (which stand out above the rest) would be .308 and the warhorse 30-06. These two are practically ballistic clones, both are well-tested veterans, and a military round is seldom a mistake. You can get .308 ammo for a decent price and 30-06 is in good supply even in the far off hamlets. Most folk can handle the recoil of these unless you just have to plug you 06 cases with 250 grain slugs from Barnes. The bullet weights and loads for these two are staggering...plus some of the newer offerings feature almost magnum performance.

In a perfect world, I'd select a 24 inch 7mm Rem Mag and load up with 160 grain Noslers using H-870. Talk about flat and hard hitting!
 
Stubai said:
To my mind, the top picks here (which stand out above the rest) would be .308 and the warhorse 30-06. These two are practically ballistic clones, both are well-tested veterans, and a military round is seldom a mistake. You can get .308 ammo for a decent price and 30-06 is in good supply even in the far off hamlets.
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I can see you haven't priced 308 or checked it's availability lately! ;)
.308 has gotten tough to find and expensive as far as surplus goes.

Since the Elections, and Panic Mode '08 has set in, .223 is now climbing toward the .50 per round mark in some places. .308 is headed to the sky if you can find it. You can still find the expensive commerical hunting rounds off the shelf, but they are very costly at well over $1 per round.

The paradigm has shifted, no more cheap shooting military-surplus rounds.
The first blow to the 5.56 and 7.62 supply was Iraq. The second blow was sky-rocketing metal prices (copper, brass, lead), and now, simple panic and hording. it's the Perfect Storm in terms of ammunition supply and price.

For someone shopping for a rifle, ammunition cost should be scrutinized before purchasing.
If you are only looking at having a 20 round box, then not a biggie, but you do need to practice and stay proficient, and the way things are going, ammunition is going to be priced so high folks won't be able to afford to pratice.

I only mention this because a mountain-man would need a good supply of affordable ammunition. Unless this is a mountain-man who is going to hop in his LandRover and head to WallyWorld or the local gun show once a month.
 
interesting thread. Both of the people I know well who live up there stand by a .375 H&H magnum.

In AZ and CA, I've done most of my hunting in the past with a .308, 30-30, .410, and .22

I've fired the .375 and find it to be pleasant for such a powerful cartridge. Honestly, though the rifle itself is always a huge part of this, it's more comfortable than my stepather's old .270 was!

*IF*, big if, we ever move out of the more settled parts, the .375 is absolutely top of my list for a hunting firearm.

Of course, I'd want a good light .22 around, as well :D
 
koyote said:
interesting thread. Both of the people I know well who live up there stand by a .375 H&H magnum.

In AZ and CA, I've done most of my hunting in the past with a .308, 30-30, .410, and .22

I've fired the .375 and find it to be pleasant for such a powerful cartridge. Honestly, though the rifle itself is always a huge part of this, it's more comfortable than my stepather's old .270 was!

*IF*, big if, we ever move out of the more settled parts, the .375 is absolutely top of my list for a hunting firearm.

Of course, I'd want a good light .22 around, as well :D
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Koyote, I think you are getting to a good point mentioning the .375,
and that is, in the territory we are talking aobut in this thread, you are going to want a good sized round that delivers good terminal energy. It's about the knockdown power.

I live on the east coast, the biggest thing within 200 miles is gonna be a black bear. Well, unless I drop one of Farmer Brown's cows! :eek: :D

My buddy has a .35 Remington levergun that I have loaded rounds for, I have got to say, it's impressive looking at that diameter and a 200 grain projectile. I wouldn't call it a long range round in his lever action, but inside of 150 yards, pretty much any well placed shot is going to Drop or Stop most North American beasts. I think that is what any of us would want in Big Animal country. Not to mention Grizzly bears.
 
My father hunted grizzlies up here with a 30/30 for about fifteen years! Growing up, we had the skin of a 700 pound (not especially big, I know) grizzly on the wall that he'd shot with a 30/30.

I understand the interest in heavy calibers but really, if you are living out there, you are going to be getting a lot closer to animals than you would if you were on a guided trophy hunt today.

Eventually my father traded up to the massive, ultra-magnum death ray .30-06, because his father gave him one, and also frequently used the .303 british, because we're Canadian and you can't avoid these rifles if you try up here.

Most of my life has been spent in the exact area we're talking about...I'll stick with my .357. I wouldn't rely on any gun to stop a grizzly bent on killing me, and unless you have it in your hands and can empty the thing on target a big rifle won't help much anyway.

I think people get pretty carried away with their bear-defense scenarios. And if it's not a charging grizzly bent on mauling you to death, you could very well kill it with a hot-loaded .357 out of a 20" barrel.
 
Bear defense is never my primary concern. The reason my friends have the .375s is simply hunting. It's a solid kill out to 300 yards on anything in North America, and while where I grew up a shot over 75 yards is almost impossible due to terrain, I understand from them that 200 yards isn't something uncommon enough to be really noteworthy up in the GWN. (one is in alaska, the other in the YT)
 
Well, I don't know anyone personally who takes a lot of shots that long while hunting - in fact I don't know a lot of guys who shoot much past 100m - but I don't dispute that it does get done! It's definitely not that common around here, though - too many trees.
 
Great thread and a lot of smart people here.
What the .303 does not have in flat shooting velocity it makes up for in availability.
You can get it at the gas station up north in canada but if I lived in the US I would go for the 30-06 or maybe the .308 or if cost was a real factor a Mosin in 7.62/54 which is still
the cheapest centrefire rifle round and Wolf makes some good cheap ammo as well.

I like the post about the .357. I just got a 1890's break open S&W in .44 Russian but it will also shoot .44 Special(rare long cylinder) and it would make a decent bear defence gun because it is not illegal as an antique. Those big chunks of lead look pretty hefty.
I can't shoot that powerful a round in it but it still feels better than a walking stick.
 
One thing I thought of during the downtime: How many shots are you going to need to take? If you kill a Deer or a Moose that is a hell of a lot of meat. I would imagine if you are doing the Mountain Man thing you will be alone or with one other person so the meat would last quite a while. 20 rounds would mean 20 animals in a perfect world, half that in the real world? 10 Deer or 10 Moose (Mooses/Meece?). I am sure everyone here would go into town sooner or later to log onto BF so you might as well pickup another box of sheels while you are out so no need to burden yourself with a couple of ammo cans. Also if you are planning on staying out there you will need shelter so you could keep the ammo there. The only other nuts are there in the winter would be members here so I would put the BF logo on everything so they wouldn't pillage it but rather teamup together.
 
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