Thinking about building a light weight rifle for elk/mule deer hunting. It will be a mag with a .540 bolt face. I am not recoil sensitive and this will not be a gun I shoot a lot. Action will be a bighorn TL2 and that's about all I have finalized right now. Trying to decide between 264 win mag, 28 nosler and 300 win mag. Any others I should consider?

300 win. No replacement for displacement

28 Nosler loaded with 180 gr Berger. My 7 Rem Mag pushes that bullet 3040 MV. Run the numbers on that. The 28 Nosler should make that velocity or more. It's salty!

.300 Win Mag loaded with a 210

Either would be a great choice. Give each one a 26" barrel.

The 28 nosler looks awesome on paper but ammo might be an issue. But I would still build it

I reload so ammo is not a issue.

7-300 WM is worth a look.

.338 WM or .340 Wby are no excuses elk cartridges. From your problem statement, I'd say there is no reason to look at anything under.30 caliber.

Why not?

I'd definitely go with a 300WM out of the calibers you listed. 28 Nosler is going to have such a short barrel life.

I doubt I will ever shoot out a barrel in this gun. While I am not recoil sensitive I doubt I'll ever want to sit at a bench and shoot many rounds in a row out of it. 5 rounds to sight it in. Then no more than 20 rounds a year. Should last 30 years anyway.

For stated purposes and listed calibers I would go in the order or

28 Nosler I am a fan of the 7mm diameter bullets, the STW I owned worked quite well for deer and elk no reason the Nosler should be any different.
300 WM great cartridge and have owned one but more of a 7mm fan.
264 WM have one and though enough for elk I like the little bigger bullets of 7mm or larger.

What ever caliber it would wear a 26 inch barrel

300 win of those you listed, all parts should be easy to find for the build with maybe less wait

Anyone have any real life experience with the 28 nosler? What kind of speed are you getting?

I believe Derrick of Horizon Firearms does. I think he didn't put in much load development time. Just stumbled onto a good shooting load and went hunting with it. I don't remember what velocity he was getting.

Chad may have worked with them by now. I know he has with the 26, not sure about the 28.

The original brief indicated that recoil wasn't a consideration but performance on elk was. Anything a .284 projectile will do on elk, a .308 projectile will do better. I suggested moving up to .338 because other options were solicited.

Nonsense.

Fair enough. Please be so kind as to explain why, all things platform being **exactly** equal, one would **ever** select a .284 caliber rifle for elk hunting over its .308 caliber equivalent, if recoil weren't a consideration.

I exclude irrelevancies such as already owning the .284 rifle, ammo availability, etc. I want to know why you would **prefer** the .284 caliber projectile over the .308 caliber projectile, all other considerations being identical.

7mm 180 gr. G7 .337, MV 3030 fps, 5 mph wind at 3 or 9 o'clock, DA 3000', 50F

200 yards 3067 ft/lbs, wind drift 0

300 yards 2796 ft/lbs, wind drift .1 Mil

400 yards 2543 ft/lbs, wind drift .2 Mil

500 yards 2309 ft/lbs, wind drift .3 Mil

Hot rod a .300 Win Mag and it will hit harder than the 7 Rem Mag to a point, then the 7 will deliver more energy down range, to a point. Basically I'm saying I put them on even ground, but I wouldn't say that the .30 or the .338 is automatically better. Myself and two friend have killed several elk between us with this load. The farthest was last year on a cow at 440 yards. Bang...flop, get the knives out. I'm not saying anything bad about the .30 or the .338, just saying the 7 is certainly a hoss when loaded this way.

I sure like the .280 Ackley that Derrick built for me. I use 160 Accubonds and killed my last bull right at 300 yards. I have confidence that it will go longer if I need it to.