6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel, 300 HAMR can do a lot in Texas at the right ranges with the right bullets. They certainly do well on Deer sized game, hogs and predators.

More powerful cartridges will extend your range.

I don't really consider Nilgai in my "all Texas" caliber because most guides will want you to use 338 or larger. I'll use a "nilgai" rifle just for nilgai. I 'm not using a 338 magnum for whitetail. I'd rather use a 6.8.

In 1967 I bought a O3A3 that had been "sporterized" just enough to be really ugly with it's original steel butt plate as my 1st CF rifle. It kicked the snot out of me off the bench at the old Winchester Range in Dallas , and I asked my grand pop to find me a "real deer rifle" , as he lived to horse trade and swap stuff. He came up with a SAKO 243 in 95+% condition and split the cost of it with me and handed me my $'s back as a wedding present. I learned to shoot on that rifle & reload on my kitchen table with a $10 die set... until I lost 3 doe's one year even though they'd been well hit ...and found all 3 the following weekend. I borrowed different rifles at the range & at the imprompto Rat Shoot in the Trinity River bottom west of Farmers Branch, where the SAKO made me some money regularly shooting at baited River Rats in the river bottom until the Farmers Branch POPO's ran us off for good. Meantime I fell in love with a Do ALL Go Anywhere caliber in 270 Winchester in the just released Ruger 77's, owming more than a few - buy one tune it up and sell it for a profit !! and wound up working for the largest Sporting Goods wholesaler in North Texas as a Sales Rep working Dallas County & east to the Red River, and only 1/2 way down I-35 & I-45 to Buffalo or Waco. Later I became a factory Rep for SAKO and covered 5 states. I've used a 270 enough that it's drop at distance became so ingrained that I never used a range finder on anything under 400 yards. Owned lots of "Application" rifles in my time and really like 300WMg as a companion shooter to a 270. Would buy another 9.3 CZ if I thought I could "need" it inn Africa. I also own a early production M70 7x57 that was lovingly tuned, another Tikka 6.5x55 to teach the soon to push 80 years old Better Half to use as a replacement to a 243 ...might own a 7-08 one of these days but I'm running out of time.

Today, after my local VA doc's PA resolved a serious issue last year in my right shoulder following a major surgery at VA Dallas 10 years ago that left the shoulder full of bone spurs and me becoming almost a permanent cripple that had caused me to stop shooting anything regularly. There are strong limitations to the use of hyper strong steriods that broke down the 90% loss of range of motion in the shoulder...but I'll never not have a 270 something with me when they put me the box to Go Home.... FWIW
Ron

Folks all hung up on a specific cartridge for big game and the most important factor is bullet construction.

Very true.

but to the OP....that's a tuff one for me.

The 22-250, 243, 270, and 25-06 are my favorites.

Excluding Nilgai, but my guide friend shoots all of his Nilgai in the head/neck while they're bedded down with a 243.

I hear that is a marginal caliber for whitetail deer though, along with the 30-30.

My favorites are 6.8 for pigs and .223Wylde for everything else that I hunt.

So far this year I’ve killed deer with 270 win 7mm08 and 30-06. I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite.

270 4 shots 4 deer this season

I don't have a favorite Game Caliber. But, thanks to 603country, my current favorite rifle is a BAR in .270. So that is my current favorite Caliber. I also have a 788 that I am fond of in .308, and if I am hunting short range, a Ruger 77/357. So, I guess my top 3 are .270, .308, and .357. .357 mag is my all time, all around, do all favorite cartridge.

Even though since we developed the 300 HAM'R I've done almost all of my hunting with it, I've had great success with the following calibers in the past on various TX game and still really like them:

.223/5.56
6.8 SPC II
.30-30
.308 Win
.30-06 (if I could only own one bolt gun or Browning BAR it would be a 06)
.338 Fed
.350 Legend
.358 Win (the most underrated cartridge there is, loaded with the 200gr Barnes TTSX or Hornady FTX is enough for anything in North America and all but 4 animals in Africa)
.458 SOCOM

As I think I've mentioned on this forum before, give me an AR lower and 5.56, 300 HAM'R and .458 SOCOM uppers and I'm GTG for hunting pretty much anything on the planet and for self protection !!!

243, 308 and 270. Never lost a deer with either caliber and the longest tracking job I had was 60 yards.

308

Remington 788LH in 6mm

I'm currently a big fan of the 6.8 SPC-II.

For me it’s a close race race between the the 25-06, and the 7mm-08 for an everything in Texas cartridge. However I’ve killed a truck load of deer and hogs with a good old 243.

My Tikka T3 270 Wsm with Barnes 140gr. Vortex ammo

Today? My 257 Roberts.

Considering all the game available both native and exotic and all the terrain and conditions I'll go with the same old gun I've been using for decades, 300 Weatherby. Remove the exotic and I'd go with the 257 Weatherby.

6.5 creedmoor, ive never seen a cartridge that consistently drops them in there tracks as the creedmoor does. its Thors hammer on steroids .Its been magically sprinkled with TNT and fairy dust

I have a safe full of rifles. My deer rifle is a model 700 in 270win purchased at Gibson's Discount in 1975. it never let me down.

Under 200. .222. 0ver 200 308

i have always wanted a .222 it set the standard for accuracy

6.5x55mm Swedish

For me first place for Texas is the .308.

99% of .22-250s I have seen out in the field were used for deer hunting, not varmint hunting. My Uncle has killed a supertanker full of deer with the .220 Swift. .22 centerfires work if you put a stoutly constructed bullet in the right place.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

I use my .308 for everything daytime. Just stopped messing with different calibers a couple of decades ago. They all work but I've got a remmy .308 that just suits me. AR for night hogs. (thermal mounted)

Same here - one caliber makes finding ammo easy too