Have been offered an opportunity much later this year to leopard crawl round scottish hills trying to spot distant bambis and miss them.

this has of course set one's mind pondering about finally getting a bangstick of my own as opposed to borrowing what ever is to hand.

Given there is a bit of woodland stalking local to home, i might want something that's a bit versatile for both scenarios, so which of the above calibres is it worth following up?

(not currently looking at .243 for a number of reasons, but open to reasonable explanations why i should)

.270s are quite popular in the Highlands, a decent size of projectile and a nice flat trajectory for the distance. If you're used to 5.56, the recoil and thunderous roar might be a bit offputting for you.

My own Bambi gun is a 6.5x55, not too brutal on roe and quite meaty enough for reds or even wild boar with suitable ammunition.

I use a .270win for Scottish Red's - works perfect in that role. 6.5x55 would be my second choice.
.308 would also be fine, but not as flat as .270, .300 win mag would probably cause a fair bit of carcass damage in a smaller animal. Cannot comment of 30-06 as I have not used it.

Ok I am not expert in the stalking field by any means, so I can only talk from my own limited experience.

I have a .243, .303 for stalking I also use my .223 (I have a large amount of Muntjac on the land I shoot over). I got the .303 partly out of nostalgia but I have the opportunity to shoot boar. I am looking at replacing the .243 with a rifle in the 6.5mm cal, mainly for the reasons that PF states.

As for the calibres you mentioned the .308 is going to be the easiest one to get hold of ammo for as every man and his dog makes it. That also means it should be cheaper which is good. There is also a larger selection of rifles on the market. I would look on guntrader, gunmart.net and gunstar.uk

I don’t know about others on here but I try to get out at least a couple of times a month to practice by setting up a tgt then shooting at it from different ranges to learn hold over/under and windage. I have found that very useful when bambi appears. It helps that I load my own, and have popular calibres so I can change the projectiles that I shoot.

So I suppose what I am trying to say is buy a rifle (hopefully after you have tried a few, at the local rifle club), in the different calibres you are interested in. Then if you are still unsure get one with the largest choice of rounds and rifles. One last thought I know someone who regularly takes deer with an 7.62x 39 (home loads), it’s a very mid recoiling rifle and a pleasure to shoot.

I went for the 6.5 as more of an all-round performer, if I was buying rifles for specialist roles it would be .270 for Reds.

Thanks for all feed back - will look at .270 and 6.5

.30-06 was a suggestion from a gunsmith who guides big game as well as shoots woodland and scotland - take it that its more in favour across the pond.

saw a .300 Win Mag R93 in action against big game a few years ago, very impressed at the grouping it held out to 300m

for interest found this on .30cal ballistics comparison
File:30calCOMPAREdropMOA.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

30-06 is popular in the US because it was the military calibre for decades, and there were vast stocks of surplus ammo you could buy for next to nothing. It fires a huge heavy projectile in a great arc at a lubberly speed, IMO it only has a place any longer as a service rifle target calibre, and that not really in the UK.

There are other calibres far more suitable for the purposes you have in mind.

.270 , you will always get ammo from any good RFD in porridge wogland unlike with some not so common calibers .

I use a 6.5x55 for deer and have no complaints about it.
A mate uses a 30-06 and even on Roe there isnt that much meat damage.

I always swore by the venerable .303 myself. A 180 grain bullet put moose down nicely so a Red Deer would be no problem for it. Say a 150 for Roe.