I happened to read a very informative article done by Outdoor Life Correspondent Bryce M. Towsley this past month. It came at an opportune time as the fellows and I had an ongoing dialogue about the history of our favorite rifle cartridges in our sporting arms. The choices were expansive and everyone had their favorite cartridges that they swore by through their years of hunting adventures.

It all started when the topic of getting your hunting licenses purchased and sending out for the antlerless deer license deadline of Aug. 11 was looming near. Somehow my license, which I ordered online, was lost in the mail between The Outdoor Shop and my mailbox and I made the comment that I may need to leave my faithful rifle on the shelf and the guys wanted to know which one was I talking about.

I guess they had a point, over the years I have been trying out new calibers from the 30-06 to the 7mm-08 and many in between. The truth is that I like a whole lot of different cartridges, but tell folks to get one that they can find in the gun shops at a reasonable price. That means the 30-06 Springfield, .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester or the .243 Winchester.

I have used a 30-06 since the beginning of my deer hunting days. I have found they are dependable, have many bullet choices and are reasonably priced and available. The truth is that the 30-06 started out as one of our earliest hunting cartridge choices. Remington Arms produced the first 30-06 rifles in 1906 and it was the grandfather of many of our popular cartridges in current times.

The .300 Savage was introduced in 1920 and was a popular short action caliber with many different bullet weights. The .300 Savage is still used by many hunters who like the lever action models that was popular then and now.

Jumping up a few years to 1925, the .270 Winchester was introduced as an alternative to the 30 calibers. It was a necked down version of the 30-06 and was the first cartridge to break the 3,000 fps barrier. It was limited to 130 and 150 grain bullets with a few smaller varmint choices.

One of my first rifles was a .270 Remington and with a Leupold scope made a formable deer hunting combination and proved itself over many years of hunting.

In the 50s the .308 Winchester, the .243 Winchester, the .280 Remington and the .280 Ackley Improved came onto the scene.

The .280 Remington soon became the rival to Winchesters .270 and it had the bonus of having a wider variety of bullet weights.

In the early years it was known as the 7mm and many hunters took to this new expansive choice of a sporting arm. In fact, I have used the 30-06, the .270, and the .280 regularly and many times in the same hunting season.

Good luck finding .280 shells in a generic sporting good shop such as Walmart or Kmart. You will need to look at a much more specialized hunting focused center to find this specialty cartridge.

One year I was hunting with a buddy and had a horrid display of shooting skills using my .270. Everywhere I went to get a replacement box of .270 cartridges they were sold out. My buddy tried to console me with this comment, “Don’t worry you are apparently not the only one missing.”

Finally, we moved into 1969 with the 25-06 Remington the fastest and smallest diameter bullet of the ’06 family. The .17 Remington in 1971 and one of my favorites, the 7mm-08 introduced in 1980. This cartridge is one my favorite to hunt deer with and is ideal for being a light recoil in a rifle and a short action cartridge of the 7mm family. The choices of this caliber are many, but I personal prefer the 139 or 140 grain boat tail spire point bullets when I am hunting.

Regardless of the choices that you make in a hunting cartridge, gun makers and bench loaders continue to tinker with the tried and true bullets over the past 100 years. The key is to find one that is accurate, reasonably priced and comparatively easy to find in the retail locations.

Don’t forget to get your 2016-17 hunting license and hit the range to sharpen your skills with the sporting arms.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle