There are many production guns that have all the attributes needed to make what I consider the ideal all-purpose whitetail rifle, but the one I have the most personal experience with and would choose is Remington's Model Seven in 7mm-08 Rem. It's true that Browning, Howa, Weatherby, Winchester, Savage, Sako and Ruger, among others, all offer similar carbine versions of their flagship rifle, but where the Model Seven trumps them all in my eyes is that, while all the others are based on shortened versions of those companys' standard-length action, the Model Seven is a shortened version of Remington's short action. In other words, it is lighter, shorter and more compact than anyone else's short action.

The author used Remington's recently discontinued 673 Guide Rifle, a permutation of the Model Seven, to take this nice whitetail buck.

There have been several iterations of this handy little carbine over the years, and I've owned or used several of them, but the current ones I think are the best. The original Model Seven had a pencil-thin 18 1/2-inch barrel, which I thought was too short--too short to look right, too short to feel right and too punitive velocity-wise. Before long, however, they increased it to the current 20 inches for standard calibers and 22 inches for magnums. Four models are offered: an all-stainless, synthetic-stock version called the SS in standard and short-magnum calibers and the traditional blued-steel/walnut-stocked CDL, also in standard and magnum calibers. The CDL version is seen on the cover of this issue.

I am not a fan of super-light rifles, and the Model Seven doesn't go overboard there either. Weights range from 6 1/4 pounds for the Seven SS to 7 3/8 for the CDL Magnum. I have the SS version in 7mm-08, and I'd have a hard time designing from scratch a more delightful deer rifle. Topped with a compact, midrange variable scope, this rifle allows me to confidently hunt whitetail deer virtually anywhere and under almost any conceivable circumstance. Like I said, there are many good production-grade lightweight carbines out there, but the Model Seven gets my vote. And I could probably be just as happy if it were chambered in .260 Remington or .308 Winchester.

Hornady's LeveRevolution ammo dramatically increases the practical maximum range of the traditional lever-action rifle, particularly in .30-30 caliber.

Moving west, where the typical shot at a mule deer is across a valley to an opposing slope, I want more rifle, more cartridge. For this type of hunting I always choose a bolt-action 7mm magnum of some sort, a 24-inch barrel and usually fitted with a 6X fixed-power scope. Here again, there are many off-the-shelf production rifles that fit those requirements, but whenever I have the chance to hunt with one of my own rifles, it's always a custom job that fits the foregoing parameters.

By "custom" I don't mean anything fancy: None of my personal rifles are--fancy, I mean. What makes them custom is that I start with the action of my choice that I have barreled to my contour and chamber specs, then glass bed it and finish it myself using an aftermarket drop-in laminated stock of straight-comb classic configuration. The end result is a very generic rifle the likes of which can be found in the catalog of any of the major manufacturers mentioned earlier, plus most of the importers and semi-custom makers as well.

The .308 Win. at left spawned (left to right) the .358 Win., .243 Win., .260 Rem. and 7mm-08 Rem. The author says the .260, 7-08 and .308 are his choices for the best whitetail cartridges.

There is nothing unusual about my rifles other than that they are chambered in the caliber I want, whether it's a standard or wildcat; it is throated to a dummy cartridge seated with the exact bullet to the depth I plan to use; the barrel is of the length and contour I want; and it's stocked exactly the way I want it. Naturally, I have my choice of actions in either chrome-moly or stainless and a matching barrel, fluted or smooth. Lately, I've come to prefer all-stainless rifles and fluted barrels.