I am seriously considering selling most all of my hunting rifles and condensing them down to 2 high(er) end or custom rifles with really good glass vs most of the cheaper rifles I have now with mediocre glass. The debate is what calibers do I want. I think 1 will be a 300 Win or Wby or maybe a 338 Win, the other is where I am struggling to make a choice. I have never been let down by my 30-06 or 308 but there are so many other good choices out there like 7-08, 208AI, 6.5-06, 300WSM, etc. So, what would be your choice for the second rifle chambering given the following guidelines:

Typical Alabama whitetail woods, river bottoms and the mountains of NE Alabama with most shots less that 300 yards with the possibility of a midwest trip some day. This will be my primary hunting rifle. If I ever get to go WEST and hunt I would most likely take the 300 or 338.
No restrictions on action length, I have no preference.
No 270 win
Nothing that is an odd ball caliber.
Must have a good selection of factory available ammo, although I do reload I don't want to be tied down to it.
Must perform well out of no longer than a 22" barrel, preferably a 20".

The harder choice after this will be what rifle(s) to buy. Bergara, Kimber, Christensen, Cooper, Montana or custom built.

What are yall's thoughts?

Well you know mine. Or at least you should lol. That being said...

Keep the 30-06 for deer hunting and sentimental reasons.
If you still want a whitetail rifle, get you a 308 bergara ridge.

Get you a 300 win in maybe a Tikka? Something that is light so if you had to carry it out west if you got the opportunity it would be fine. And you know me, i like stainless.

If you wanted you could still carry the 300 to kill a rutted up buck and the 308 wouldn't make doe meat useless.

The Tikka/Bergara give you a 1 MOA guarantee and are real nice and should give you room in the budget for a real nice scope.

My .02.

300 win short mag and 308 given your barrel

2 is not enough. If one has a failure of any kind you're down to one. One is why you had 2 when this started.

WIley I would still have a few in the safe that ain't leaving. This would just narrow the "main" rifles down to 2 that would be primaries and thin the heard of what doesn't get used often or at all. Plus, if history tells me anything the safe would just magically fill back up over time anyways.

338 Win Mag and 25-06.

30-06 and 7 mag

If you didn’t say an odd round I’d go with a 6.5 (whatever you want to add after) I’d go PRC. and a magnum round

6.5 PRC
25-06.
280 ackley

I've got a shucks ton of rifles in a bunch of different calibers. 90% of the time I carry one of two. Winchester model 70 in .300 Win mag when I'm on the clear cuts, Remington model seven in 7mm.08 for everything else.

7mm08 would do anything i wanted to for white tail, hogs, varmits.

Not 2 but, I wouldn't give up my 7mm mag.

This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Gunwerks for your custom piece. Cause you say 22 inch barrel go with the .260 ...or 7-08.

.25-06
.260 Rem
7mm-08

I've got a little Kimber 7mm-08 synthetic stock with a Leupold VX-3 stainless scope that I have been pleasantly pleased with....Its a sweet little ride...

Hard to go wrong with that. I’d have to add 243.

I wouldn't have a 300 magnum of any variety with less than a 24" barrel. Too much muzzle blast and you start to lose velocity rapidly with every in you cut.

A 338 win mag would definitely be one of my choices 😀 especially if you want to go west for bigger critters. Works great on little Alabama whitetais also at the ranges you mentioned, and beyond. 👍👍

A 6.5 PRC would be a great choice for reaching way out there for deer if you ever had a notion to do such things. If you ever go to Kansas or somewhere similar you will appreciate a flat shooting gun with high BC bullets to resist wind drift.

Also, the idea of only 2 rifles is ludicrous....

I’m thinking of getting a .308. Top it with a Meopta with a 50mm objective, maybe a 56.
But I’m really enjoying the 243 I’ve hunted with this season.

The magnum wether it be a 300 or 338 will definitely be a 26" barrel, any shorter is a waste in my opinion.

How does the 6.5 PRC, the 6.5-06 and the 280AI compare and what do they offer over the ol faithful 30-06 with 165s? The idea of high BC bullets from either of the previous 3 really shines out west in the wind but I don't know that they offer any advantage here where 90% of my hunting will be less that 300 yards. Also I don't know this to be absolute truth but I've heard and read that the high BC bullets don't kill as well (fast) as the old standby lower BC bullets from traditional cartridges because of the higher sectional density and the tendiacy to penetrate so well. Any truth to that? Seems that that may be why the 25-06 and 257Wby are such stone cold killers as the 25 cal bullets don't have great BC or SD. The same for cup and core 150s from a -06 or 308.

The 3006 & 308 will offer more selections in bullets than anything else and both will kill anything in North America