A perennial debate smolders around the best all-round hunting cartridge, which, most of us agree, doesn't exist. But some come close. And if you're going to be back in the wilderness--possibly on the hunt of a lifetime--there are good reasons to hunt exclusively with one rifle and one bullet: intimacy. The one-gun hunter knows his rifle's balance, trigger pull and trajectory. Through long association he can wield it quickly and accurately. There is no fumbling for the safety, no questioning the holdover.

This is the proverbial extension of your arm. Under extreme conditions--cold, snow, wind, high altitude, excessive heat, exhaustion--being able to snap a rifle into action instantly and with supreme confidence can make or break a hunt.

Realistically, an all-round rifle cartridge must be powerful enough to shoot "flat" to at least 300 yards and hit hard enough to quickly terminate any critter short of African buffalo. In addition it would be nice if the rifle weighs something less than nine pounds and doesn't kick your teeth out of the reach of your dentist.

Any time you attempt to select a one-size-fits-all cartridge, you need to start at the top because there's no such thing as too dead. Would you rather recover a pronghorn with too big a hole behind its shoulder or lose a moose with too small a hole? It's that simple.

Each of us must set our upper limits on game size. Will you confine your hunting to nothing bigger than mule deer? Will you top out with elk, moose or eland? For the sake of argument, let's say grizzlies and moose will be the largest game our cartridge will be asked to tame. This means our minimum caliber will be .277. Well, no, make that 6.5mm (.264). Wait, let's go with .257. Roy Weatherby killed a lot of big animals with the .257 Wby. Mag.

Oh, dear. We already have a problem. Just where do we draw the line? Most experienced hunters consider 1,000 ft.-lbs. minimum for deer, 1,500 ft.-lbs. for elk, though of course much less energy will do the job under ideal conditions. Still, the 1,000 ft.-lbs. minimum is a reasonable starting point. Using this figure, the .257 Wby. drops out of contention as an elk round at about 370 yards but doesn't run out of gas as a deer round until well beyond 500 yards. With a pointed boattail 140-grain bullet, the .264 Win. Mag. still generates 1,491 ft.-lbs. at 500 yards. It should be adequate for elk and moose at all reasonable hunting ranges, thus we'll choose it as our minimum all-round cartridge.

From here on up, nearly any cartridge that propels a 130-grain or heavier, sharply pointed, premium, controlled-expansion bullet at least 2,900 fps from the muzzle will meet our minimum energy standards out to 300 yards. Anything faster and heavier is gravy. Or insurance. Your choice.

This means the 7mm-08 Rem. is in, but the .30-30 Win. is out. The .270 Win., .280 Rem., .284 Win., 7x57 Mauser and 7mm SAUM Rem. are in. The .308 Win. and .30-06 are easy picks, as are all of the new short and long magnums over .277 caliber.

So how do we narrow down such a big field? Rifle weight is one way. As a general rule, rifles for magnum cartridges will sport 24- to 26-inch barrels and weigh a minimum of seven pounds. Because some use .375 H&H magnum length cartridges, their actions are longer than standard, too.

A Remington M700 in .280 with 22-inch barrel measures 421⁄2 inches stem to stern. In 7mm Ultra Mag it stretches to 461⁄2 inches. Those four extra inches are no problem on the plains but might be in brush and woods and along steep mountain faces. Big magnums are also difficult to carry in saddle scabbards.

Handle a few super magnums and think long and hard about where you'll be carrying them before you select one as your do-it-all rifle. They certainly pack the punch and range--but at a price you must be willing to pay, season after season.

The Winchester and Remington short magnums require less length and weight to generate almost as much velocity. These just might represent the perfect all-round cartridges of the 21st century.

If you anticipate doing considerable hiking, climbing and backpack hunting for elk, bears and smaller game, give these short mags a hard look. I'd feel comfortable going up against anything with even the .270 WSM, a cartridge I've witnessed firsthand in the takedown of a 1,500-pound water buffalo with a single 140-grain Fail Safe slug.

This doesn't mean the old standards are out of the running--not by a long shot. Despite its 100-year-old design, the .30-06 remains a superb all-rounder. With today's 165-grain, plastic-tipped, bonded slugs, it shoots flatter and penetrates deeper than ever. With Fail Safe, A-Frame and X bullets it'll plow a destructive swath through or nearly through the heaviest big game animal.

Its trajectory is but two inches lower than the .300 Ultra Mag at 300 yards, 5 1/2 inches lower at 400 yards with a 165-grain Barnes XBT. A similar mild recoiling, hard-hitting cartridge is the .280 Rem. With premium 160- to 175-grain bullets it'll ruin the biggest elk's day.

What is the perfect, all-round gun? It's your choice. Study ballistic tables, bullet options, cartridge sizes and rifle configurations, and you'll find a rig that matches your style of hunting. Then get out and use it.