This Years Favorite Gun/Caliber for deer?

T

tdoyka

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whats this years favorite gun/caliber for deer season?

i bought mine in encore with a 16 1/4 MGM barrel with a high plains custom gunstock( its a rifle).
recoil is nothing to worry about, a 243 it seems like. i have had a stroke, so my right side is about 15-20% good, so i can tell :D;)
120 amaxs with a charge of imr4350 makes it .3" at 100yds and next week i'm planning on using it for deer with a 120 ballistic tip with some superperformace behind it
 
tdoyka I don't know what cartridge you use. You said something about the recoil being like a .243, but using a 120 grain bullet, which seems heavy for the caliber.

I use a .270 Win, Remington 700 BDL Stainless in a Sendero (takeoff) stock. It shoots 5/8" groups at 100 yards and 3 1/2" at 450 yards with 130 Ballistic Tips, but have been using Hornady GMX 120s because they have greater penetration, perfect mushrooms, and no lead. Accuracy is about 1" at 100, but get a few flyers that sometimes widen groups to 1 1/4".
 
Well, I took a 30'06 out this year and the only calibre I've ever shot a Whitetail with is still the 6.5x55. :-( And I can't even picture a more perfectly matched animal & round to take it with.
 
Here in OH, we are limited to muzzleloaders or shotguns. So for me, it is a 12 gauge sabot slug out of a rifled barrel 870.

It must be nice to use a rifle on a deer...
 
.243 ssing 100 grain Remington soft points loaded by my grandfather in the 70's. It's been killing deer for many many years and this year was no different, it took down a 10 point buck and a nice doe.
 
7mm Rem Mag for me this year. I usually hunt with a 45-70 here in the heavy woods of NY but my daughter claimed it for herself. The only other choice I have is a 25-06. All excellent hunting cartridges albeit they are somewhat diverse in utility.
 
Generally, I like the 30 calibers - either 308 Win, 30-06, or 300 WM, depending on conditions and terrain. I have also hunted with milsurp 30 caliber guns chambered in 7.5x54, 7.5x55, 303 Brit, and 7.62x54R (I have not had the chance to hunt with 7.7 Jap yet). And don't forget the 30-30! Overall, in North America, I find the 30 caliber family to have the best balance of performance and flexibility.

That's not to say that cartridges in other calibers are not suitable and nearly identical in performance. Take 28 caliber for instance. You have:
- 7mm Mauser
- 280 Remington
- 7mm 08
- 7mm Magnum
and there are other 28 caliber cartridges. But these will do just about anything my 30 caliber cartridges will do. The same goes form most 26 caliber cartridges, and sometimes they shoot flatter, depending on the cartridge and bullet.

While I have hunted with self loaders and lever guns, I tend to prefer turnbolt actions for hunting.
 
My most fun gun is my Encore Pro Hunter handgun in 7mm-08. It makes me giggle like a school girl every time I pull the trigger.:D

It's a tough game though, hunting deer with a handgun. I mostly use my custom Savage 11 chambered in .243AI.

Both/either are the best deer cartridges going, IMO. Many, many others are every bit as effective, I don't believe any are better.
 
I took my Ruger No. 1 in 45-70 Gov't out this year. Didn't get to spend a lot of time in the woods and passed up my only shot, a 50 yarder on a spike. I shoot 300gr Winchester hunting rounds through it. Nothing fancy, but they work.

Great gun though and love to shoot it. It doesn't get to go hunting al that often as my standby, a Savage 7mm Rem Mag gets the call most often.
 
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My main deer rifle is a Howa .25-06 shooting 100 gr Nosler ballistic tips.

If I decide to hike up on the mountain I take the closest thing I have to a "mountain rifle" - a Remington 660 in 6mm rem with a light 4x scope shooting 85 gr partitions.
 
During gun season here in Ohio I either use my 12 ga. Winchester Super X3 deer gun or my T/C Contender in .44 magnum with a 12" barrel. It's tough to make the decision on which one to take. So sometimes it a last minute decision made before I walk out the door. The Winchester is in the lead so far. :)

Jim
 
No deer or antelope for me this year, but for the elk hunt I carried:
Ruger 77 Mk II, .270 Win, 140 gr Partitions in handloads (first 3 days)
H&R Handi-Rifle, .444 Marlin, 265 gr Hornady Superformance factory loads, 275 gr home-swaged handloads, .444-410 shotshells (last 3 days)

And, the .44 Mag Super Blackhawk poked its head out for about 3 minutes, to pop a pine chicken with a shotshell formed from .30-40 Krag brass. (The only shot it has fired since November 2012 :eek:)
 
No deer for me this year.

Took a cow elk with a Ruger Hawkeye in .358 Winchester, shooting 250 Speer hot-cor's. Had a Browning 1885 in .30-06 along as backup, but didn't have to use it.
 
No deer/bull elk this year bow hunted but next year I'll use a rifle. Got a new 270Wby build Oct plan on using that next year. Got my cow elk rifle tag filled using 30-06 with 150gr E-Tip.
 
This is what I have found for Deer Hunting this year. I pick up the range brass and process it. Not a good year this time as I think Most are starting to reload now,but here is the talley for me

347--243's
283-30-06's
256-270's
177-308's
82-7MM's
58-300 WSM
53-25-06's
20 some 30-30's ( is this a dying cartridge ?. )

This is the brass I picked up in the last 4 weeks prior to deer season. The 243 still seem's the be king as it was last year too. ( Milage may vary depending on where you are ).
 
4runner that is very interesting, could this have anything to do with factory cartridge accuracy? Most any 243 I ever had shot very well and seemed not to be too picky about what I fed it. Could be many reasons for the others, but I would venture to say the lack of 30-30 brass may be due to the fact that maybe more of these were back up, open sight rifles that the owners felt just needed a quick check. 300WSM is very interesting though! My favorite is an old 800, Mossberg 30-06 with a nice Tasco EuroClass 1.5X6 30mm scope, it was my Dad's. Kinda like still going with him!
 
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