Too much gun for Whitetail?

Didn't realize there was a such thing as soft steel.
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There are many different grades of steel. For our range gongs, we have nothing under 7/8", most are 1 1/4". They are all hardened plate, but even so, before we ever put a round one into them, I take them to my shop and surface the entire area with hard surfacing rods and then grind the ridges out. Yes, it takes time, but before I went to doing this, our gong life was not that long, currently we are shooting the same gongs for going on 3 years now and when they do get cratered to an extent, take them back to the shop and grind down all the crater rims and re-surface them.

As for having too much for a whitetail, I would have to reiterate what others have said; depending on shot placement as to whether you lose much meat or not. Hit a deer in the flanks, front or rear, with a 180gr out of a .300 Win mag and you lose at least one shoulder if not both, hit it with a 95gr .243 low, behind the shoulder, right in the heart or in the neck and you lose minimal, both shots from both guns are still kills, so it all comes back to shot placement.

(I can't say DRT for 100% though, simply because I hit a buck recently with 7MM Rem, partial shoulder, jellied the heart and he still went 15 yards. Found him easy enough, but he was not DRT on the spot, is all I am saying.)
 
if shooting whitetail with a 45/70 is overkill, then what would you call shooting baby groundhogs with a savage smokeless muzzleloader at 25 yards with 300 grain bullets:):):):):)
 
then what would you call shooting baby groundhogs with a savage smokeless muzzleloader at 25 yards with 300 grain bullets
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I think that falls under the "red mist" category.:D
Brent
 
I do all my big game hunting with either a .45-70 or .45-90 slung from Marlin 95's or Win 1886. I mostly use 405 gr hard cast or pure lead bullets. Have killed deer, moose, caribou, and black bear with them. Nothing ever goes far. I load them to around 1600fps and have killed out to 250 yds with no problems; the bullet always goes completely through unless it hits either the base of the neck or an upper leg bone. Very effective and minimal bloodshot meat. I have also done in a moose with a 400gr Barnes at 1880fps. That moose went down like he was hit by lightning and bounced when he hit. Impressive. I nearly cut a deer in half at 50yds with a 350?gr Hornady hollowpoint at 2100fps one time. Spine shot that took out 3" of spine... totally gone. Most impressive. A shoulder shot with that would have ruined a lot of meat. I'm a big bullet guy and mostly like lower velocities that don't ruin meat. I think the .45-70 is an ideal deer gun with the right load, that being not too hot. The bigger bullets are more accurate also.
 
ha bout those targets, i guess when the label says 22 lr only they were right because it was destroyed by my 38 special. :D
 
Too big is only in the eyes of the shooter. However, there is something called overkill if you are using the very large caliber as an insurance policy. Shot placement is a better policy all around. If I owed a 375 H&H (which I have absolutely no reason to own or then I want one), I would try it out on whitetails just to see how it does. But that does not offset the need for good shot placement. The 270 > 30-06 range is still the best all around choice for most whitetail hunters in my opinion.
 
I think a BAZOOKA would be OVERKILL LOL. Although if you get the load correct you may have a nice medium cooked piece of meat. :eek:
 
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