Your pick for BEST all around DEER rifle?

Deer rifle, eh?

If I could choose a deer only rifle tonight it would be a Winchester M70C Featherweight in .270.

E
 
So many choices, most of them good. I'd split up the duties tho. First, for thick cover,rainy weather and fast shots, a Model 94 in 30-30.The one here has a peep sight.

For longer shots, a Model 700 in 30-06 with a decent scope. Mine has the Leopold 3.5-10X, but that much magnification is overkill. Like someone else said, a 1.5-5X or a lower magnification fixed scope is a better choice.
 
The model 94 Winchester in .30-30 is probably the most commonly used deer rifle in America and has therefore taken more deer than any other.
That is not to say that it is the first rifle I would recommend...simply that it is the most commonly used. Personally my first choice for a good deer rifle is a long barrled handgun. ;)

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Gunslinger

I was promised a Shortycicle and I want a Shortycicle!
 
You guys must hunt in country that is quite a bit different than around here. The most popular scope magnification here is the 3X9 variables and most guys set them on 9 and forget it.

I love optics just like some guys love a great 1911 (including me). I use a 2.5-10 Swarovski 30mm scope. I can put antlers on a deer at 300 yards in the worst possible light conditions. For our high plains mule deer a flat shooting rifle with great optics is hard to beat.
 
Ron, do the guys that keep dragging deer out of the woods set their scopes on 9X and leave them there? Or just the guys that go out?

The 3X9 is popular here too, but I see few of them in the racks of the trucks lined up at the check station after dark on opening day.

My 700 has that 3.5-10X on it because that's what was on it when I ran across it at a steal price. Otherwise, I'd find a 2-7 and use it. And since it would be used for woods hunting more than not, 2X would be where I'd set it most of the time.

The only long range deer I've taken was in So Cal around 72. With a borrowed 270 with a mere 6X weaver, I shot a desert mule deer at 275 yards. DRT.
 
I'm hearing good stories about the .300 Win. Mag. over 500-600 yards and better . Haven't gotten into scopes though . The word on the street is that the .300 packs a kick . But at least your shoulder will live through it . Now as for the deer ...............?

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TOM
SASS AMERICAN LEGION NRA GOA
 
Browning Stainless Stalker, (with BOSS), .270, 2.5-8x36 Leupold scope, Butler Creek Flip Open caps, Harris model 25s bipod, 1.25" super sling, 130 grain Federal Premium Ballistic Tip ammo. AWESOME!!!


Now for elk .............. :D

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"Charlton Heston is my President"

Danny45
NRA, NAHC, Buckmasters
 
My personal deer rifle is the Win M70 Classic Featherweight in .280Rem topped with a Burris 2-7x in Warne permanent mounts. With a trigger job and Acra-steel bedding job (barrel free-floated), it shoots 1/2moa from the bench. The only change I want to make is to go to a Pacific Research Rimrock stock, but that walnut is too pretty for me to do it! (yet).
-Paul
 
Dave McC, I had to open my gunsafe and make sure you hadn't stopped by! I use a Win. M94 .30/30 with a peep sight and a sling in East Texas, and a Rem. 700BDL .30-06 with a Leupold 3X9 almost anyplace else.

First love was a Rem 700BDL in 6mm. Still a good gun. It has a 3X9 also, and it stays on 9X most of the time.

When walking, I'll put it to 3X; otherwise, I like the so-called Hubbell effect!
 
I don't know if I'd personally go so far as to say either of them are 'the best' but I've always been enamored of the .257 Roberts and the 6.5x55 Swede. I don't currently own either one but have long had access to them both. Over that time, I have always found them accurate, low in recoil, 'flat enough' trajectories and generally what I would look for in a deer rifle.

Of course, I've never shot a deer with either cartridge so what do I know...

Actually, all on your list are among my favorite cartridges. Kick out the .280 and throw in a .243 and you have a who's who of my very favorites.

I guess to put a fine point on it, a charcoal-blued Winchester with a properly fitted gray laminated stock with cheekpiece in .257 Roberts with a Burris Signature Series 1.5-6x scope would do me just about perfectly as would a Tikka Whitetail Hunter Stainless Laminated in 6.5x55 with a Kahles 4x36.
 
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Nothing yet suggested seems to me a bad choice!

But my personal deer rifle, and my go-to gun, is a Remington Model 700 Mountain Rifle, in .260 Remington, topped with a 2-7x33mm Leupold scope. Fast enough, more than accurate enough, and ready for anything I can imagine in medium game country. Fast enough is 2600 fps with a 140gr Sierra GameKing. I know where this load shoots from 0-300 yards. Plus I have faith in the performance of the bullet on target. What more could you want?
 
Tough choice..........I guess it would be the 25-06 with the 7MM Remington Mag nipping on its heels.

On a bigger deer the 7MM will drive through to the boiler and engine room no matter what it has to go through to get there.............just aim at the afore mentioned rooms and shoot through what ever part of the deer is in the way. A 25 with a larger deer is a little light for that.

I do know this, a 7MM Mag with one of my handloads penetrated the hind quarter of a 200# whitetail, the heart, lung area the off front shoulder, the A/C condenser coil, the radiator, and dented the fan belt pulley of an 82 F-150 pickup. "Lil Bubba" did not care................he said he did not mind killing his pickup as long as he got the deer. He got both. He did get kinda upset when I asked him if he was gonna have his truck mounted too. :D

The bullet was a 150 grain Nosler Partition sitting on top of a "lot" of IMR-7828.
 
A good bolt action rifle of moderate wait. My experience has left me with the opinion the lightweights are too 'whippy" when I'm tired out and dealing with occasional buck fever.
Probably something in the 25-06 to 270 class that is capable of making that occassional long shot.
My Leupold 2.5 x 8 VXIII has served me well in all conditions. Don't cheap out on scopes!
 
My pick WAS a Savage 110 in .30-06, but the responsibilities of parenthood superceeded that. Anyway, I'm using a Yugo M48A that I picked up for $250 less than the Savage.
 
You can get my thoughts for a penny. I love my Remington Mod. 700 in .30-06, but wouldn't turn down a .308 w/ either a 2x7 or 3x9 scope.
I like calibers that are flexible for a variety of game over a range of geographic conditions. Of course the others mentioned here are all good for the above mentioned activity.
 
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