Favorite Deer Caliber
 

I don't know if this has been posted yet, so here goes...

There have been several magnum variations in the last few years that have become popular for deer hunting. IMHO it is overkill to shoot at a white-tail deer with a .300 type ultra magnum, but to each his/her own...

My personal favorite is the .270 Win. Nice combo of velocity and accuracy. Especially nice because the factory loads come loaded fairly potently. (Which can't necessarily be said for the .306 due to the danger of firing hot catridges through older and weaker rifles)

BTW I live in KY so I never need the 500 yds that the super ultra dupe magnums claim. ;)

I use a 7mm magnum. Never had a problem with it. Of course the deer here are small and the brush is thick....

Best overall caliber for normal situations (shooting less than 150 yards) is the 30-30. Heavy enough bullet to not have to have the perfect shot, knock down efficiency, etc. This would be my recommendation to any new hunter not wanting/needing the extra distance.

Both calibers 123dsa and debaser are my calibers of choice: .270 Win and 7mm Rem Mag for hunting when longer shots are available. I do worry about the higher velocity to weight ratio of these when trying to cut through some brush.

What about the slugged 12 gauge? I know more than a few that do that. What do you think?

shotgun hunting around here....trusty 20 gauge slug will do the trick.

.30-30 are really inaccurate compared to the other common calibers. Unless you load your own, which can get you away from the standard blunt nose bullet of the .30-30. Personally, I use a .30-06, but i hunt in an area where I can easily shoot 300yds. I know many people who use a .308 Win and from what I can see, is the best all-around cartridge for hunting in thickets to open woods to anywhere...

i shoot slugs in my 10ga with a aimdot scope it does the trick

.270 for deer - very accurate and flat -
7mm mag for moose and elk ( I leave in the 12th for a two week moose hunt up in Northern BC, I'm gonna get me a nice bull).

Hell I'd say even a .270 is overkill on a whitetail !

I personally use .55 Cal Remington Renigade Muzzleloader in Ohio. This year I may use my new 12 ga. I got but I doubt it. If you can't do it with one shot :P Don't do it at all :)

The .270 is a great round. Wont damage a lot of meat. The 7mm Rem Mag is a great round. Fast and flat with a ton of stopping power. All in all though I use the .308. I like the ballistics and the stopping power that wont tear up too much meat.

I use a 12gauge, smooth barrel with rifled slugs. My kills have been single-shots, without a lot of tracking in the several years I have been using it. As noted above, deer hunting in upstate NY is usually done with close-in shots.

We go for mulies here, however whitetail are starting to appear in some areas.

Being that the deer is an animal that is relatively easy to put down with the correct shot placement and bullet type my favs are the .243 and it's big brother the .308 . Here in Michigan most shots are made with a center-fire rifle at the 50 to 300 yard range ... why carry a lunking big bore around when you can use a short action gun gun of less weight ? It's amazing what a couple of pounds means to your arms and shoulders at the end of the day .
In the lower zone where it is shotgun/pistol only I use a Ithaca featherweight with sabot's . A very reliable way of harvesting venison .

Ahh splck how I envy you :)

In western NY, rifle use isn't allowed for deer hunting. I use a Browning A-5 12ga with a bead sight. Makes for a nice challenge to get deer within 100 yards at the most. I'm too lazy to track so I make sure 1 shot within 50 yds does the trick.

PS I just got a .50 cal muzzleloader that I really need to learn to shoot. Any tips?

Practice w/ balls and patches (i.e. the cheapest stuff around) since they are plenty accurate and cheap. Use a good lube like Bore Butter. For hunting, get some nice sabot rounds (and practice a couple times with them too).

Clean your gun religiously, and be super anal. Otherwise, you will go to shoot it one day only to find that the bore/nipple has rusted. Get Hoppes blackpowder solvent.

Get a range ramrod. The best kind is solid brass with a nice handle. The dinky ramrods that come with the rifles just aren't practical for repetitive shooting.

After you get get the hang of things, load the gun and put a mark on your ramrod(s) where they should be roughly parallel with the muzzle of the gun. This way, if you forget and either double charge your rifle or load it twice without shooting it, you will be able to tell before you blow your gun up.

Don't use blackpowder. Use pyrodex instead. It is more consistent, and much less corrosive. Make sure it has the right F rating.

Get one of the old guys at the range to show you what's what.

Edit: And my favorite deer caliber is .270, but .50 blackpowder is nice too.

Good luck.

Marco Polo you are only the 2nd person I have heard mention the Ithaca fetherweight. My farther is the other... Cool gun and pretty rare too.

My favorites have to be the 6mm Remington and the .223 remington.

The 6mm is a sweet shooting little gun capable of reaching out to 400 yds.
I had to vote for .223 rem just because my mini-14 is such a nice shooter.

Where I hunt you can only use a shot gun and I use my Winchester Ranger 12ga pump with a rifled barrel and sabot slugs with a scope good for 125 yards or closer or I have a .45 magnum muzzeloader for that season.

as said before clean it good.

Indiana's shotgun only for deer. Although i haven't taken one with it my family and a few shooting friends rave about .308 rem. Good ballistics and should be able to take down anything in North America sans a grizzly bear.


EDIT: Hangun too, but i was caught up in thinking about long guns.

only shotgun allowed in most of new york were i live, so bust out my deadly accurate 20gauge.

I may have the opportunity to go dear hunting this year. Having never been before I have a question. I have access to a 44 magnum leaver action rifle. What do you all think about using this for dear?

The .44 Mag is not a bad deer catridge (and it should be more than enough on your deAr *wink*)

Being that you've never been before, go with somebody who has and practice with the gun before going. You'll need to be comfortable with the gun. Good luck. :)

If I go it will be with my nephew who has been going for several years now. The .44 Mag belongs to my parents but I swear I've fired it more in the last 2 years than they have.

My Dad always said you can shoot at a deer with a 30-30, run up and cut it's throat, and the bullet will hit you right in the ass.

For Deer a .270 is just about perfect. It's what I use. Get a 30-06 if you want the option to hunt bigger game like elk with the same rifle. .223 or .220 swift is ok as long as you go for head/neck shots. As a kid I shot two different deer in the vitals with .220 swift hollow points and both ran a long damn ways before they went down. Personally, I think hunting deer with such small calibres is a bit unethical, but it's certainly possible, I once knew a guy that hunted deer with a .22 magnum.

Well, round here shotgun slugs and bows are all you can use but when we go north into the wilds of northern Ontario I always take along my grandfather's Marlin model 1893 .32-40 lever action. I love that old beast.

.270 Winchester here, works just fine.

never been hunting... I assume I'd use an ICBM launched from my nuclear sub off the coast of oregon... I'd get all those stinkin deer!! muahaaha

A .270 Wby a great choice for medium range shots. I also like the .30 Jarret WarBird, or a 30-378 Wby for the 500 yarders...


:-)

I'm partial to my 6.5X55 Swede. It shoots flat, is extremely accurate, and does the job very well. It's got more than enough power to take down a large deer, but it's not an overkill. That and the recoil is very manageable. I like the performance of a 30-30, but don't overly enjoy the sharp recoil.

Rem 7mm Mag or .50 cal smokepole, but i picked up a
Marlin .30-.30 last month for doe. Anybody here hunt Florida, south Georgia?

The best deer gun is the one you can carry all day and have confidence in your ability to shoot it accurately to place the shot in the kill zone every time in every situation. I know people who have over 30 different rifles and always show up at camp with the same old gun every time because that is what they are comfortable with.

I've always used a .308. I figure if it's good enough for U.S. military snipers, it's good enough for me.

Military sniper also use a .300 Win Mag... :D