Thread: Caliber For Deer

Though I used a 30-06 most of the time,the 270 is a good gun.
LittleJohn

30-06 on the premise of ammunition variety. It shouldn't be hard to find a load your rifle likes.

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30-06 or 308 hands down my favorite two


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Like Yak Fish said "Make sure you add quality optics to your rifle. A cheap scope is just that. You owe it to the animals you pursue to make as clean and efficient as possible. I like Leopold scopes because they're made in the USA and have a lifetime guarantee. Never had one fail either." If you can't see it you can't hit it. So a good quality scope is worth more than the gun it's on.

There are several great calibers chambered in lousy firearms. There are also several great firearms that utilize lousy calibers!

Some things to consider: Where are you hunting? Where do you plan to hunt? What are you hunting? Are you only planning on using it for whitetail or for other animals? Do you enjoy recoil? Do you want a light weight gun that you can carry around or do you want a heavy weapon? All of these things should be considered here when making a purchase.

I have a little experience in this matter as both a Marine Corps Sniper and a marksmenship training instructor.

Good Caliber, bad platform: As many have said, a 7mm-08 is a great round. That is, right up until you put it in a ladies model 7 or youth model 7 or similar. The heat created from the barrel greatly effect accuracy after 5 shots. Yes, I get it, you only need one for a deer but... good luck sighting in a short barrel version of this weapon with this round and having it repeatable unless you shoot 3 rounds and then wait for your barrel to cool!

Ammo Availability: There are tons of great guns on the market today. Unfortunately, when you are out and about and you attempt to find ammo for a lot of them, you are not going to get it done!

A synthetic stock (although it looks good) MIGHT not be what you want. Many varieties of weapons come in both wood and synthetic. The issue is weight. If you don't like recoil, I don't suggest purchasing the lighter of the two weapons!

The great debate in every deer hunting magazine since the 1930's has been .270 caliber or 30-06. These calibers are owned by more people than any other and have killed more deer, elk, and moose than most people will ever see. You cannot go wrong with either caliber in the right platform for you. 30-06 has a ton more bullet choices yet the .270 channels less recoil. For what it is worth, the .280 came out after the .270 and, for all intensive purposes, what a better caliber (if only slightly). The only reason for the lack of popularity was that the market had already been flooded with the .270 caliber and many people could not decern much of a difference between the two weapons.

I could write for days about the .308 as I have a fondness of it even if I don't hunt with it. I did hunt people with it though!!! Max effective range is 1000 meters!
I've owned 300 ultra mags, 7mm mags and personally, I'm not a recoil person. I prefer to shoot at people all day long as opposed to only shooting at one or two!!!!! Wait, we are talking about deer here!

There is always a debate about what you NEED. I've killed deer with a .223 all the way up and never had much of an issue.

So, I guess you are wondering what I would recommend? It really boils down to what you are looking for? I'll give you my opinion in my next post.

First for me is action. I prefer a bolt action rifle to any other for a couple of reasons.
1. they are trusted and reliable. There are less moving parts to fowl
2. They are more accurate with higher grade ammo due to minimizing the head space of a seated bullet and match grade rounds. You simply cannot get that with a semi-auto
3. The right person can get off just as many if not more "accurate" shots in the same amount of time as a semi-auto
4. Semi auto requires a little more maintenance. IE, you gotta keep the magazines clean!

I prefer a wood stock to synthetic. Personal prefernce but they are slightly heavier for me and less recoil. I also look for other things like floating barrels, glass beaded, and drop floor plates. I don't buy bolt actions with detachable magazines! See number 4 above

I've killed more deer with a .270 than any other weapon. From 15 feet out to and including 600 yards. You HAVE to make sure you shoot the right ammo. I've tested probably close to 30 different rounds to get the BEST round for this rifle. Actually the best two rounds. 130 grain for normal hunting and 150 grain for bear. Yes, I've taken bear with no problems!

That being said, here are my two recommended calibers. One of them might surpise you:
1. .243. I purchased one for my wife to replace the POS 7mm-08 I spoke about in my previous post. In fact, to this day, that is the only rifle I have ever sold. It wasn't the caliber that was bad, it was the weapon that should have never been built. I currently own and shoot a single shot 243 in Thompson center. It is actually a barrel for my encore pro hunter. Maximum effective range with 100 grain speer point ammo is 500 yards with the right shooter. I have no problem shooting sub MOA groups with it at 500 yards and would have no issue killing a deer with it at that distance. My 12 year old daughter shoots it as well. The encore platform boast a great recoil system to manage felt recoil.

2. If you want a weapon that will put a deer on the ground, has reduced recoil, and will flat out shoot to 1000 yards if you want.... .257 weatherby magnum.
I know, I said to look for a weapon that you can get available ammo but... weatherby is different. For the most part, they are the only ones that make the ammo. So, you know that you are getting ammo for that weapon. You don't have choices to make like mentioned above! Also, they make all their own weapons and ammo. They are purpose built and their MOA is second to none. The recoil is light for a magnum load.

Do I own one? No. But only because I have zero need for another rifle. IF however I was going to purchase a new rifle (just because) it would be this caliber and this weapon.

Lastly is Optics.

Next to the ammo you choose to shoot, optics will be the most important purchase. First ensure you are purchasing optics that will handle the load of the weapon. NOT all of them will handle a magnum load. Make sure you get one with longer eye relief and utilize it.

As my eyes get worse, I enjoy a little more power. Too much however and you loose effectiveness in low light conditions. 1-12 has been about the best I have found these days for all hunting conditions. I prefer a 40mm front tube for more light gathering. As the light dims, you need to adjust your scope power DOWN to increase light gathering. I own several different scopes from different companies and all of them have their usage. Leopold sits on top of my .270 and a Burris sits on my .243 and my .308 barrel. I have Nikon scopes on both my 50cal muzzleloaders and both of my AR platforms.

More important to me is the reticle inside. I do NOT like full duplex or heavy lined scopes. The BDC (balistic drop compensation) scopes are ok for the average shooter HOWEVER, you need to shoot each of those that you are comfortable with in your weapon. Just because it says the third cirlce is for 300 yards doesn't mean that it is. Understand that BDC is done based on a few factors. They do NOT take all factors in to account. One of the main one is barrel length.

These days, I ton of scopes come with adjustable turrets. If you plan on shooting long distances, I recommend this for you. Make sure you TEST it out and know exactly what your dope is. I write all mine down on a note stuck to the weapon. If I am not using a Mil Dot scope.

Otherwise, just understand your weapon and purchase a simple, easy to use, one reticle scope. In the case of my .270, I don't have any bells and whistles on my scope. I know that if I sight in 3 inches high at 100 yards, I will be around 3 inches low at 250 yards. I basically know all of my drops out to 600 yards! Again, know the gun.

Lastly, in the mid 2000's, the big rage was "Short Mag". To this day I am still not quite sure why they gained traction however it was a flash in the pan. The biggest issue with these weapons resulted with accuracy when putting multiple shots through it. Heat is the biggest issue with these weapons.

I could go on and on and on about 100 different reason to purchase something and then find 100 different reasons not to. Every weapon mentioned from everyone in this thread is a great round when used in the correct purpose or the correct platform.

I'm fond of the Leupold VX III 2.5 X 8 x 36 compact scope. I have one on my .308, another on my .30-'06, one on my T/C .50 cal muzzleloader, and one on my Ruger 77/22 Mag stainless/synthetic. I had dots ground on the reticle of the .308 to match the exact trajectory of the rounds I shoot (150 grain boat tail spire point bullets) out to 500 yards. It is overkill for the areas I hunt, but I want to be as accurate as I can be.

At my old lease there was an adult doe that would step out onto the powerline opening and if she could catch a whiff of or make out a person in that tower stand, she'd snort & carry on to alert every other deer within 200 acres...even farther if it was cold and the air was still. She had to go, so the land owner put a bounty of a case of beer on her head. I hunted that stand one day & the doe stepped out facing me. I already had the rifle pointed that direction and when she stomped her foot and was getting ready to snort, I'd settled the 200 yard dot between her eyes & ended the problem. My best friend ranged from where she was with a laser rangefinder and it was 199.2 yards. My distance estimation was spot on and the bullet couldn't have hit her any more dead between the eyes. We saved buying the beer until we had a season's end party where that doe was guest of honor on the grill. Win/Win.

Jim