The BEST deer cartridge!

[cloverleaf]

I wasnt gonna cause this is one of those "belly button questions".... every body has one and they all like theirs best. Fun nonetheless. I believe O'Connor noted that the best sheep hunter he knew used 25-20 or some other "archaic" cartridge. With open sights.... that was for big horn sheep. :shock: Dad only had one rifle and every time that 7Mag went off he filled a tag. Except when he was shooting it at woodpeckers, or Jacks or porcupines, or coyotes, or gophers, or cans or....... you get the idea. The "best" cartridge is the one you shoot enough to know what it will do and what we can do with it. Too bad we don't have the time or opportunity to shoot like that. My .02. Now....the 250 Savage......... :grin: :grin: :grin: CL

 

[AFG270]

In my mind???? For about 95% of my type of hunting a lightweight 7mm-08

With a 120g or 140g NBT.

Although, I have taken more deer with a 30-06 and 270.

 

[35 Whelen]

Cloverleaf,
My grandfather bought a brand new Savage 1899TD, back in 1926 in 250/3000 and at that time the woods around here was full of 45/70 and 33 Win, and such. He shot a ton of deer with that gun and claimed some out to 400yds................... not sure about that with a peep sight but anyway , he swore by it.
My Dad hunted for years with a little 6.5x55 and I saw him shoot many deer with it and always seamed to come up with the same results over and over, it just flat works great on Whitetail deer. Period.
I took it to New Zealand in the late 70's and shot some big Red Stags with it and had the same results with it down there, no problems it folded em right up too.
But in the end after I messed around with a bunch of calibers , I finally arrived at the tried and true .270, which really didn't do anything better than the 6.5 did out to 150/200 yards, but when we had a longish shot and we didn't wind up hitting as well as we should , there was an edge to the 270s extra velocity. I have hit some deer over the years that were longish shots and the deer was moving and wound up hitting them in some undesirable places, however the .270 always seams to be able to get them off their feet so I can always eat venision that season!

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

I wasnt gonna cause this is one of those "belly button questions".... every body has one and they all like theirs best. Fun nonetheless. I believe O'Connor noted that the best sheep hunter he knew used 25-20 or some other "archaic" cartridge. With open sights.... that was for big horn sheep. :shock: Dad only had one rifle and every time that 7Mag went off he filled a tag. Except when he was shooting it at woodpeckers, or Jacks or porcupines, or coyotes, or gophers, or cans or....... you get the idea. The "best" cartridge is the one you shoot enough to know what it will do and what we can do with it. Too bad we don't have the time or opportunity to shoot like that. My .02. Now....the 250 Savage......... :grin: :grin: :grin: CL

Troy -

Funny you mentioned this story because I was just reading it last night. If we are talking about the same story, it was a Sheep guide somewhere down south who used a .25-35 in a Winchester Model 1894! He had the longer 24" rifle barrel rather than the more commonly seen 20" carbine size.

Apparently this fellow could shoot too, as he was not put off by 200-250 yard shots even though he shot over open iron sights.

Quite a story!

Dale

 

[35 Whelen]

There was an old fella around here that was a farmer and his dad before him worked the same 80 acres, he told me he had watched his father shoot deer numerous times out the back shed door down across the back field, He claimed his father had a early model 1894 Winchester Rifle with an Octagon barrel that was 26" and in the black powder caliber of 38-55, when he told the story it was always
I seen "father" lean up again the shed door frame, a good many times, when we was runnin low on meat, and flip up that old ladder sight, and push it up on the 3, He would draw a fine bead and drop those deer like a sack of potatoes, and it was 18 RODS; up thar to the woods! :lol:
Weather he did or not, remains to be seen; but it sounded good when I was a kid.
He also used to tell he seen his father grab the old Winchester off the deer horns, and shoot at a weasel running across the field "near a hundard ards" and shot the mouse he was luggin right out of his mouth :lol: `........................ emhum........lol

 

[DrMike]

We have a surprising number of people that shoot elk at 600 yards--OFFHAND! :shock: Course, the few times I've been able to measure the distance, it was considerably less, and when these nimrods are shooting at the range, I notice they generate a lot of six-inch patterns. BlkRam says they are measuring 600 Newfie meters, which is equal to somewhere near 125 yards or so. :lol:

 

[35 Whelen]

Lol!!! Mike you have that nailed, when I ask hunters how far
Something is it amazes me how few can estimate distances even to within 100 yards of accurately knowing
True distance! I just watched a YouTube movie of some dude shooting an elk in Colorado at some distance like maybe 300 yds, the caption reads Elk taken at 923, or some
Garbage like that, anyway the guide says take him and after
The normal 30 sec delay, the dude fires and just Nick's this Elk right across the top of the a*s, he came within 1/2" of a clean miss and hit nearly four feet back of where he was aiming! The Elk then bolts runs straight away from them hard, the guide is now screaming, shoot, shoot him again.
At this point he has no chance of ever hitting the Elk again.
He fires a shot and you see the vapor trail go right to the back of his HEAD!!!!! The guide then discribed the hunt as this, well he hit it a little far back the first shot, but made a great follow up shot
.... The dude is standing there as proud as punch of his Elk....OMG.

 

[diverdown]

Doc, your comments reminded me of some of the people I see at our public range just before hunting season. One gentleman who was sitting to my left was shooting a Savage Bolt action, probably a 110 of some sort in 30.06. The range officer called a target check and both of us went out to our targets. this gentleman had roughly a 12 inch group at 100 yards. I was going to ask him if he wanted some help with his rifle but before I could say anything he told me that his rifle was sighted in for 500 yards and this was a typical 100 yard group. He did say that the rifle settled down after a "couple of hundred yards". We got back to our benches and with his permission I handled his rifle and found the barrel literally hot enough to fry eggs on and this was after checking our targets. I mentioned that he should let the barrel cool down and he did "for two shots". He then commenced to empty a box of ammo as fast as possible. I guess he made a considerable number of 500 yard successful shots at game.

 

[1100 Remington Man]

What drives me crazy I see people pulling out range finders and looking like its a long shot wasting time when its a short shot of like 250 yards. My Brother !
I am a big fan of Bob Hagel & Jack O'Connor and both suggested sighting in 3 inches high at 100 yds. Which buy the way when I sight in my .264 Win Mag with 120gr Nosler BT is 3 inches high at 100 yards and dead on at 300 and it just a point and shoot rifle to just over 380 yards which by the way I have never shot a deer beyond 380 yards, Antelope yes but Deer No. I have a range finder a Lecia 1600 but very rarely do I have to pull it out Deer hunting mostly on a Deer stand then just to get a range card of object around me.
I see Deer Cartridges as buy the flatest shooting ones and sight in 3 inches high at 100 yards.
6mm Rem
25-06 Rem.
.257 Weatherby Mag.
.264 Win Mag
.270 Win or Weatherby Mag.
7mm Rem Mag or Weatherby
I see no reason going bigger as Dead is Dead. Some on the list above are for Reloaders only. If my .264 win Mag was stolen, I would buy one from the above list for my Western Deer Rifle.

 

[35 Whelen]

Rem Man,
You have that spot on! If I lived out west and was buying a rifle that you could really wring out a long poke, I think I would just order a brand new Remington 700 Sendero in .264 , so I could shoot those incredible 6.5 bullets with their amazing BCs and out to 750yds that thing would "getter done"
A guy could just rebarrel to a 6.5 /06 but to be able to just buy the gun and be done knowing it would shoot under MOA right outta the box and have those ballistics , that gun really is a no brainer.......... what a nice outfit that would make anyone. Get a scope with a custom dail and if you knew the range it would really not be fair as what ever you was shooting at would be history.

 

[shoots_5]

I think the 260 Rem and similar sized 6.5's are tough to beat :lol: like the 270 Win as well

Yup! I'd be comfortable hunting just about anything in North America with my 260!


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[Teknys]

This was an interesting read !!
Me, I've taken deer with - 22-250, 243W, 260Rem, 264Win Mag, 270W & WSM,7mm Rem Mag,30-06, 300WSM, 338Federal, 338 Win mag, 35 Rem .50 cal and .54 cal Muzzloaders. I like tinkering with different guns / bullets / cartridges.

This year my "BEST" is my new 6.5-284.

The "Right bullet in the right place" pretty much sums it up for me. I've seen enough deer and elk shot at with most cartridges and a good shot puts them down and a bad shot does not. Obviously if you are going after bigger game with bigger bones and only going to get that one chance then use a better built and bigger bullet.

OP question was for Deer. I have to admit the 338 Federal just smacked those deer when hit with it. The big frontal at the modest speeds just put the smack down on those deer.