I shoot a .358 winchester for most of my deer hunting.

Weagle

I never settle on one caliber only for deer.I reload so i like to test my loads with different calibers on whitetail and see how they perform.Last year i used my marlin 1894 44mag and 300gr XTP bullets.The 44 worked great!

My pre-64 375 H&H is my all time favorite deer rifle since I have lived in Colorado. Used it a bit in New Mexico also....never failed to put one down.

I'm not really wild about .224's on deer, but anything from there to whatever you can tote will do the job. For obvious reasons of vascillation on the subject I cannot vote with clear conscious. Used them all more or less, .224"- well, I guess 2.75" FFAR's are a bit over the top, but you use what you have handy.

For the record, if picking one cartridge for NA hunting it would probably be in the .30 cal range, but that encompasses a lot of shooting at things other than deer. They're not that hard to kill and they don't bite.

I grew up hunting fat, grain-fed farm bucks(and does)in ND. These are not little Texas deer or AZ Coues deer. A mature buck can go over 250 lbs and have 2" inches of fat under the hide. A smaller caliber (smaller diameter hole) may put a hole in the deer that the fat could and does close it up. So... maybe not much of a blood trail. I started with a 30-30. If I hit em, We found them - always worked. My last trip back, I used a 375 H&H - found that one too. Had to trail it 5 yards.

The caliber of the rifle doesnt matter as much as the caliber of the marksman.

I too like the 6.5's though.

Heck, that's a loaded question.

Lately, my favorite deer rifle is a 7mm-08. Not because the round is "better", but because I really like the rifle that it's in.

I don't necessarily look to the caliber first, I tend to choose based more on the package that it's part of.

FWIW, I've shot whitetail with everything from a 222 Rem Mag up to a 12 gauge slug (73 caliber).

I guess I'm "happiest" with the mid-sized, short action rounds (i.e. 243, 7mm-08, 308).

Much less & it's getting to be a tricky game, much more just doesn't seem necessary.

Aside from the mark being more inportant than caliber, there's a big difference in cartridges of same caliber. I wouldn't bother with a 300 RUM, but a 308 would be among perfectly reasonable choices. I'd say anything from .264" to .358 on a 308W case or thereabouts would be just great. The 270/280/'06 are great rounds, but I think a 140g 6.5mm going from 2800-3000 is about perfect. 6.5-06, 6.5 Rem, 6.5 Norma, 6.5x55, 260, etc. Same in .284" would work, too.

I've used a lot of different calibres on deer over the years but have pretty much settled on the 7mm-08 in a light, short barrelled carbine in recent years.

For deer I think 7 bores are ideal. My favorite deer rifle is my G33/40 in 7x57, followed by my 280. My other favorite caliber for deer is the 6.5x55. Any one of those three work well on deer. I prefer the 280 on more open mule deer country and the 7x57 for closer thicker country.

Nothing wrong with 30 cal either, shot a lot of deer with my 06, nothing to complain about there.

If I was hunting down in the southwest or where the deer are smaller I wouldn't have issue with a 257 Roberts either, and if I hunted more open country more regularly I could see me using that pretty regularly also.

I have a friend up in this thick country and his favorite deer rifle is a old marlin in 35 Remington, a whole lot of venison has been harvested with that rifle, I think he has only used 1 other rifle once in ten years when hunting deer.

Coldbore:
"Not because the round is "better", but because I really like the rifle that it's in."

I think you hit the nail on the head with that statement, to me me the rifle is more important than the caliber, I will take a good rifle in a medicore caliber anyday, over a great caliber in a bad rifle.

I have only shot 22 deer. Twenty in Alaska.

I used a 30/30 on my first a mulie in MT.
Another mulie in MT with a bow.

The rest were up here shot with:
1 bow
1 .44 mag pistol
1 9mm pistol
2 .41 mag pistol
1 454 casull pistol
4 22-250
7 300win mag
2 338win mag
1 223rem

This year I may use my 257 WBY and/or 240WBY. Or my 300 ultra if I draw a bear tag too.

F-250s work pretty well but today I watched a Tundra outclass Chevy, Dodge or Ford. Not even a mark on the front bumper.

www.ibrakeforanimals(sometimes).com

I also voted in the mid range. For serious deer hunting my cartridge choice is either the .300WM or .300HH . I like long bullets with a little weight for the buck of a life time that's quartering away at about 225yds.

For just meat hunting I like the .243 and I take my 30-30 out every now and then.

Most of my deer have fallen to the 243 or a 30'06 but I've also used the 223 and 45/70 in rifles; 357 magnum, 44 magnum, and 45 Colt in pistols; .530 and .600 roundballs from muzzleloaders; as well as Magnus-tipped cedars, Muzzy-tipped Eastons, and Beemans topped with Rocky Extremes. I've been thinking a Kimber 84 in 260 would be just about the perfect deer gun, if I was inclined to settle down...

The 27, 28, and 30 clibers are winning this pole almost 10-1 and is surprising to me as I expected the smaller calibers to be about equal to the traditional calibers. Further surprising is the number of votes for the larger calibers.....almost equal to the smaller ones.

Probably this shouldn't surprise me as there's a lot of fine cartridges in that range starting with the .270 winchester and the .30-06.

Is anyone else surprised?

quote:

It's interesting what folks use for hunting deer....meaning whitetails and mule deer.

When you mentioned mule deer I figured you wanted to know about long range potential also.

Otherwise I would have gone with the 358 Win.

One could hunt almost anything with a 6.5 but the recoil of the 308 is nominal to me and much of my hunting for deer finds that the bear season is open too.

Of course a 6.5 will take a black bear but I lean towards a "large humane wound" in my hunting.

I was talking with a guy yesterday who travels around doing crop damage shooting. When he is down South there seems to be opportunities to blast away at any range on deer. This guy is shooting three figures of deer a year and says that the landowners there just want them dead and don't care what happens.

He has been after me to help with the "crop damage" as I am still strong enough to drag them out. I don't know if I can take that blasting. To each his own.

I expected to see more for the smaller calibers with all the 243's, 25-06's etc.
I think this group on here though tends to lean more toward bigger bores.

I agree with Jarrod. I expected to see a little more percentage for the smaller bores.

.338Federal.

Hey where is all them 45/70 lovers at?

I have been going to my 6.8mm/08 the last few years.

I have a bunch of guns & have killed a big bunch of southern deer. Most years I hunt (45-60 days) with 4 guns.1. The big gun (swamp)rifle is always a m700ks in 35 Whelen, 2. The small rifle is either a 257 or 25'06 normally a custom on a m700 action with the rig weighing 7.25-7.75 pounds, 3. A big field field gun normally a 270 or 30'06 custom again built on a m700 action weighing 8-8.75# 4. A just for the hell rifle last year it was a contender carbine in 7-30. If I had to hunt with just 1 rifle it would probably be either a m700ks or carolina precision in 30'06 with a german 1' Zeiss 3x9. Both are 3/4" rifles and will do everything the above rifles do but I like to fool around with different stuff. I guess I have gone from a hunter to a shooter.

It really depends on where you live and hunt
and the range that you have to shoot.
most of my shots have been taken at 250-300 yards. I would like to have the opportunity to see what a .358 Win would do at 100 yards, but until then Ill stick with my .270 thru .308 diameter bullets.

257 Roberts, 100 gn Partition.

Vapo, it doesn't surprise me at all. The general path taken by deer hunters finds them equipped with a gun given or suggested by friends and family, thus their perceptions are moulded by well meaning relations during their introduction to the sport. It is a rare day when a person truly wise to the world of shooting influences such affairs.

Willing to bet the average nimrod has not heard of the 6.5x.284 or the long list of SSMs etc. That leaves a short list of tried and trues, the .30-30, .270, .308, the '06 and such. I'm not saying it is good or bad, just an observation. There is a lot of inertia in the shooting sports, and the faith is seldom deflected by facts one way or another. Think "knock down power", "Flat shooting", etc. etc. etc.

Where there such discussions amonst archers before the advent of gun powder?

I voted with the majority but having said that my favorite deer rifle is a 257 Roberts AI. For a new hunter/shooter(?)it is not practical to go to a wildcat. The listed choices cover the broadest spectrum of calibres for NA. IMHO!

I shoot a .270 or 7mm08 most of the time inside 300 yards. I could find the guns I wanted in those calibers. If I could have found exactly what I wanted, at a price I wanted to pay, when wanted to buy I'd be shooting a 6.5x55. I figure there rough equivalants with the .270 giving me a little more at range. Beyond 300 I use a 7mm Mag but a 25/06 would work as well.

I use a 7mm08.