I have no doiubt the 7.62 will kill a deer , but myself , I would just as soon use a 30/30 with a good 170 gr load . Or if you prefer to stick with a bolt gun , there are scads of better cartridges chambered in short actions ........

Pecos, that's a terrible thing to say, "7.62x39 for deer hunting"

I have been lamenting for several months about getting a CZ527 Carbine in 7.62x39 and everytime I convince myself I don't need it, someone like you destroys all my logic against it.

Kinda like an alcholic falling off the wagon.

SD - Your point is well taken, but the issue here is not about what is the BEST deer cartridge. In fact, a rifle I've had tremendous success hunting whitetail with is a Marlin 357 mag! Hardly anyone's choice as the ideal deer caliber. But 8 out of 9 deer never took a step and the 9th only managed about 15 yds. It don't get much better than that.

A serious hunter knows his weapon, its limitations AND his own abilities as well. And then he hunts within this envelope. But we both know that.

Anyway, that is how I would approach hunting with the 7.62X39, i.e. just about like I would with a 30/30.

And then it suddenly struck me last night that one of my FEW claims to fame was in designing my own wildcat many years ago. Guess what it was.

It was a 7.62X38. Yes, 38mm. In reality it was the 300 Savage case shorted to 1.5". And about as close as a person could get to this Russian cartridge. I suspect case capacities are identical.

Funny how I've come full circle in my life.

What I can tell you about my little wildcat...which I sold long ago...was that as fate would have it, I killed the largest mule deer of my life with it.

One shot thru the chest. 125 gr SP. Bullet went clear thru both sides. Deer ran a dozen yards and hit the dirt dead.

I think with the trend for ever bigger and more powerful and faster cartridges that all of us seem obsessed with, we (all of us) tend to forget what it REALLY TAKES TO KILL SOMETHING.

The answer is there's no big magic to it...just hit them where they should be hit and they are yours. Each of us could kill a deer throwing a rock if we threw it just right.

Having more and more gun is kinda like having more and more money in the bank. The guy who has 5$ in his pocket has to be a lot more careful where and how he spends his cash than the guy with $50 in the bank, if you'll pardon my corny analogy.

Both guys can get what they want. One just has to be sure the item he picks is really it.

Same with the big guns. The bigger the gun, the further you can shoot and it might make up somewhat for a poor hit. Maybe.

But Mac and I would both just accept the limitations of such a smallish cartridge going in and hunt accordingly. I don't think I would ever take a shot where there was a chance of losing the game. To me, that isn't a handicap. It adds a whole new fun diminsion to the hunting really. Suddenly I'm not just a shooter...but I have to actually HUNT and maneuver for the set-up I want. That's fun to me.

As my daddy always told me, "The hunt's over when you pull the trigger."

The 7.62x39 will kill just fine if I understand and do MY PART.

And I now realize and remember from my wildcat what a FUN cartridge my little 7.62 was. Recoil was a joke. Shooting targets was FUN. Hunting was fun. Carrying the little rifle was FUN. I couldn't reach across a canyon and touch someone but I could sure walk around the rim and get to them.

I think I'm getting REALLY psyched about it. Only fear now is sneaking it in past the watchful eye of my adult unit. (Wife) This is going to take some nerve and stealth.