My brother has a health problem and can only shoot a low recoiling rifle. Where he hunts he says there is small white tail deer and the range is 75 to 100 yards. What caliber would you recommend? Thanks. Chuck

If he is careful with his shots either the .223 or 22-250 will do the trick properly handloaded.

If he wants a bit more the .243 Win has been killing deer for a very long time with very low recoil.

The low recoiling guns I've taken deer with are:

1. A 222 Remington with one shot between 80 and 100 yds.

2. A 22-250 Remington. One of the deer I took with this one with a single shot was at a GPS measured 360 yards (a bang flop with with the bullet going in one lung and out the other). This cartridge is quite a bit more powerful than the 222 Remington but I still consider it to have very low recoil.

Guns like the 243 Winchester, 7mm/08 Remington, 6mm Remington, etc. have more power and recoil but I wouldn't consider them heavy recoilers. The addition of a muzzel brake to one of them would probably bring the recoil down to the level of an unbraked 22/250. There are many more that are of similar recoil and suitable for deer.

I would suggest the .243 or the .257 Robests.

Recoil Table.

The 6.5x55 is nice to shoot, my kids have been using one since they were around 10yo.

make sure you get a decent recoil pad on it too! and dont get a rifle too light.

243 Win, 6mm Rem, 250 Sav any of these should work well for the mentioned purpose.

From 75 to 100 yards a CZ 527 in 7.62x39 would do very nicely.

http://www.cz-usa.com/product_detail.php?id=15

The 22/250 loaded with the 52gr Barnes Triple Shock or 55gr Bonded Bear Claw bullet is a deer killing machine.

how bout a vote for a 30-30 and I have whacked my share with a 243 as well

gabe

When I was growing up in West Texas I used my Grandads model 94 in 30/30 and it hurt me more than my 375 does today. The 243 has very low recoil energy in my experience

True that, the lever 30-30s can be a little rough, most of my 30-30 shooting has been with an old savage 340 bolt gun and recoil with it has never seemed that bad, however recoil is sort of a relative thing too.

One year I had a injury and had to do the same thing. What I ended up with was a TC contender carbine and a 7mm TCU 21 inch barrel. When loaded up with 120-130gr bullets like the great hornady 120gr handgun bullet or the nosler 120gr BT it works better than it should. With this rig you can see the hit on deer through the scope very mild. I now have the carbine a 10 inch gun set up and a 14 inch gun all set up for hunting or plinking. All have taken deer, and never was a second shot needed, or was the trail long, it just works.

There are bunch of obvious choices, but from personal experience: Remington's Managed Recoil ammunition make a 30'06 kick about like a 243. My son used a 243 with a 100 gr Partition loaded to only 2750 fps to take two nice whitetails during his first season last year. A 223 loaded with a 64 gr Winchester Powerpoint does the trick too. Took a whitetail with a single .429 SWC @ 875 fps a couple seasons back; I was using a pistol but a carbine loaded that light would scarcely kick at all.

When a muzzle break is thrown in the mix, you expand the possibilities.

Premium bullets also make what used to be too small calibers useful on deer. Partitions and Barnes TSX in 22 cal is effective at moderate ranges.

This year my young girls will be shooting my Rock River Arms AR-15 with a muzzle break. The recoil is about on par with a 22LR. It shoots both Barnes TSX and Partitions under an inch. The collapsable stock makes stock fit a non-issue.

Aaron

My buddy's got a pacemaker and had a bypass but he still likes to hunt so he's got a Rem M7 in 7mm08 with a recoil reducer and a muzzle brake. He loves it.

Rich

The 22-250 shooting those 70gr bullets doesn't kick much.