Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting "Deer Rifles"

Like most here, I'm a certified rifle nut. At last count, I've killed deer with 45 different cartridges ranging from the .221 Fireball to the .404 Jeffery. I get more of a kick out of what I kill it with than what I kill, "Score" means absolutely nothing to me. Whenever someone tells me of a game kill, my first question is always "What did you shoot it with?" It matters to me. I've been in the gun business for over 21 years and currently have customers that have killed deer with everything from .17 HMR to .50 BMG (two extremes that I will not dabble in). Yesterday was our deer opener and business was rather brisk around the shop. Two notable interactions caused me to take notice. One old guy came in to zero his "deer rifle", a Henry Big Boy .44 Mag. Now I have no issues with a .44 Mag on deer, but the load he was shooting and intending to hunt with was Hornady Critical Defense .44 SPECIAL with the 165 gr FTX at an advertised 900 fps (handgun). I'm sure it will work at close range with good placement but I doubt there'll be much penetration with that lightweight fragile slug. I'm sure a Buffalo Bore .44 Spl, especially with a heavy hard cast, would perform admirably, but I'd be leery of that Critical Defense.

Later in the day, I got a call asking if we had any .338 Lapua ammo. When I told him we did, he asked if it was soft point or hollowpoint. I told him it was Hornady BTHP Match and he was seeking soft points because "Those damn hollow points blow up too much meat on deer." I just laughed and said "My God man, you're hunting deer with a round that was designed for killing bad guys at over half a mile, what do you expect?"

Those were two fitting extremes in one day of what people hunt deer with. I once knew an old man who hunted with an old Mossberg .410 bolt action shooting slugs that he had side mounted a scope on and he killed deer every year. Another used a Marlin Camp Carbine 9mm shooting a 95 gr soft point that Winchester used to load. He too killed deer but I doubt either one ever shot past 50 yards.

Great story; I also like using different stuff. Up this year first will be a '57 Marlin 336SC (.30-30) with an old Lyman 3X. Classic, but still relevant.
Bob

Deer rifle is such a relative term, and means different things to different people. As stated it could be anything one can imagine. I've seen guys carrying everything from the latest greatest bolt guns to 100 year old levers. I alway like seeing the old guns coming out of the cabinet for another deer season. "Tired iron" as my day used to say.

When I was a kid, "deer rifle" meant the 742 30-06 that all of my family used. Today it means I flip a coin or the spot I'm going to hunt decides which one it is!

I'm about finished up with a fast twist 32 cal underhammer muzzleloader.

I hope to take a deer with it using a maxi ball this year.

I have lost count of the guns I have bought, killed deer with, and subsequently sold.

Hmm.... lets see 2 ends of the spectrum.

Killed with 50 bmg. Not impressive at all, 50 cal in ,50 cal out, no damage to speak of, deer went likely 200 yards...

Killed with among other small things, 32-20, old lever gun, so don't run things fast, 90 XTP, frangible HP bullet, has taken probably 4-5 deer and a javelina. None made it more than about 40 yards or so. Pass thrus on all with the 32-20.

I'm at he stage of my life where experimentation is pretty much over. I know that I'm sick but I don't even go into shops all that often anymore. Find myself caring less and less each year about new and more and more about how I hunt and where. Maine is a one deer state and the average shot is maybe around 50 yards, so I'm not taxing any firearm that I use. I tend to pick up my Sako, stuff it with Federal Blue Box, and go. When I'm fortunate to draw a moose tag, I stuff the same rifle with Nosler Partitions and go forth.

I have many decisions to make in November. Picking a "deer rifle" thankfully isn't one of them.

JDK,

I agree with the 'how and where' mattering more nowadays. That still doesn't keep me from tinkering with the potential rifle choices for each hunt.
This year, the .257 Weatherby will most likely get the nod once again, for mule deer and certainly for hayfield whitetails on my farm- but my .280 Rem. is beckoning, and the custom Ruger #1 .280 RCBS may actually get carried, if the weather is nice in early November. I hate to get that pretty wood messed up!

I haven't had it long enough to be a deer gun yet, but it is certain death on rabbits. That will change this fall...

Deer don't take a whole lot of killing. Good bullets at responsible ranges placed where they need to be placed equals venison in a dizzying variety of platforms.

Long barrel on that one. 28"? .40/Whatever?

.40-82?

I'm thinking about the .25-20 Marlin (loaded warm)

or a 7mm BR in the XP-100R

Yup a 40-72 with a 26 inch tapered barrel...

When I was young the rifle choices were 250-3000, 257Robts, and 7x57. They haven't changed after all these years but I do have a new 338Federal that's tugging at my boot strings. powdr

That there is probably all most of us really need.

Nice.

That sounds about right for a gun nut who happens to hunt.

My "deer rifle" this year isn't one. I'll be using my Mossberg 9200 12ga. My 8yo will be using a 357 Mag Handi-Rifle I bought for him from a fellow campfire member. In a way, I hope I don't have to shoot one this year. It wouldn't hurt my feelers at all if he was able to put 2-4 deer in the freezer for us.

Looks familiar

Like many guys here, deer hunting for me these days is as much what I am hunting with as what I am hunting!
I enjoy hunting with my 6.5X55 express rifle
but the end all and be all of all the Rugers I have owned has been sitting in my vault for quite a few years now and has been hunted every year since he finished it- the one that was done up for me by Bill leeper .
Cat

Can't argue with that. I bought one in January, and plan to exercise it this fall.