Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Best caliber for hunting long range whitetails .

I believe the question was what to use for whitetail at 500-600 yards?

Maybe a new thread asking why a Magnum works best for whitetail deer would be more appropriate?

Use whatever you want Bob nobody is trying to force you into anything 😕






Shod

My 270 Weatherby magnum usually has time to cool down while I am walking to my dead critter.

I have two whitetail tags.
Two of the rifles I am building almost made it to the range today to test fire.


15 pounds of 7mmRM.. still looking for a 56mm lens cover.



8 pounds of 6mmBR gear

23 lbs of whitetail rig. Might get it done.

This is also my opinion. When I was a fairly young hunter, we were hunting Brewster County in West Texas, very open country near Big Bend park, my hunting partner knocked over a rather small mule deer at 600+ yards.

I went with him to retrieve the deer and noted the 140 grainer from a .264 mag did not exit from a broadside hit. This would be unacceptable in a right of way cut through heavy vegetation. [So]I decided I would use heavier bullets when long range opportunities existed. 160 for 7 mag, 165 for .30 because I wanted an exist with some blood.

I know that better small caliber light weight bullets have been created, but I havn't came around to using them at long range.

Shod thanks I get that part.

It's the never ending (ad nauseous) assertions constantly floating around on here that if it recoils more than a 7/08 no on can shoot and hunt effectively with it.

I understand the deer thing. I don't distinguish between deer and elk and antelope and moose etc etc. To me they all fall under the category of "Big Game" and any rifle I hunt with will kill them all or I won't own it.

So I'm not bothered with these senseless (to me) subcategories of cartridges intended to be "perfect" for 90-130 pound deer in the next zip code; and then something else for "bigger deer" and "longer distances".....it's silly talk for rifle nut bags.

+1

What the magic of 425 yards and what happens at 426 yards? And is it 425 yards with a 30-30 and with a 30-378?











How does "kinetic energy" kill?

In the mind of some.

A 270 Weatherby Mag with 150 gr AB's at 3200 f.p.s.

264 Win mag

For long range with plenty of power an a stabilized bullett a 264 win mag out weighs almost everything.

I always prefer a stabilized bullet sometimes.

Well, read it all...thinking there would be some consensus...:)

I imagine putting the right bullet in the right spot is the most important correlation to killing deer quickly at 500-600 yards, and the caliber used right near the bottom of the determinants.

One thing is for certain: Jordan, you are a hell of a shot.

A 4 year old thread. Well why not anyway.

Looking at and comparing all the downrange #s from 100 yards out to say 700-800 yards (using ABLR bullets posted on the ballistics charts on the Nosler site under ammunition for various cartridges) in terms of retained velocity, energy, flatter trajectories, not to mention reduced wind drifts, I gotta go with a 6.5mm as a first choice caliber for long range whitetail hunting.

Cartridge?.......I'll take the 26 Nosler over any other 6.5mm round; including the 264 Win, the Creed, the 6.5/284 to name only three in the 6.5mm dept.

I'll also take the 26 Nosler over the 270 Win, 270 Wby, 270 WSM, 7mm WSM, 280 Rem, 7mm Rem Mag, and the 7mm Wby.

Even though it runs a close 2nd place behind the 6.5/300 Wby, the 26 Nosler nevertheless is my next cartridge chambered in my next rifle,,,a Browning.

I like the 7mm Mag., but getting old and my old Rem. 700 is heavy and I do not like the recoil. Never been really happy with the 700 anyway. I went to 7mm-08. The 7mms are hard to beat at any distance.