Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Your go to deer rifle?

If I ever decide to hunt whitetails again, the go to rifle will probably be the little .40 calibre flintlock Jäger style rifle I am currently attempting to assemble.

For my hunting I can get by fine with this 7600 270

Winchester M 70 Featherweight .270 Win and 130 gr Nosler Partitions.

I have five big game rifles. Three are full custom bolt actions. But my "go to" rifle is a Springfield Armory M1A Squad Scout with a 1.5-4X VX2 Scout Scope.
That's because of the special conditions I face in my choice of deer hunts.
All of the bucks I've wanted to kill lately were all running shots. They duck and dodge in cover making precise placement of the first one very difficult. So a quick, follow up aimed shot is a huge asset.
I also need a rifle that will function after days of accumulating the fine dust that gets into everything after days of hunting fresh tracks from my jeep. This is the best I've been able to come up with.
She's a little heavier than I like, but, so far, it is working out well. E

Remington 700 LVSF barreled action bedded into a McMillan 700 Classic stock, Leupold M8 6x42, 150 grain Ballistic Tips on top of H4895.

Calibre?

Do you stick out your pinkie as you type that?

Why, pray tell, did you stop hunting whitetails?

Well, I gave one .270 to my son-in-law who wanted to start deer hunting, and I gave the other one to my only nephew (who only hunts deer) because I wanted him to have a nice rifle. So, it's going to be the .257 AI, just as soon as we deal with the damage that it suffered as we were somersaulting down a steep scree slope on the December Coues whitetail hunt. Unfortunately the rifle and scope didn't fare quiet as well as I did.

A "before" picture:

For anywhere/anytime, this .308 with 150 BT's over Varget (actually any load I've tried in it has been good). Ain't real pretty, looks like a plain Jane off the rack at Walmart rifle. Stainless M7 action, stainless #2 barrel at 22", cerakoted black, black Edge fill McMill, DNZ mounts, 6x42 scope. It's a plain Jane killer.

We can't use rifles here, so it's my Encore 12ga slug barrel with Nikon Slughunter 3-9x40 5" eye relief.



I shoot a Breneke Magnum Crush 3", 1 1/2 oz. at 1500 fps. It's a real ass kicker out of the Encore.



It's pretty accurate too.



Knock'em down and drag'em out.

Sako AII, 308 Winchester, Leupold VariX-II 2x7

Ruger m77 tang safety .257 Roberts, 3x9 Leupold, 115 grain ballistic tips.

My Rem 760 30-06 with a Vari-X III 2.5x8 with the post & duplex reticle. 56gr of H4350 and 165gr Hornady flat base bullets.

probably my hawkeye RSI .250 salvage. 87 g hot cores fueled by h4895.

I have settled into a CLR/NULA in 7x57 for my deer hunting.

It is lightweight and easy handling, not to mention extremely accurate with 120 gr Barnes TTSX. I've also shot 140 gr TTSX and 160 gr Nosler Accubonds out of this rifle with good results.

It wears a 3-9x40 Zeiss Diavari with a simple duplex retical. I have no excuse, nor desire, to shoot further than 300 yards, and more often than not, it is closer to 100 yards.

It's definitely a keeper.

donsm70

Don't have a go to deer rifle. Depending on the conditions and the hunt I will take 1 of 3.

Gave what could be considered the go to rifle to my boy.

I have a safe full of good candidates but for most of my open land hunts I find my Rem 700 in 257 WBY gets the call most often as I just have utter faith it it's abilities. For hunting timber where the chance of stretching out a shot isn't as common more often then not it's my Kimber Montana 300 WSM due to weight and maneuverability. My grandpas old 742 '06 still goes for a few hunts each year as my way of remembering him.

Like I said 10-12 other options in what I consider good "deer" rounds from .243-7 RM that I use occasionally as well. Have bigger and smaller calibers as well but those 2 do most do the work.

I just got a new wildcat short action magnum that if I am currently working up loads as a "do-all" that will likely see a lot of hunts this year to see wtf it does.

Ok mallard, only o n e:) captdavid

I have 30 or so deer rifles, if I absolutely had to pick one, it would be a Kleinguenther 7 Rem mag. I usually take the one that hollers the loudest when I open the safes.

This is my latest favorite for an open country walk around rifle.


Kimber 270 MT loaded with 140 Accubonds.

I don't have one. I grab whatever makes my socks go up and down at the time