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

1895 Marlin 45-70, Williams peep with red fiber optic front.Go to for everything close. Should see what it does to pigs. To rough to post pictures but still works, oiled it the other day to stop the squeaking. Poured the rain water out of it a time or two. 400 Speers when I can get them, otherwise them new red tip Hornady pointy boolits. 405 hard cast with a whole lot of gunpowder in the off season. Kicks a bit but tears up 4x4 chunks into splinters at 100.

Now THAT is an awesome buck. It has the 2 things I like, mass and character. I wouldn't give a hoot how it scored, even though I suspect it scored quite well, it is just a beautiful deer and a great rack. Congratulations!

Mine is a Remington 700 Classic in 300 Savage. I have shot the vast majority of my deer with it since it came into my hands the year it came out. I am shooting 150 gr Sierra Pro-Hunters over 41 grs of Varget at the moment

Before that it was a cut down Mauser K98 tossed in a cheap plastic stock of some sort. It mow is loaded with 150 gr Hornady spitzers over a minimum charge of Varget. It is the "go to" gun for the grandkids as a starter deer gun.

Close behind is a Savage 16 in 7mm/08 only because it is in stainless and synthetic for bad weather use. It is currently sighted in for Speer 156 gr round nose bullets over Reloader 15 due to it having been used for black bear over bait last fall.

Could you elaborate on this bullet, please. I don't see any round nose 7mm bullets, or any 156gr 7mm bullets on Speer's website. thanks

FWIW My perennial go to "Deer Rifle" for the last 45-50 years has been a 270 of some sort. I've jhad more than a dozen 270's, and there are a pair of 'em right now waiting on my lazy arse to finish scopeing 'em up and shooten'em in.

Right now I've got a BACO Ult Shadow in a BACO Sporter stock, & a Marlin SS XL7 I might decide to sell, thats still NIB.

The BACO 24" barreled Ult Shadow is wearing a Vortex 30mm Viper 4x16x44 in Warne Mediums but is the only gun in the rack that is ready to go to the range with several more waiting on me.
Ron

just a basic remington 700adl in 270.

Nice hog!

Heck of a buck, Pat. Congrats!

Agreed!

1958 M70 .270 fwt

I tend to try to not get stuck on one rifle....I've probably killed deer with 20+ different rifles in at least a dozen calibers. I've probably NOT killed more than that with more than that. LOL If I am stuck on one, it'd probably be a marlin in 356 or blr in 358.

Sorry for not getting back sooner.

The bullets referenced were in a box of "shooting stuff" I bought at a yard sale many, many years ago and the items in the box were at least a couple decades old back then. A well worn Lyman #42 manual was part of my haul but there was no info on the bullets in that source.

There was a full box and part of another which I eventually loaded up and have been using the last couple years. I have something short of 20 left so I will probably have to work up something new in a year or two.

Thanks. Kinda sad to see all the RN bullets going by the wayside.

Sad but true.....

Doc

I use a ,257 Weatherby Magnum and I always thought it strange that the Weatherby factory ammo (Norma) uses a 117 gr Rn Sp. in their load. Been doing it forever. Don't know if they have been doing it the last few years. If any round shouldn't be a round nose I would think a screamer like a 257 Wby would qualify.

This is the one I grab when theres no telling what's going to happen. M7 in 7 Saum with 120 gr ttsx's doing about 3300. Good ole 3x9x40 Zeiss with mildot on it.

Two reasons I have heard for using this bullet.

The first and most plausible to me is the early rifles in 257 were sometimes rechambered from 250 Savage which had too slow of twist for the heavier spitzer bullets. A round nose was short enough to stabilize at the velocities the 257 Weatherby is capable of. When later rifles became standardized with a faster twist, they could use the 120 gr spitzers but the round nose load was kept as there were a number of the slower twist guns out still there.

The other reason I heard was the 117 round nose shed velocity fast enough that the bullet did not come apart at moderate range or greater. I don't think this is as valid of a reason but it was probably an unintended consequence.

Weatherby's early .257's were made w/ 1-12 twists. He looked to the 100 gr to give him the speed he wanted.. I made a 1-12 to see if the speed an accuracy were better w/ that twist. Still have a new barrel.. need to put it an action someday soon.

Ken Waters wrote he believed round nose bullets were more accurate than spitzers due to jacket manufacturing capability back in the '20s through '50s. Drawing consistent spritzer points was hit and miss.
Anyway, there was quite a revolution starting in the '70s or '80s wherein most companies developed or purchased more consistent equipment and now manufacture far more accurate bullets than previous decades.
Or so Mr. Waters wrote several times in Pet Loads.