Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Chambering for low recoil deer round

Seems our options are greater than ever before. What's your preferred low recoil deer cartridge. Options that I am thinking of include the following

.223 with a good bullet for the application at hand.

7.62 x 39 " "

300 blackout " "

6 x 45 " "

6mm ARC " " my personal favorite

6.5Grendel " "

22 - 250 " "

350 legend

250 Savage, yeah I'm that guy.

LOL, yeah me too. Such an nice, mild mannered round.

Having said that, of those listed, 22-250 with a tight twist.

.223 with a good bullet for the application at hand.

g

In a full weight rifle like an M77 Hawkeye, the Hornady Custom Lite 30/06 with those 125gr SST’s has got to be a mild recoiling cartridge.

.243?
250-3000?

Of the above choices. 6ARC and 6.5G seem most appealing.

300 Blackout does the trick with basically zero recoil, and even out of a stubby 16" barrel it isn't particularly loud, either.

Make it three for the 250 Savage!

4, I've taken 3 kids to get their first deer with a Ruger RSI tang safety in 250. Recoil wasn't noticed

Ones that I have personal experience with:

.223 (where legal) using heavy for caliber bullets
6X45 works great with 70-90 grain bullets
7TCU This cartridge with 120 grain NBTs is an absolute killer
6.5TCU My experience here is only with a TC Contender, but it performed really well with a 120 grain BT
6.5 Grendel 4 Axis deer with my TC Encore has made a believer out of the owner of the ranch I hunt on. Not a single one went more than 15 yards.
.243 Win A timeless classic
6mm Rem Almost as good as the .243, just harder to find
6.8 SPC Paired with 110 grain Nosler ABs it is hard to find a better AR-15 based cartridge for whitetails and hogs.

My kids each had Ruger 77 in .257 Roberts once they graduated from the youth handi rifle in .243. Probably not the best choice unless you have a supply of brass/ammo these days. any of the above are solid choices in my opinion. We went with the Roberts because that's what mom had and a local gun store had a pair of them so I bought both. We now have 4 of them.

Shawn

a 6.5 Grendel (123 SST's) in an AR works great for a kid gun. Plenty of punch for Deer and pigs, and next to no recoil in that platform. You can collapse the stock all the way down and it fits the little ones well.








Both the deer and the pig were dropped DRT, never even took a step with the 6.5 Grendel.

Running a 300BLK with 100gr CEB Raptor FB's at a touch over 2300fps for this fall. Suppressed out of a Ruger American there is negligible recoil.

223 for sure.

243: easy choice
257 Roberts: nostalgic choice
25-06: top end
6mm Creed: probably the best of them all

In the days of $60/lb powder, the 6.5 Grendel and 6 ARC become even more appealing as work and play rifles. Haven’t used the 6 ARC for hunting yet, but can report the the Grendel does fine work on whitetails.

The 6.5x55 gets my vote. And it kills deer with aplomb.

.250-3000 Savage & .257 Roberts, two classics that are as effective today as when they were designed. My primary whitetail rifle this fall will be my .35 Whelen and my #2 a .257 Roberts.

Winchester m94 with Wiliams FP aperture sight
35/30-30 with 200gr RCBS FN GC under 2400/tuft of Dacron goes 1726fps

its recoil is nothing or next to nothing. i have killed 3 or 4 deer with it, every shot was behind the shoulder. the most furthest deer i shot was 53 yards, 20-30 yards is average. the deer doesn't run, it jogs about 15 - 20 yards, stands there looking around and then the deer will fall over.

sighting the 35/30-30 in at 100 yards (2 shots/bench)


you don't need speed, just put the bullet accurately and precisely on the deer. i prefer behind the shots, but i will take a shoulder shot if i have to.

the 35/30-30 is downloaded, but it almost goes up to the 35 Remington velocities. what the 35/30-30 can do better than the 35 Remington is the weight of the bullet, 250 up to 280gr bullet. on average the 35 Rem tops out at 250gr, but the 35/30 tops out at 280gr. i was going to get a new mold, 275gr WFN GC, but the 200gr RCBS FN GC is so accurate that is scary.

I’ve killed boxcars full of stuff with the 223. With proper bullets it’s a giant killer. Brass is cheap or free and 25gr of powder at a time is economical as it gets.

The 7TCU I built a long time ago is a cool one too. Negligible recoil and quiet for a centerfire even without a can. 120s at 2600 work great for deer and pigs. But it’s a bit more work and doesn’t seem to offer any advantage over the 223 and gives up trajectory for longer shots. I still use it because it’s a fun rifle but that’s the only reason.