Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting You can't kill a deer around here with THAT!

I bought a T/C Encore in 7mm-08 from a dealer in Great Falls when I was living there. The guy asked me what I wanted it for, and I told him to deer hunt with. He informed me that since I was a pretty big guy I at least needed a .300 WM, and a .338 would be better. He did all of his hunting with a .375 H&H. I told him the 7mm-08 would suffice and order it for me. When the gun game in, he called me and was still trying to get me to buy a .300 WM. I told him if the .243 will kill a moose (there were to ladies in the paper in GF that shot a moose with .243's), then the 7mm-08 would kill any muley I shot with it.

well......I've hit em with a 180 grain silver tip outta a .300 Savage and they laughed at me...I smoked em with a 12 ga. Copper Solid Remington Slug 3" and they thought it was a deer fly..but I did get one bang flop with my 1992 Chevy Blazer...that one was easy to track...good blood trail across my hood..down past the passenger door and 6 more feet to the shoulder of the road.. This was all done in N.W. Ionia County-Michigan.

shoot straight
Tom

You mean you actually shoot deer to kill them? How the heck can you kill them with those tiny little bullets? Here in NW Ohio the darned cloven hoofed rodents are impervious to autos. I totaled an Accord a couple of years ago when one the more oblivious to using the cross walk ones strolled in front of me. I was sure that I hit her in the boiler room just behind the shoulder, but I may have hit something solid by the looks of the car. Anyway it (car)blew up on contact and failed to penetrate. No blood trail, only a bit of hair and a wad of cud on a fragment of hood. Im sure it couldn't have been driver error, especially at that range. Hours of searching turned up no deer and even after watching the nearby field for a week there was no sign of the buzzards that live in the falling down barn half a mile up the road. Next season I'll try a Semi, as they seem to do a much better job of killing the ones that wander onto the interstate.

Bullets are a lot like women. Some men like Blonde's some like redheads some like Brunette's. Some guys like 'em fat, some skinny, some just right. It all depends on what you are going to do with them. Just like deer hunting. Farm Fields, Woods, Mountains, Desert's. Day or night. Baiting or not. Driving, treestanding or groundblinding. So with all these variables why not pick a caliber and a bullet out of a hat, try it out and if you have confidence in it, you are home free. Good analogy? I shot a 10 Point monster buck with a crossbow last year at 15 yards. The arrow went right through in almost precicely the spot I aimed. he bolted and ran. I sat for 2 hrs, before I went after him in heavy cover. I followed the blood trail for 2 miles to a creek. It ended there and I never found him. Maybe that's why deer hunting is so interestiong that you can't wait to do it. i hung the arrow over my fireplace instead of the Antlers. Oh, well.

When I took my .444 Marlin to deer camp in Central Louisiana, the members thought I crazy. EVERYBODY knows that cartridge doesn't have enough range. Of course, there's no stand on the lease where you have a shot over 100 yards.

It's obviously the fault of those "Quality Deer Management" people. All their efforts with feeding and selective management are the reason that some deer are now so large and smart that they have become immune to what used to be adequate cartridges.
Deer from areas where this is not practiced yet can still be killed with the smaller calibers. Really not hard to figure out. However, will not sell many books. Well maybe if they are only a couple pages.

Battue

no, it ain't QDM.

it's the no deer left behind program.

they're getting too stinkin' educated. i've seen tattered copies of cabela's catalogues and outdoor life in bedding areas, handloading manuals and ballistics tables to boot. they get enough education, they get armored hides. THAT's why .30-30s do not suffice any longer ...

I just got back from a Hill Country hunt in Moutain Home, Tx where the ranch owner's daughter knocked off a trophy whitetail and a 375 lb hog within 20 min of each other w/ a .223 Remington. His new gun of choice for pork is the .17 HMR, so if he is any indication we might be inclined to revise the saying to "everything but the rifles are bigger in Texas"!

To answer your question more directly, I was strongly advised against allowing my daughter to deer hunt w/ a .223 Remington when rifle shopping here in Michigan. They fall fine to the ole 30 WCF, 2 3/4" slugs in Southern LP, and even non-mag muzzle loaders, but the 223 Rem or 243 Win will raise eyebrows... seen it first hand!

I think this is rather funny, Its like saying humans now can take a bullet better then they could 40 yrs ago. Nonsense hit it where it counts and thats that. Animals anatomy has not chagned in such a way that it can now be resistant to bullets now that it couldnt 40 yrs ago. I do find humor in this though reading some comments. if you hit the animal and it didn't drop or you had no trail then the wounds were such that injury was not sufficent to make a blood trail. But is is impossible as I mentioned for animals to build resistance to bullets especially if you took a 100lb deer now and a 100lb deer 40 yrs ago. The only difference may be that like humans deer may breed larger now then 40 yrs ago but 100lbs is 100lbs so if their the same size the same injury would occur. therefore no resistance can be built up, sorry to burst a bubble.

I know a dude wrangler who works for a guide up in Dillon, Montana, who has a stack of elk horns (about 30) in his barn that would make your eyes pop. All were killed with an open-sighted Remington 600 in 243 Winchester with one shot behind the ear. Way to go Mr. Deems!

Wayne

Bullet placement is the grand daddy to all calibers!!!

I hunt in western NY.

3 years ago I was still using a Rem. Wingmaster 20 gauge because it was free and I never had a problem with not recovering a deer. Then I was walking out to my stand and had to cross a small ravine that was about 30' deep and maybe 45' across. The edge I was on was also the edge of the woods from a farm field so there was some thicker undergrowth and a line of larger trees that made up the hedgerow.

Well standing in the roadway that I typically entered from I happened to look to my left and saw two deer bedded down. A smaller doe and a mid sized buck (maybe 8 point), down in this ravine. So i took aim and shot the Buck where it was sitting.

I didn't care about the doe so much as I had already gotten a meat deer that year. So as I watch the buck kick a few times I get on the radio to my father to bring the tractor with the bucket it it so we can field dress it and bring it back tot house.

Then I start walking up the hedgerow to go down into the ravine perpendicular to were I shot the buck.

Well I heard some shuffling and didn't think much of it, but as I came around a giant beach tree all I see is the white flag waving at me as the Buck is running away.

I look back to where I shot the thing, and there is blood and fur all over. So I think its got maybe a 100 yards on it and just wait for my father to get there.

Being just two sets of tracks leading away from where they bedded down and one set obviously being the doe, we set out tracking this thing. After a mile, my father calls it quits. He's up there in years and his property is covered with knolls and ravines and this buck went through just about every one of them.

I pressed on another mile or so, but never did find that thing. I have since switched to an 870 Express with a fully rifled barrel, and I haven't had another episode like that since.

When living in South Texas south of Beeville on the Nueces R, I witnessed a bullet 22-250 that penetrated only 1/2" of the shoulder. The ranchers son, on the other hand, was fond of using a 22 Hornet. I suspect the effectiveness of his Hornet was due to the lower velocity which did not cause the bullet to expand rapidly on impact, allowing it to enter the chest and expend all for its deathly energy. I never saw an exit, lending credence that one would want to bullet to stay inside for maximum energy transfer.

After reading an article by John Wooters, I chose the 7mm Express for my first deer rifle. Little did I know that the 280 is basically a 270 improved and would not work on South Texas spikes. It set up such a sonic wave that this layer of compressed air would cause the bullet to veer away as it approached the deer. I had first hand experience of having Ballistic Tips veer to the side and simply graze the neck, or be pushed downward as it approached the chest only to inflict only a wound in the leg. Thus, I traded that rifle on a faster 7Mag whose bullets would pass the sound waves and hit the deer where aimed. I did later move from south Texas to Arizona where the whitetail are not near as tough, as many later fell to a 270.

When I returned to hunt near Mathis, TX a few years later, I had a 300 mag in hand, which was much more suitable for the deer south of Beeville.

Doug~RR

Doug~RR

Remember a Time @ My Hunting Camp when a Young Hunter came for a visit. Said He was Hunting around Saratoga NY, in the Morning, Shot @ a Forkhorn, Running across a Field. Said that The Deer had out run the Bullet. He was using a 270 Win.. I told Him that I know that Saratoga has some pretty good Thorough Breds running @ The Flat Track, But They really ought to be Breeding that Bloodline of Whitetails, if They are that Fast.

will non premium bullets still kill a deer? Can you kill a deer with a 270 winchester shooting a 140 grain Hornady SST over 60 grains of RL22?

60 grs. of RL 22, @ a Short Range,Heavy Atmosphere,Low Cloud Cover, The Expanding Gases should do the Job, May not need the Copper & Lead. Might even Skin it for Yah, Too!