Well, I've only taken about 70 or so Saskatchewan deer, but I would feel fully confident with a .243, or .250 Savage or .257 Roberts with good bullets. I usually have used something bigger because a lot of our hunting overlaps with moose, elk and bear seasons. I do not know one single local hunter who chooses a 300 magnum for whitetails, although a few do shoot 7mm Remington mags. Far more common are .270's, .308's, 30-06, 7mm-08, etc. etc.
A 25-06 is about ideal for open country whitetails in my opinion. Choosing a 300 magnum for any deer-only hunt seems kinda silly to me, besides being a little disrespectful to all that good venison. But if a visiting hunter wants to use a 300 mag and can shoot it well, they kill deer very effectively, that's for sure.
I'm with you on this one. It always puzzles me how the guy who has hunted here once or twice, or even once every 5 or 10 years, seems to know what it takes to kill our deer (AB, SK, etc) better than the guy who lives here and kills 2-3+ deer here every year, some of them real whoppers.
Jordan I agree with you and castn'blast.....but I don't think any one is trying to tell you guys what works, or feels that 243's and 25's don't kill them fine....but you have to consider the mindset of a lot of traveling hunters.
Mostly, they are generally not hand loaders, not rifle "nuts", use factory ammo, don't tinker with rifles much,and if they shoot 300-500 rounds a year, that's a lot. They are disinclined to use smaller cartridges with premium bullets, and "understand" cartridge power but the nuances of good bullets are sometimes a bit vague for a lot of them.
They have one or two "traveling" rifles because in addition to deer in your country in November, they were likely in Montana, Wyoming, or Colorado in October for mule deer and elk or somewhere else.
When it come to rifles, they are grand generalists, and right or wrong, believe that 7mm and 300 mags of some sort provide them with an "edge" for longer shots and bigger deer. Besides, they don't want to register or fly with a whole bunch of different rifles and tend to rely on a one or two proven combo's whenever they get on a plane to hunt. Generally, they don't want to deal with lot of different rifles and tend to bring something they can use on "everything"....whatever that is..
This gets reinforced in many camps up there, and by many outfitters....I have shot more Canadian deer with a 270 than anything else, and about every camp I show up in with one, it's the smallest caliber in use among all the paying hunters....one Manitoba bush rat(a good guy, and our outfitter)said he uses a 300 magnum as his only rifle because..."Hey it works on everything up here, eh?"
He and another from Saskatchewan both felt the 270 I used was on the small side.
After I killed two Sask 10 point bucks with mine, I reminded him about his 270 crack......he just smiled and acknowledged it worked.....So much for ballistic discussions. They just don't occur very much.
Seems you bring a 270 to a Canadian deer camp, you get the same treatment you get on here when you admit you use one....
North of you, in Peace River, at the camp I go to, you NEVER see a hunter show up with a 270 or 30/06 (except me
) The majority of rifles among paying hunters are chambered for a 7mm or 300 magnum of some sort.
You guys lucky enough to live up there, who do not travel far to hunt, are used to seeing the game, know the country and what to expect,can have access to moose, bear, elk, whitetail and mule deer all within a days drive, and get to hunt multiple species every year without the income of a heroin dealer
look at things differently than the poor slob who has to fight through the airports every year to go somewhere "good" to hunt and part with the mid 4 figures($) for the privilege of (hopefully)killing a Canadian giant.....he might shoot more deer at home than you guys do up there, but likely not as big, unless he lives in areas down here known for big bodied deer.(like in Maine...I have yet to kill a Central Canadian whitetail deer as big through the body as my biggest from Maine).
More often than not, our traveling guy is not going to kill what he came for.....but right or wrong he feels that some extra horse power is going to do him "good", and we may not agree but that's a conclusion we all come to only after a few years of killing those animals.
Personally I am not going to carry a 6mm or a 25 caliber to Canada simply because I have already killed enough animals with a Roberts and 25/06 to get a handle on their capabilities. I am not curious about them any more, and already know what they will do.
