Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Most iconic deer cartridge?

300 savage, my first rifle, all my grandfather ever carried and handed down to me by my father. Will always be a classic, all I ever needed and can’t say there has been a game animal yet the I have killed that wouldn’t have died just as well with the gun(with the exception of a few long range chucks).

MM

Mitchell -

It was a lotta years before I EVER heard of 300 Savage.
I knew of 250 Savage in the 70s. Much later to hear of the 300.

Don't get me wrong.....I appreciate and LIKE the round but it's behind the leaders in Iconism.

When you say “Iconic” all I can think of on this side of the pond is the 30-30. I would also agree with the post from our New Zealand friend that on that side of the pond I the British 303 would be the most Iconic. Funny thing is though, for me anyway, my very first deer was taken with a 303.

.30’US Army aka 30/40 Krag.

Mebbe not the most iconic, but iconic nonetheless

I think it is constantly shifting, albeit slowly.

The 30-30 had its day, then the 30-06 became the one. The gay cartridge was running second.

Today, there are so many choices, it's harder.
But it is still 30-06.

30-30 Winchester, then 30/06, then “The Gay One” AKA Liberace’s cartridge.

One of the guys in the camp next to us in Pa. carried a Krag for a long times, and made some very long shots with it. He was an old infantryman and just knew what that gun could do. He sat on a his spot on a gas line and had good crossings on both sides of him down in the bottoms. I drug one out for him one time that he shot with that Krag and his pet handloads. It was an honest 200 yard plus shot.

Here in NYS it would be the 30 30, the 30 06 and the 35 Remington.

Never owned a 30-30, but for years it was THE cartridge for whitetails. However, like others have said, the 30-06 has likely been responsible for more dead deer than anything else. I always preferred the 270 over anything else.

When I first stated hunting deer in the 1960's, there weren't many deer, deer hunters, or deer rifles around these parts. You saw more 30-30's than anything else, then military rifles, followed by shotguns with slugs. I was lucky, my father had traded for a Remington 760 in 30-06, and I considered myself to be armed better than just about anyone else. Of course, the fact that it kicked like a mule, and I flinched every time I pulled the trigger was another matter.

I've never owned or hunted a 30-30 and have zero desire to so.
That said, it'd get my vote and a distant second would likely be the 30.06.

6.5 creed.

.30-30, but is many states the .30-06 pump is the weapon of choice.. I traveled east to hunt Pa. for 15 years.. By far the most common deer rifle was the pump .30-06.. It was rather rare to see a .30-30 in the deer woods..

223AI......





300 Savage for me

For me, 30-06 is IT when it comes to icons. When I think of '06 and deer, I think of does disappearing in the high grass with only their hooves showing or a mighty buck charging off unfazed only to collapse into the barbed wire at the edge of the field.

30-30? It might have had a head start by a few years, but there were a lot fewer deer. I bought one, tried it, and put it on the shelf. It always felt anemic to me. My Marlin 336 became the designated yute rifle for my sons.

300 Savage? I only know one person that owns one. I liked the idea so much, I bought a Savage 99 in 308 WIN and downloaded it to 300 Savage levels. It is the ideal Eastern Whitetail chambering.

270 WIN? Around where I am, guys buy them for their girlfriends. It may be an icon, but it's an icon for something out west, and possibly wearing rainbow shorts.

I started hunting deer in the Reagan Administration. Along about 1987, I started hunting Kentucky. From then until about 2008 my ears were filled with 30-30 reports. Where I hunt now, you can hear 3 shot-strings a minute on the Opener. Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!-- as the locals unloaded their magazines and retreating deer. Lately, however, the old guard is retiring from the field and the younger guys are mostly shooting '06. One shot usually does it.

My first year in deer camp (early 90's), there were 11 of us, this is what was used.

3 Remington 742 in 30-06
3 Remington 760 in 30-06
1 Marlin 336 in 30-30 my dad. Bought it back in 1957 and being a depression child would not get anything new until old one broke.
3 Browning BAR in 30-06
ME with a Mossberg 20 gauge bolt, until one of the guys borrowed me a old bolt 30-06.

Seem like what I can remember 30-06 was a hot commodity in our camp.

The 303 has also been used on game that it shouldn't be used on. In "Maneaters of the Tzavo", Col. Patterson uses the 303 on lions. Through the book he repeatedly says he shot a lion that escaped. I wonder how many injured maneaters he created with it.

30-30

30-30 closed the thread...

Karamojo Bell is always connected to the 7X57, but he also used the 303 and killed a chitpot full of elephants with it.

25/35 wcf and 30/06, dad and grandpa's rifles