Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Small area caliber choice?

Bought a new house with 9 acres, mostly wooded, with a stream running thru the middle, and neighbors. I've never hunted in what I'd call "close quarters", but it would be legal, and the area has a lot of whitetail deer. Some of the neighbors hunt, some don't. Several cornfields nearby, and I've already found some old cobs around my lot. No intent to hunt behind my house a lot, I have areas for hunting.

Acknowledging the safety concerns, and state requirement of at least 500 ft from occupied building, my question revolves around rifle/caliber choice. No long-distance shooting here, think more like 20 to 60 yds. There are also some old stone fence rows that might be a ricochet hazard if I screw up.

Is it best to pick something that sound of shot doesn’t carry as much as others, or go for making sure the deer goes down fast and close? Or worry more about ricochet? On-hand choices include 250SAV, 300SAV, 30-30, .308, and could throw in 16 or 12 ga slugs if called for. I've already ruled out some others like my .223, .280 and .350 RemMag. The .350 will anchor a deer fast, but a little noisy!

My thinking so far:

Among the 30 calibers, I'm leaning towards the 30-30 SAV 99. The terrain (and neighbors ) dictate short ranges, I trust the rifle (had it for 45 yrs), and to my ears the sound of a 30-30 doesn't carry as far as the others. 2nd choice 300SAV in Rem 700 Classic. The .308 is a great deer rifle, but just no need for it under these conditions, and it's the loudest.

The 250SAV is a nice, accurate Rem 700 Classic, with a 2-7x33 scope, and should do the job, but don't see much of an advantage over the 30-30 at the ranges I'm looking at. I don't reload, so limited to the 100gr Rem or Hornady factory loads. However, there is a strong chance that it could feel like a .250 day and use it anyway.

Slugs. I've never hunted deer with slugs. Main advantage might be reduced chance of ricochets, but no experience with that. I do have an old 12 ga Ithaca Deerslayer that I picked up on a whim, but haven't even tried any slugs thru it yet. Confidence with it lower than the rifles right now, would have to spend some shooting time with it. Also have a 20 in smooth bore barrel with rifle sights for my 870 that I could work with. If I step down to 16 GA it would be an Ithaca 37 with a 26 in IC barrel, no idea how that will handle slugs, never tried it.

So anyone still with me? Opinions/thoughts? Any strong feeling about getting up to speed with slugs?

If I was worried about pass throughs or slugs leaving the scene, I'd go with some tack driving speedster that would pretty well shatter on impact. The heavier ones slugs the greater the chance they'll keep on trucking. With safe practices, however, one should be fine with anything.

Edited to add: Given ones limited space, he might want to assure a near instant knock down depending on whether neighbors are amenable or not to a follow up chase if/when a victim makes off of ones property. Regardless of choice, I'd try to break them down on the spot. Given the suggested ranges, good shot placement should be pretty easy on standing game.

Good luck,

350 rem mag + cast pistol bullets + really reduced powder charges=fairly quiet, effective short range deer loads. Check the Lyman manual for load data.

I'm inclined to agree with your .30-30 choice with a fast opening bullet. My first buck at age 13 fell over and rolled down a little hill from a heart lung broadside shot with a .30-30. I've shot a lot of deer since then with bigger cartridges and aside from a cns shot, I never had one go down any faster than that first one. The ammunition companies have been tailor making perfect deer bullets for the .30-30 for years designed to expand at the lower .30-30 velocities. It's the same reason the ammo companies would never load that same bullet into a .30-06 or .300 WM. A guy that hunts near me uses a .30-30 and it is very distinctive for it's lack of noise. One shot every year and it's over.

So you missed the part about " I don't reload..."

30-30 is ideal for that close of range and wooded area. I have a marlin in .357 lever action which is a great gun for an area like that. I would definitely look at those as well.

anything bounces unless it falls apart.

9 acres is archery country. Even if its a crossbow IMHO.

If not, then I'd be hunting from high and shooting down at steep angles.

I would find a tough varmint type bullet for the 223 and use that. The Federal 55 grain load fits the bill it will exit on a behind the shoulder shot at least half the time but double shoulder shots it usually stays inside. If legal I would set up a feeder where the stone fence would be a back stop, if a bullet exits it won't have too much mass or velocity left to ricochet very far. Typically they would flatten out on rock or if at full velocity the would fragment, I would think only a glancing shot would be prone to ricocheting. Not sure whats available now but some of the 130 grain loads in the 30-30 would fill the same role.

I’d go with the 30-30.

Good points. I'm used to hunting a club with 16 members, 1200 acres, bordering over 25,000 acres of state wild forest. A little more elbow room. Which is where I will still do most of my deer hunting. The 9 acre lot behind my house will be more like when I feel like sitting out for an hour or two on a nice day.

I won't hunt deer with a .223. And no baiting in my area.

I do think looking into lighter bullet loads for the 30-30 is a good idea, I've always used 170s. 150s are easy to find, haven’t looked for 130gr loads yet.

Does the Deerslayer have a rifled barrel?

I’d see how the 20 ga did with slugs vs the 12ga. Slugs can be a study all their own.

A T/C Contender carbine in 30-30 may be interesting. The 130 Hornady is very accurate in my ‘06, a real killer. That’s not the varmint version.

Interesting situation. Congrats of the new digs, sounds nice. We always like pictures.

DF

Lots of the lower half of Wisconsin was designated shotgun only for many years until someone looked at the statistics and found that shotgun accidents outnumbered rifle accidents. The entire state is designated rifle acceptable now. The few deer that I've gunned with a 12 gauge slug went just as far or even farther than my rifle shot deer. I wouldn't have believed it given those slugs are like .79" in diameter before they even hit something.

Think “get off the ground” so you’re shooting into the dirt especially if you’re expecting short range shots.

We used to hunt 10 acres on the edge of Kansas City. Landowner limited us to a 243/6mm with light bullets or one of the smaller 22 calibers.

We probably killed about 50 deer from this property with 223, 22-250 and 243/6mm.


Pick your shots. 90% of our deer were shot from a tree stand at 30 yards or less.

No issues killing deer or having them get over onto neighboring properties.

Plan on more exits with greater chance of ricochets with something this heavy and lower velocities than the 22 calibers or 24s with light bullets.

308 150gr or lighter softpoint.
Follow navlav8r's advice and shoot into the ground.

Slow speed and solid bullets are what ricochets are made of.

I would also avoid them due to the desire to avoid a longer
track. Sure shot placement trumps all. Duh! But tissue disruption
kills. And you do not want your deer bleeding all over you non-hunting neighbors concrete pool surround.

I was part of deer cull in a city of 85,000. I used a 243 and shot 80gr. Remington ammo. 70 deer and not a one went more than 10 yards. Others used 223 with 55 gr. ammo with like results. If doing it again I would put a suppressor on the 243 and use the same ammo.

No rifling in the Deerslayer, it's an older minimum dimension smooth bore. Some had a pretty good rep for slug accuracy. The 16 GA is a featherweight, not sure how much time I want to spend behind that shooting slugs.

Already have my 30-30, 1923 vintage Savage 99 featherweight. Took my buck with it last November, still works just fine.

If I was limited to only 9 acres with neighbors close by and worried about noise--- a 30-30 at close distance is load enough to sound like a .308. to me. Very short shots. 50 yds or less---- Good Crossbow--- with practice under 50 yds it's a very very deadly weapon. Noise = Zero