Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Basic deer rifle in your area?

Kinda curious what's considered and used for a basic deer rifle in the area you hunt and where that area is
MB

Eastern Ky. Unfortunately it is usually the cheapest plastic stocked 7mag, 30-06, 270, 300WM with the blister pack scope and rings.....

.270, 30-06/308, 7mm Rem Mag a few use 300 mag of some sort. Lots of Youth use 7mm/08 and 30-30.

What I consider “my area” is back home in western WV, I don’t know if I can pin down a basic deer rifle there but if I had to it would probably be a Remington 7400 in 308 or 30-06, high-rise scope rings with a cheap 3-9x.

Where I live currently in eastern NC there’s a clear split, private land hunters usually sit in a box blind over a crop field or clear cut with a heavier bean field type rifle, I think 7mag is probably the most common. Public land hunters I’ve seen a little bit of everything, mostly lower end Remington 700s, Ruger Americans, etc.

Winchester 94 or Marlin 336 in 30-30

Rem 700, Savage 110, or Win 70 in 30-06 or .270

Those would prolly account for 75% of what you’d see in the field here in Michigan north of our CF line.

South of that things have innovated a lot... .450 BM has gotten HUGE recently. For quite a while (Before modifications you restrictions) in-line MLs were all the rage.

This one in 6.5x55 loaded with a 120gr GMX.

Custom model 70 SS Classic. Older Swarovski 3-9x36 Optik

Pines and hardwood bottoms where I hunt. Average
" long " shot is 50 - 75 yards.
Typical firearm depends on who you talk to.
First one I took here was with a $50.00 pawnshop
shotgun and a 50 cent buckshot shell.
Lately been using a 43 magnum rifle. Neighbor uses a
45 colt rifle. Others use 300 win mag, 270wsm,
30/30, 303 British, 30/06, 300 weatherby,
Unknown AR's. Mixed bag in general

Down here in Louisiana these days you see a ton of single shot 35 Whelens (usually CVA's or Encore's) among the public land hunters because they can be used for both "primitive weapons" and rifle season. When they originally allowed single shot breach loaders, 45-70's and 444 Marlin's were very popular but the average hunter now is usually going with the 35W after the regs were expanded to allow 35 caliber and larger.

A Ruger M77 stainless of some flavor.

223 up through the 300 mags in bolt guns, quite a few guys i know using the Creedwhore.

Lever 30-30s.

A buddy does pack a 375 H&H at times. Uses it as his guide gun when he guides for bear in Alaska every fall. Think he just carries it to stay familiar with it.

Myself its an old 700 in 6mm Remington. No telling how many critters this thing has killed in 40+ years.

Yep, I hunt in SW MS and use mostly a CVA 444 Marlin, though I will use a 270 Win for those few areas where shots might exceed 150 yards. My buddy uses a 30-06 and his wife is deadly with her 243. The vast majority of out shots are within 100 yards.

Same in East TN


You’ll also find lever guns, mostly 30-30’s, occasionally.

Bolt action 30-06 still by a pretty good margin here. Scopes very greatly. Get tickled to every time I see Brownings with sub $100 scopes on them still. The cheaper bolt actions sell well.
GreggH

Probably more 30-30's in the woods here than anything I would imagine.
I like a Model 7 IN 308.

Where I hunt it's slug zone so it's mostly a mix of smooth bore and rifled shotguns with a few muzzle loaders and fewer handguns. Most of our rifle zones are wooded and host a mix of pump action bolt and pump guns with some semiautomatics thrown in. Way too many see through rings.

Used to be a ton of inlines and shotguns but now with the straight wall rule change a ton of people have grabbed a 450 or 350 or 444

Growing up in PENN in the 80s I saw lots of Remington 760s, Winchester 94s and Savage 99s.

Central ME. Still fair number .30-30 Marlins and 94s. .308 in a plastic/wood inexpensive domestic bolt or 742 probably #1. '06 in same #2. 7-08 possibly #3. Not many .243s (except kids) but .25-06 and .270 are popular. Among larger rounds .35 Rem and Whelen are very popular, probably more than .338.

Same in western Washington tree farms. Lots of 12-gauge pump shotguns in the San Juan Islands.


Okie John

Yep, its the same just over the state line in Southwest Virginia.....Hb