Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting My idea of a perfect Whitetail deer rifle.

rickT300 have you seen the YouTube video Elk at 603 yards? Bull elk, 603 yards away, full penetration with a 129 grain SST. Penetration with a 6.5 bullet is not an issue especially on deer. YOMV!

They were not all THAT popular. Ruger discontinued the Model 44, the Model 96 and the Deerfield due to lack of interest. It's a shame, too. Out of a treestand, out to 80 yards or so, there is nothing better when comparing stopping power vs. recoil than a 44 Mag. It certainly performed better than my 30-30. I got mine when my best friend died and left behind a serious Ruger collection. I'd wanted the Model 96, but his nephew snatched it up.

I took it out for its inaugural hunt last fall:

Bob's Model 44 and the Buck

You wouldn't play a round of golf with just one club, so why would you want a single rifle to hunt whitetails with? A single rifle would have to be a compromise, since there are so many different hunting scenarios that would call for different specs in an attempt to achieve perfection.

Or so it seems to me.

Agreed. I know my collection is small compared to yours but still I have 20 or so sighted in deer rifles, all with their respective reloads in bore diameters from 224 to .451. The only gaps are 6.5 and .338. Well no 416 either. I was thinking along the lines of a rifle that will do most deer hunting without issue.

Good story! I hate losing friends, so many gone already. My 44 magnum carbine will be a Contender when I get over hoping a 44 mag carbine barrel will magically appear on the classifieds of a couple of forums I follow.

Fieldcraft special run 6.5 CM with 22" sporter contour, stainless/coated. 6x42 PMII. Perfection for deer.

Funny, my Marlin 1894 .44 mag didn't kill deer any better than my .30-30. It kicked harder, wasn't as accurate and had much less effective range so I sold it and went back to using my .30-30. You had a freak occurrence with your .30-30. I once had a very similar experience with 12 gauge slugs. I did not conclude that 12 gauge slugs weren't good deer killers from that one incident and went on to kill dozens more with perfectly satisfactory results. Some deer just don't want to die in the usual expected fashion no matter what you shoot them with.

Tikka T3 Lite in 7mm-08

Different country favors different guns, but eliminates none. My go to here in the swamps is a Mod 94 Trapper. It has put a few tons of meat in the freezer. Has a receiver sight. That said, I’ve whacked critters with bolts, levers, autos, pumps, break actions and muzzle loaders. Your mileage likely varies.

Probably so, but I think that a person could cover the spectrum pretty with two rifle, a bolt action rifle set up for longer ranges and a lever/pump/semi-auto set up for still-hunting in tight cover.

I have a two rifle set that I use for hunting elk, a CLR for over-watch and a Remington 760 for tight cover, both in 270 and both using the same ammo.

I handle a bolt gun as well as my levers and semiautos the latter being AR15's in various chamberings. My lightest deer rifle is a 16" Rossi in 45LC. Got a brand new one after my stepson scratched up my old one. I seldom get second shots in a quick fashion in the thick stuff as it doesn't take long for a deer to make one jump and get out of sight. I do like messy blood trails, something the smaller bores sometimes don't offer.

I’ve posted this one before. It’s light, short, accurate and kills like lightning.
700 action
20” PacNor chambered in 7-08... Mtn rifle contour
McMillan Mtn Rifle- Edge Fill
Leupold 2.5-8 clamped in Talley Lightweights
Probably my favorite walking/ stalking rifle. Absolutely worth it’s weight in Pork Chops. I wouldn’t change a thang!

Pretty close to what I outlined. Nice rifle. 7-08 might just be the best short action cartridge overall.

My daddy's 1950 Sears Marlin 30/30

Everywhere I've ever carried and used it
it was always up to the job
I have other stuff to use, but it would be
the last one to go down the road

Great looking rig. Wished I had bought one when I had the chance. WI am curious, what's the final weight with the 6x42?

son and i both use Ruger # 1`s with custom Brux barrels in a 257 Weatherby mags we don`t need the meat so we only hunt and shoot bigger whitetail bucks in northern Minnesota up by Canada.

I can think of many "perfect Whitetail rifles" but the one that comes to mind first is a Kimber 84M Montana chambered for .308 win shooting some 130gr TTSX bullets.... Maybe mount a Swarovski Z3 3-9x36 in some Talley lightweights 👍......Hb

As I age, I've been able to put my history with the 30-30 behind me. It wasn't just one bad experience, btw. It was all sort of things going wrong for both my sons and I. Little by little a good deal of them finally got explained. The big watershed was Mooseboy finally fessing up years later that he'd been closing his eyes before pulling the trigger. That explained a lot.

I've acquired another rifle in 30-30, a Savage 340, and I'm currently working up a load for it. Eventually, I'll have 30-30 back in the rotation.

It's funny you mention 12 GA slug. For really close in work, I really could find little fault with my Rem 1100 with 12 GA Sluggers. When I was doing the majority of my firearms hunting out of my bow stands, the 12 GA was devasting. That's another project I've got on the back burner right now. The other deer gun I got out of Bob's collection was a Stoeger SXS. If you're looking for a quintessential old school Ohio deer gun, this is it:



Bob had this for decades, mostly as a conversation piece. He called it "Luigi;" as it reminded him of the shotguns used in The Godfather. He brought it out to the LGS to show it off. A fellow regular immediately saw the efficacy of using KAR 98 sights on an SXS shotgun and immediately went home and soldered up a similar rig.

With the Mt Rifle sling, belly full, rail w/Seekins rings, caps, and PM II it's a few oz's over 7 lbs.

Swapping the rail and rings for TLW's or DNZ's would drop it below 7 lbs all up.

I ended up changing the rail/rings for some steel Talley LW imitations....being steel they're the same weight at the ring/rail but it lowers the scope a fair amount and they are pretty sleek. So far I really like them for shooting...hoping that being all steel they'll hold up as well as a rail/rings over time.

I grew up hunting whitetails in ME, NH, and VT where, in those long ago days, the split between open terrain, like dairy cattle pastures, farm fields, clear cuts, and power line ROWs, probably accounted for no more than 20% of the land, with the balance being wooded cover where a firearm capable of making rapid follow up shots at running deer was a tangible benefit. Even today when I still hunt trophy grade bucks in tight creek bottom cover I am more likely to carry a short semi-auto, like a Ruger 44 International or a Winchester 100 in 308 with 17" barrel, then any bolt gun, even though the first shot that presents itself is likely to be the best shot.

Another one of those situations were different people who have different experience in different situations use different gear in an effort to achieve a desired outcome.