Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Who here uses "too much rifle"

This one is also a doe shot from my 416 Bee. 330 grain GS Custom bullet at 3100 fps.

I wacked her at 452 yards,

I've never had an exit like this on a deer.It could be it was reaching it's max size of it's wound channel on the coyote as it was making it's exit.I know the 165 and 168gr Ballistic Tips do produce a good wound channel on deer shot into the heart,lungs chest cavity.Every deer I've shot with them drop on the spot with the 30-06,but they were all good shots too.Here is the graphics of wound channels of what some different bullets produce.

Does deer and antelope with a 340wby or coyotes/prairie dogs with a 300wby count? I keep my 300wby in MT so I don’t have to deal with airlines in NYC on my annual mule deer boondoggle. I check zero by center punching prairie dogs at 300yds. I haven’t had to adjust the scope in 20+ years:). Truth is, I own lots of rifles and like to use them regularly. Hence, there is no such thing as being overgunned.

Well, after reading some of these posts, I now feel like a piker.
😀

I shot a white tail doe at maybe 50 yards facing me with a 416 Taylor and a 300 gr Swift bullet. It traveled length wise and exited her back ham. Total meat loss was minimal.I worked up a reduced load in a Pre 64 M70 375 H&H but haven't tried it out yet as I bought a Ruger #1 and have a load using a 270 gr Speer at 2600 FPS. That and a 35 Whelen and a 405 Winchester will make it out this year. Whats REALLY fun is using my Heym 500 BPE rifle, It's a hammer gun with stalking safeties and a Jones under lever. I can easily hit a deer at 100 yards with it. The 365 gr cast bullet goes right through them and they are DRT.

well... umm...

I just slink off..........




NEVER, NEVER again will I consider myself overgunned !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ll have to use my puny 8 “mini mini” mag this year.


YE HAW !!

Great Thread.

Jerry

Jerry Likes ! 2 Thumbs UP !!

Lizards in nevada with my 30-06.

Started out using a .22-250 on whitetails. 1970, IIRC. No trouble killing them to a bit over 200 yds. A loony even then, had to try Ed Harris' reduced loads using Unique in an '06. 170 FNs barely supersonic. Worked, too, despite zero expansion. Foregoing were taken in open fields, not dense cedar swamps.

So I'm the last person to claim you can't kill deer with a .22CF, 243, or even a BP .32-40 load. I know better.

Used various .300 Wins and Roys for most years. Last two years a .375 Ruger. Overkill, obviously.

The choice had zero to do with killing power. The choice reflects terrain/surrounding cover. I need to find them after killing them. Larger leaky holes - preferably two - make that simpler. Alot.

The relationship between marginal placement vs power gets debated endlessly. If folks would stipulate circumstances before posting - ie., shooting elk grazing in wide open pastures behind your barn on whatever day you choose vs being in nasty thick cover on the last day/last hour of what will be your only elk hunt in this life - justification for these debates kinda disappears. Finn Aagard wrote a great piece covering this very issue.

Then there's the distance traveled vs cartridge debate. I've read the SC DNR study. While I don't entirely buy their stated conclusions, if you believe bullet diameter makes no difference fine with me. But it is still fact that a deer with a wrecked boiler room can cover up to 200 yds. .22CF, .32-20, .375 Ruger, .300 Roy. In the event of long runs there's nothing like a blood trail. The .300s and .375 reliably give that. The .22CFs (and .243) do not. BTW, those slow 170 gr .308" bullets gave modest blood trails, 100% exits, but travel distance was greater vs the .22-250.

Bottom line: overkill is fine with me because there's no such thing as over-retrieval.

Does a 358win shooting 250gr sierras count for shooting whitetails? Our shots rarely exceed 150yards and the deer seem to just go down right now.

Honestly the only time I felt I over did it was shooting a 6x47 lapua that was loaded hot with 105 gr Bergers. I was close and the front end of the doe pretty much came apart and ended up trash when it came to processing.
When my boy started hunting and some conversations on here lead me to have him start out with a 223 I had my apprehensions. After I saw how effective it was, I started to think how unnecessary so many 30-06’s were at camp.....

Sounds as if you have answered your own question but the bigger question is what are the conditions under which you hunt? At the distance you state you shoot why would you not like the rifle/bullet combo you provided? Heavy and slow at moderate ranges have been used and proven for a long, long time.

Sam H said above....

"Bottom line: overkill is fine with me because there's no such thing as over-retrieval."

Never heard that concept. Very Good Point.

"over retrieval" .... might be if they Fall IN the truck ? otherwise you are right.


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Guys, several have mentioned following blood trails. I know what you're are talking about.
Here's my solution.

Since 2012 I've been deer hunting family 70 acres and I don't have permission to hunt "surrounding" property.
Also NICE - NO ONE else has permission to hunt where I do !!!

I have been shooting HIGH Shoulder shots.....D R T (Drop Right There). Some here have said you lose too much meat.
NOT more than a double handful.

Mule Deer recently said, " Hi Shoulder -Spine" shot. I promise, you don't lose much meat.

I could post several pix but I'll only post one to illustrate the point.
The EXIT side -- OFF side,



I shot this Doe, Hi Shoulder SPINE shot. DRT, no blood trail with a 270 Win, 130 Cor Lokt, +/- 100 yds.
Always my preferred shot.


Jerry

Why am I not surprised ?


I'm undergunned with the new 338 win mag.

Well I never did say I was "normal" right? LOL

I almost forgot, I wacked a nice buck last year at 178 yards with a 340 Bee. 210 TTSX at 3150 fps.

Most years I hunt exclusively with a model 70 300 ultra I built just the way I wanted it. Even used it last year on antelope. It works, it fits me perfect and it's a familiar friend.

No such thing. Small bullets are for small game....large bullets are for ALL game.

I have several rifles. I tend to deer hunt mostly with a 35 Whelen if I can't see more than 200 yards. If I can see farther I carry a 300 Wby. The Wby drops them, sometimes they run a little with the whelen. As long as I am comfortable with them I will continue. I like the results.

This is the most sensible statement I have seen on the subject.

If you like it, shoot it well, use it!

I'm 75 and glad I still have a little kid inside that gets excited shooting powerful guns that make lots of noise! It is just more fun to shoot a 7 mag than a .22 or a 12ga.than a .410.

I have too with my .375 RUM pushing 270 grain TSX's at 3040 fps, and also a Klipspringer at 310 yards.