Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Opening Day: What caliber, What bullet, Why?

My first opening day usually involves a 300 gn Barnes expander in front of Blackhorn 209. Usually gets one.
Rifle usually the 300 Wby with a 180 Grand Slam.

7mm Rem Mag. Handloaded 160 gr Nosler Accubond.

Why? Because it is accurate and it untracks them right there!

Hope to have a 99 in 338 Federal if Shilen will get the 338 barrel shipped to ctw. Also have a 99 in 284 to try out.

Well if I go hunting it will be in Michigan. So it will be my knight muzzle loader, or if I get it done my knight in the shortened 45/70!

Always have 2 or 3 rifles ready to go..... depending on what happens.
That way our crew has a spare if someone's rifle/scope fails.
We hunt where shots longer than 100 yards are rare.

Last year opening day rifle: 7 x 57 with 150 gr Partition.... sporterized Mauser.
back up piece was 270 with 130 gr Interlocks..... pre-64 Model 70
#3 is 300 Savage with 150 gr Interlocks 1960 Savage 99 featherweight.

The first two are better in narrow deer stands cuz they have plenty of length to fit across the rails.

the Savage is what i would use if i am gonna be moving a lot.

Several times i have switched rifles in the middle of the season to change my luck.... and it worked.

This year it will be my Model 7 7-08 pushing 145 gr. Speer BTSP's to 2700 fps. Hard to figure a better deer rifle for the country I currently hunt.

I started hunting when I lived in NW Colorado and my only centerfire rifle was a .30-06. I loaded 150 grain Hornady spire points for deer and 180 grain Sierra GameKings for elk. Bock then our deer and elk seasons were concurrent and many times I'd hunt them in the same area so sometimes I'd shoot my deer with a 180 grain Sierra or shoot my elk with a 150 Hornady. They both worked.

Then a few years after I moved to Montana I built a .257 Ackley for deer and antelope, shooting 117 grain Sierra GameKings or 120 grain Hornady HPs. That's been my primary deer and antelope rifle for over 40 years. I also used that rifle with 117 grain Sierra's for all of my mountain sheep, one of my best 6x6 bull elk, and my mountain caribou.

It doesn't matter if it's opening day or the last day of the season, I use it because it works!

This year, it's going to be my 6.5 PRC, loaded up with Berger VLD 140's. Whitetails along the Arkansas River. My farm is my hunt area.

Either the Ruger American 22-250 with Federal 62gr barrier blind bullet or the 6mm Creedmoor with an 80gr GMX.

6.5 with 140 amax or 147 eldm. If I have to walk farther or go steeper, I'll shave weight by using the 120 BT's or 120 TTSX's....

Opening day Whitetail Nebraska/Kansas or any day after I hunt heavy timber river bottom, creek bottom and deep coulees. I have had best success on bigger bucks sitting stationary and waiting for morning shooting time. Wind is key to getting close and I have shot whitetail as close as 15 yards catching in thick cover looking to bed. I shoot a Win Big Bore 444 Marlin (225 gr Barnes XPB at 2K fps, 2.5x20 Sightron scope). I will pickup around 10:00 am. I will go out again around 3:00 pm and glass corn, bean and wheat fields through end of legal shooting. I take my 308 WCF (6x40 Springfield Armory scope) in the afternoon with 165 gr SSTs for shots at 200-400 yds. After shooting hour ends I stay out through to darkness to observe fields and it never fails biggest bucks show up well after shooting time. Rut gives a good chance on some that throw caution to the wind during shooting hours, but mature whitetail bucks are so crafty and paranoid and don’t much like daylight or dusk, especially under hunting pressure. BTW the doe whitetails are fairly easy to tag with this method of hunting.

Mule deer in Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming is all glassing morning to evening. Firearm of choice is 7mm Rem Mag with 140 grain NBT. Those leave the barrel at 3,250 fps and are devastating on mule deer and pronghorns 200-500 yards.

If I’m not looking for style points and just need to get the job done, then it is my M700 BDL, factory stock cut to 13 1/4”, trued and bedded, with a Vari-x III 3.5-10. Shooting 100 TSX over 54.0grs imr4831.

It’s called the Meat Gun for a reason. I bought it back in college and I cannot tell you the amount of game it has killed. I have not had to make a single adjust to the scope in over 10 years. Shoots 100 gr NBT to same POI.

It is just a straight killer.

I took a deer this year with this very cartridge combination. Gun shoots them great as was bullet performance.

After making the long drive to Michigan's UP, on opening day I'll be perched in my 20 foot high tree stand. The stand overlooks 700 yards of clover and Rye, with a swamp on one side and a high ridge on the other. My favorite stand in Michigan, or Virginia!

My Tikka CTR, chambered in 6.5 CM will be waiting for another big buck to step out into the open after a hot doe. The 143 ELDX is my bullet of choice. The last 17 white tails haven't liked it one bit!😁

I only hunt deer in the Adirondacks. Mostly from a stand. Little still hunting sometimes. Opening day and most of season will be Kimber Montana in 257, handloaded 117gr RN. If it had a tang safety it would be the “perfect” rifle in my opinion. Tikka superlite in 7mm-08 might see the woods this year.

350 Legend with a 150 Grain Winchester Deer Season XP. We can't use bottleneck cartridges for deer in Ohio. My 350 is good to at least 150 yards. 100 yards is a long shot where I hunt.

Ron

FN-98 in 275Rigby with 120gr NBT and Varget.

^^^^ This in my Tikka T3X with its 20" barrel.

Hard to say which cartridge and rifle I would use on opening day. Would depend a lot on which day of the week it was and what time legal hour's started! :-)

6.5 Creedmoor using either 140 grain Federal Fusions or 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. They both shoot to nearly the same point of impact.