Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Your favorite deer caliber and rifle?

Yeah the older I get the less I enjoy recoil.

Farmlands, 270 Win or 280 Rem; northern woods, 358 Win.

viking Offline
Campfire 'Bwana
Yeah the older I get the less I enjoy recoil.


Recently (finally) started a good exercise regiment to buy me a few more years enjoying my favorite and onl (to date) hunting rifle! memtb

Ruger American stainless in 7mm-08 and Savage 99 in 300 Savage are about perfect for the deer hunting I do. Than again I could say the same about dozens of other cartridges too.

Nope, that’s all a guy needs. A bolt action 7mm-08 for a primary stand rifle and a m99 .300 Savage for a walking around rifle or back up. Six decades of gunning deer with lots of different cartridges have refined my choices.

I’ve been drooling over getting a .284 savage 99. That’s what my grandfather had. His was a pe. I’ve been on the hunt for one hoping it shoots like everyone tells me it does.

My favorite a .284. Of the bunch a 7mm-08rem. Winchester Featherweight or EW.

250-3000
both chambering and rifle.

I love this caliber. I have one in a Ruger #1 and am having a bolt gun built on a shortened Mauser action. It will be ready in time for load development before deer season.

I use and have used a lot of different cartridges over the years, but the 250 Savage is the one I use the most. If I was born 25 years later it would probably be the 6.5 creedmoor.

Eastern woods is my TC venture rebored to 358 Winchester. 200 Grain Hornady at 2420 fps. That is my 0-100 yard load. Farther is a toss up. Either my 30-06 (Weatherby Vanguard) or my 260 Rem (Ruger M77 MKII) Probably have to go with my 260 since that one has probably 30 deer to its name. It is a deer killer!

I seen to pick up my Barret Fieldcraft in 6.5X55 more than any other rifle nowadays. The 130 Accubond at 2750 FPS has killed a lot of stuff.

That’s the one I’d wished I’d grabbed.

Last 6-7 years - Kimber MT in 308. It's turned into my favorite rifle. I'll likely finish my hunting career with that rifle.

My Remington 700ADL in 25/06, hunted with the wooden stock for years, till a goat hunt beat up the stock, so went with a Brown Precision Blank that i finished and bedded myself, it is accurate and light, adjusted the trigger and put a 4-12 power scope on it when I first got it.
It became my go to for deer and goat/

Current favorite:

Winchester M70 EW/SS, topped w/ a 2.5-8x36mm Leupold in Talley LtWts...


... chambered in .277 O'Connor.




GR

First, there was the Herter's J9 in 6mm Remington, pushing Barnes 115gr Original RN's...

Then came my Winchester 94 in 30-30....

Then it became a VZ-24 in 8x57mm Mauser....

Then it was a sweet little Ruger in 260 Remington that shot 129gr Interlocks like a dream and stacked deer like cord wood...

Then the Marlin1895 GG became THE go-to mesquite brush rifle for over 15 years, while the 325 WSM was the cropland open field choice during that time.

Just recently added a 7mm-08 and a 270 Win to the stable. Both are putting bullet groups inside an inch at 100 yds now, when I do my part. Just have to work some loads up for both to replace the commercial loadings.

Both of these rifles have a chance to become a Deer Camp sweetheart...but that Marlin in 45-70 always makes the trip, regardless.

With Deer Camp growing in size now...many of these are still favorites. It's just that other people are shooting them now.

I like the 30 caliber rifles and the 7mm’s, I like the Remington 700’s.
But I’ve found that the 27 caliber works great too. (As does the 25).

Basically the old 700’s with anything from 6mm Remington to 300 Magnums. (Not the 300 WSM.) OK maybe the 243 too.

You didn’t ask, but I like 4x or 6x scopes. I don’t like variables.

What?.... 26's are chopped liver?

Well my favorite rifle is a 30-06 and I have shot a bunch of deer with it.