Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Hunting Deer With Smaller Calibers

One thing I can’t help but notice is this. Most of the people who are using a 243 shoot kill put up and eat a lot of deer. Year after year. We know our equipment works fine for what we will be doing because WE DO IT.

Then we have another group who keep going on about all this hypothetical stuff. What if it’s a bad angle what if it’s running what if it’s thick cover what if it weighs 300 pounds. lol.

Serious question. How many of you normally shoot(or ever) 300 pound deer running in a thicket at bad angles?

For the most part you have people who do stuff and people who talk about doing stuff. Most people do more talking about it and thinking about it than doing it. Maybe that’s why all the worst case scenario stuff keeps coming up? What do y’all do when your alarm doesn’t go off? What do you do if your truck doesn’t start or have a flat? What if a tree fell across the road. You can what if all day long. Meanwhile the world is full of people who go out and make meat with 243’s and the like.

One thing I can’t help but notice is this. Most of the people who are using a 243 shoot kill put up and eat a lot of deer. Year after year. We know our equipment works fine for what we will be doing because WE DO IT.

Then we have another group who keep going on about all this hypothetical stuff. What if it’s a bad angle what if it’s running what if it’s thick cover what if it weighs 300 pounds. lol.

Serious question. How many of you normally shoot(or ever) 300 pound deer running in a thicket at bad angles?

For the most part you have people who do stuff and people who talk about doing stuff. Most people do more talking about it and thinking about it than doing it. Maybe that’s why all the worst case scenario stuff keeps coming up? What do y’all do when your alarm doesn’t go off? What do you do if your truck doesn’t start or have a flat? What if a tree fell across the road. You can what if all day long. Meanwhile the world is full of people who go out and make meat with 243’s and the like.

You've obviously never hunted the big northern woods.

I shot a running away buck in the woods. Not bragging about the bullet placement. The bullet hit the major bone in the hip and traveled up to the shoulder. It expanded to twice the caliber.
30-06 & 180 grain Hornady bullets. Try that with your 223.

. But back to my main question, why do you hunt deer with these .204s .22s of various breeds, .243s and .17s and other small
rounds ?????
Thank you for helping me to understand this aspect of deer hunting.

I shot a running away buck in the woods. Not bragging about the bullet placement. The bullet hit the major bone in the hip and traveled up to the shoulder. It expanded to twice the caliber.
30-06 & 180 grain Hornady bullets. Try that with your 223.

Do you all that
shoot deer with .243 Win and smaller turn down certain shots that you would have taken if you'd been carrying a .257 Roberts or
larger caliber rifle?

My opening post asked two questions essentially.
(1) Do you who use .243 and smaller rounds to deer hunt, choose NOT to shoot at certain shot presentations,
that you would have shot had you been using a larger and more powerful round?
(2) Do you choose to hunt with .243 and smaller ammo to intentionally challenge yourselves more, as Peterson
of the publishing empire did, when he hunted ducks with a .410 shotgun? Peterson stated that it was harder to
get the ducks to come in close enough, to make the .410 effective, and he wanted that extra challenge.

My opening post asked two questions essentially.
(1) Do you who use .243 and smaller rounds to deer hunt, choose NOT to shoot at certain shot presentations,
that you would have shot had you been using a larger and more powerful round?
(2) Do you choose to hunt with .243 and smaller ammo to intentionally challenge yourselves more, as Peterson
of the publishing empire did, when he hunted ducks with a .410 shotgun? Peterson stated that it was harder to
get the ducks to come in close enough, to make the .410 effective, and he wanted that extra challenge.

Blah blah blah blah blah

All the endorsements for small caliber cartridges being equal to large caliber cartridges.

Take your fast twist 223 to Africa and see how far you will get with that.

Yes there is a difference in what a bigger similarly built bullet will do compared to any small caliber bullet.

I shot a running away buck in the woods. Not bragging about the bullet placement. The bullet hit the major bone in the hip and traveled up to the shoulder. It expanded to twice the caliber.
30-06 & 180 grain Hornady bullets. Try that with your 223.

Because while.it sounds similar.to where you bunt no serious big woods hunter chases deer with a 22 or even a 243. For jump shooting and running shots those calibers are not as effective as larger rounds.

I watched my wife shoot a quartering buck in the shoulder with a 223 and after breaking the shoulder the bullet traveled through one lung, the liver, assorted guts, and part of the hind quarter before coming to rest under the hide. He traveled less than 10 yards before he croaked. Is that good enough?

As people who’ve extensively used smaller calibers have said more than once in this very thread, good bullets available today make a much bigger gun out of small calibers.

No doubt about anything you've said. Just nobody up here shoots little guns at big deer whether they may work or not. YMMV.

Most of the people in Maine don't vote for Republican presidents, so what is your point?

Now we're measuring dicks Kaleb by how many deer are killed each season? Well, how about it stud? How many did you put on the pole last year? Probably more than the 4 I killed. At the end of the day there's hunting deer and then there's hunting mature trophy bucks. You rebs stick to the 22s and we'll stick to what we like. Can we now get back to Kumbaya? And zip your pants back up Kaleb.

Now we're measuring dicks Kaleb by how many deer are killed each season? Well, how about it stud? How many did you put on the pole last year? Probably more than the 4 I killed. At the end of the day there's hunting deer and then there's hunting mature trophy bucks. You rebs stick to the 22s and we'll stick to what we like. Can we now get back to Kumbaya? And zip your pants back up Kaleb.