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

I like my Model Seventy Classic .270 best. It's a bit heavier than I like, but I shoot it awfully well, and the 24" barrel gets me a little "free velocity". I stuck it in a B&C stock, and it's nothing fancy, but it kills deer real dead.

Winchester Model 70 Featherweight in 7X57, Nosler140 grain Partition handload.

For the last 20 years I have killed piles of deer with a Browning BAR MKII Safari in 30-06 using 150 grain or 180 grain soft points. I’m shooting Hornady Interlock 180’s at around 2750 in hand loads now and it’s death.

That said, I’ve really started enjoying a Remington Model 7 SS in 308 with a Leupold 3-9x40 shooting Hornady Interlock 150’s.

Have a tikka t3 243. SS 6x, and 105gr bthp's. I have a hard time leaving that thing at home. It just works

I'm really surprised that there are so few small cartridges mentioned. It seems like the .28-30cal rounds are about all that's used.

I started with a .270 Win.. But the last 25 years I've stuck with a .257 Roberts. Now, I own 3 rifles in .243 Win. plus one custom .243 Ackley. We'll see how that goes.

I'm a rifle slut. I like to hunt with lots of different rifles. I've not killed near as many deer as a lot of folks here have, but from what I can remember right now as I type, have done so with the 7mm RM, 25-06, 6.5x55, .308 Win, 30-30, .338-06, .243 Win, and .257 Roberts. I have killed more with the Roberts than any other cartridge, and used it exclusively for over a decade, when the pace of work and deployments kept me from doing much rifle loonyism. Perhaps that makes it a favorite, but there are several more lined up waiting their turn in the decade or two I have left to take them afield. There's a .256 Newton, the .280 Rem I inherited from my dad (and several other of his rifles) a Griffin and Howe tribute 7x57 I'm building, a sweet custom 6.5 Grendel on an early CZ 527, and a custom 270 WSM with an 8" twist barrel.
And on top of all that I recently bought what is my most accurate rifle ever, a CA Mesa 6.5 CM - a legit .5 MOA rife with both the 139 Scenar and the 143 ELD-X. By all rights it probably ought the be the only thing I hunt deer with...ever - but then there's that slutty character flaw I've described.
But I have to say, that 1951 vintage .257 Roberts with the Leupold 4x has killed everything I ever pointed it at, and I sure do like it.

Cheers,
Rex

Rex I am too, I’ve tried to liquidate, but can’t. Got a few favorites, doesn’t matter, I like light bullets goin as fast as they can, and I’ve done a fair amount of killin…

[quote=TRexF16]I'm a rifle slut. I like to hunt with lots of different rifles.
Me too. Over the course of our deer season which runs from November 15 through January 1 in some form I'll take 8-10 different rifles to the blind. I still need to blood several #1's a 35 Whelan, 405, 375 H&H but the 450/400 got it done on a nice freezer doe in the late season.
My favorite rifle is always the next one and a sweet one is on the smith's bench right now. It's on a shortened Mauser action in 250 Savage.

Key word being Favorite? Easy answer for me, one my 30-30's! My Marlins 336 killed the most, but my Mod 64 Win has become my favorite by far! But I've got a new-old 94 that's doing well to gain first place. Where I hunt, mountains which equal 99% inside 75 yd shots, and most those inside 40yds, a Lever 30-30 & iron sights is hard to beat!
Now best all-around, my 30-06!

Well said

There ain't many Levers with the eye-appeal of a Winchester with a 24" barrel, pistol grip, and half-mag.

I find the M71 and M64 equally appealing. It'd be a tie vote for "best in show" if I were the Judge.

As it is, I have a very plain-jane M94 that is far and away my sentimental favorite. My practical favorite is a Howa LW in .308 Win, not much longer or heavier than my M94 but much more practicle in the field.

Details pls....kurz action or a cut and rewelded 98

.30 Caliber. I currently own 2 "deer" rifles, A Remington 760 carbine in 30-06 that I carry in the first part of the deer season when bear are also on the menu......And a Glenfield Model 30 in 30-30 that gets the nod the rest of the time.

.30 Caliber it is for me.

IMHO, there's no rifles, that have ever come anywhere near in my eyes & thinking, as the Mod 64 & 71!
Beauty=Perfect Form & Function, that you can't appreciate until you've hunted with one!
I just wish I owned a 71! And the calibers they come in, 348 for the 71, and especially 30-30 for the 64, max out their purposes at iron sight hunting ranges!

Of all the great Winchester rifles, the 64 & 71, are Winchesters masterpieces!
And yes, the Mod 70 for scoped hunting rifles.

This may just be your Huckleberry, but a 76 in 50 express has an undeniable cool factor…

Shrap that’s a gorgeous buck & a stunning rifle.

It is!

Where I hunt it’s either or I can hunt a ridge but see 300 yds or I hunt a field with a good rest and can see 300 yds a 270 fits both but a 308 does it better sometimes a 30-06 comes to light I switch them up

It's a cut and rewelded 98. The smith bought it from Pete Grisel way back in the day. He's working on the stock right now.

If memory serves I've harvested the following deer with the following cartridges:

243 Win. (2); 257 Rbts. (2); 6.5 Swede (2); 270 Win. (2); 280 Rem (3); 30-06 (2); 338-06 (2); 54cal. roundball BP (8). And sometimes my memory needs to ferment... I also bagged one buck with a 270 WSM.
I aspire to shoot a deer with a nice little 7mm Mauser.

So, of course I don't know if I have a favorite. But I'd venture I'd grab a .270 Husq. or .280 Argentine if I was anticipating "long distance" (200 yd.+) shots, and I'd push 130-150 gr. Barnes.

And of course the .54 is the one I no longer own! But that is because I no longer live next door to a black powder only zone where I used to be able to shoot a deer as regular groceries.