Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Help finding a new deer rifle

Don't think so Blooze, you've nailed it the damn Barnes stuff and Nosler ammo is gold plated price wise. I've shot the Hornady American Whitetail Hunter ammo in the 6.5 129gr sp load and the 139 gr sp load in the 7-08, they are both excellent in the $25/box range. Nail the ammo, buy the gun, scopes are everywhere. If you jack around buying a box here or there to find the most accuracy you can bet your last dollar it will be gone when go back for more. None of it will be really bad. Tell you something else damn few cartridges and loads will do" dead right there" unless head shot, cns, or spined. Shot nice 4x5 out in a CRP at 300 yds with my 300 win mag shooting 165 horn SP's at 3000fps+ it was a good shot behind the shoulder and down he went. I never took my eyes off the spot carefully noting other clumps of a red colored weed next to where I shot. It still took awhile to find him . I like to dbl lung them but there are times it is damn smart to break them down on the spot...mb

Thanks for clarifying. So you have some experience, that is great. That helps a lot. So, there are a lot of rifle "loonies" here and we have used a lot of different cartridges on deer and elk. Last year I used a 7mm08 on my little bull elk. Worked great, but I was using a 140TTSX Barnes bullet. It penetrated thru and thru, no problems there. Spike bull dropped on the spot. That Tikka is also a sweet heart to shoot. It actually has less perceived recoil than my Tikka superlite 6.5 Creedmoor for some reason. Neither rifle recoils excessively hard though. Now your question about factory ammo and factory rifles had me thinking about the last time I used factory ammo. That was recently with a new/used rifle, only because the ammo was given to me by the shop owner when I bought the rifle. He's a damn good guy. Anyway after fine tuning the rifle a bit (glass bedding, freefloating the barrel and trigger work, because its a model 70 and not a Tikka) this is how it did:

100 yards:


200 yards:


300 yards:


400 yards:


Now, the conditions were too windy. Way too windy in fact. But all shots would have equated to dead deer. My 6.5 creedmoor precision rifles wouldn't have done much better to be honest. But the shop owner wanted me to tell him how the rifle shot and I was in a hurry to shoot it after the fine tuning. Here's the rifle:


The box of factory ammo that was given to me when I bought the rifle:


Keeping in mind I don't pay that for any ammo!!!! I handload unless I get ammo given to me like in this case. So, if you count bullet holes, you realize I only had 8 rounds to get the new scope dialed in as well. That is what most new rifles like Tikka, Sako, Savage, Thompson Center, Christensen Arms etc. etc are capable of these days. Most older rifles (with proper work) can also do this. The last 7 rifles I've bought in the last 4 or 5 months are proof of that.. Good luck with your search and decision..

BSA,

Did you tune the BOSS on that rifle at all? I have an A Bolt in .300 Win Mag with the BOSS and can tune it in to whatever ammo I'm using to get some pretty fantastic accuracy for a factory rifle that is probably 20 years old.

BSA, nice! What do you consider too windy? Here the average wind speed is 15-17 mph according to NOAA. 20-30 mph is pretty common. Very seldom is it below 10 mph.

Nah, that was before I researched the BOSS. Just wanted to shoot it and see how it did. At the time I only had that box of factory ammo. I later loaded up some other ammo, after getting brass and dies. Beretzs and some others sent me some info on how to tune the BOSS. Seems pretty interesting, but I still have not messed with it. It seems like I fix them up, shoot them for a little bit to make sure they are acceptable and then move on to the next one. On that day the winds were not too horrible, but gusting to about 15 mph.. That's enough to ruin groups and not get a good representation of what a rifle is capable of..

I'd say 15-17 is "too windy" for checking the accuracy of a rifle/scope combo like this at 400 yards. Now when I'm shooting comp with my 6.5 Creedmoor Tikka CTR, I don't mind higher winds because I'm shooting against other humans where they may not be able to read the wind as well. That's where you are making the rifle do what you want it to do, regardless of conditions. In those events I have better equipment and scopes (ATACR 7-35X56, SHV's and NXS's) that help tremendously. I was shooting one of my 300WBY's the other day with the same type of scope as the 7mm rem mag with boss, and I was wishing I had my ATACR on top of that rifle!! However, Shooting at 3-400 does not require that type of optic, it sure doesn't hurt either. The cheap $350 Burris scopes I use on these rifles work well enough. I use them on my AR's as well:


From 2 days ago when I was shooting at the 400 yard range^^

I really think this is putting the cart before the horse. If Blooze just randomly selects some ammo and stocks up on it, he could end up with something that his rifle groups into 1.5" at 100 yards (as an example). That might be fine for some, but I damn sure wouldn't take that type of performance out to 300 yards, which OP stated was within his typical shooting range. I would MUCH rather buy a couple boxes of several varieties of ammo to test so that I can get optimal performance out of my chosen rifle. In the unlikely event that the best ammo suddenly becomes unavailable, the first two boxes should be more than enough to get through some test groups and a hunting season. Very minimal downside and a whole lot more upside to going that route. Maybe the OP gets lucky and picks out a winner on his first try, but why take the chance? Ammo isn't that expensive, but making a chitty shot on a deer is very painful to me. Doubly so if I try to shortcut myself into a situation that causes it. Blooze also potentially limits his rifle choices if he nails down the ammo first.

I think you'll be pretty impressed if you decide to play around with the BOSS tuning. I'm sure you are probably aware, but Browning and Winchester have recommended starting points to try for various cartridges and bullet weights. I've found them to be pretty helpful.

https://www.browning.com/support/faq/boss-sweet-spot.html

https://www.winchesterguns.com/support/faq/boss-sweet-spot-settings.html

Yes, I am aware. When Beretzs and others sent me the info, I turned it to where it suggested a 160gr bullet weight should be, since I plan on shooting more 162 ELDX bullets through it. The rifle shoots pretty good and I'm sure a load can be dialed right in to a real sweet spot. Possibly even less than 1/2" for 3 shots? I was always a naysayer about the BOSS, as I didn't like the way they look but this one has grown on me. I really don't mind it and it isn't that much noisier than my other 7mm rem mag. I do notice the recoil is less too. Very easy to shoot off the bench. I guess that is why the OP wants a brake on his rifle. On a magnum cartridge, I can see its merits, but on a standard cartridge like a 6.5 creedmoor or 7mm08, I think I'd just use it without a brake. They are quite manageable.

If your rifle is anything like mine, putting three shots under 1/2" should be easy when you find the sweet spot. I've been able to put three into a nickel-sized group.

A nickle is only .750". The rifle does that now. You have me interested in taking this load:


... and messing with the BOSS. I'm sure you are right. The group size would probably shrink. The 7mm rem mag I bought after that stainless classic shoots that load like this:


Another great model 70..^^ After a little work of course.. However, I'm thinking about a Remington 721 I saw the other day. The damn thing is eating at me. Chambered in 270 Winchester and only $425... I got the feeling that the thing is scary accurate and a damn good deal to boot... I got the same feeling with the brown painted stock 7mm rem mag above..

Yep, I just want the option of the brake for shooting at the bench. I'd most likely remove it for hunting. If I get one already threaded at least I have the option.

Again, I appreciate all the info and y'all have given me lots to think about.

Good luck Blooze. I hope you find just the right one. There are a lot of good rifles out there.

Recently picked up a Bergar .243 that’s super accurate, well made, nice looking gun. Not the cheapest, but not expensive either. Virtually no felt recoil, Highly recommend.

hikerbum, which model?

Sorry, my memory let me down on that one. I went back and looked. It managed to put five shots into a dime and I stopped the tuning at that point. No clue if it would have tightened up any more, but I didn't see much point since it's a hunting rifle.

Now that is better and a hell of a good "hunting" rifle right there.

Did it with Core-Lokts, no less. I was still in college at the time.

Never met anybody who could get honest 1/2" groups in field positions. So unless your hunting your deer from a benchrest you might mend your thinking. For the last 50 years I've hunted and shot a 150+ big game animals only a small % of those guns would shoot under an 1" most were 1.5" capable which didn't stop me from shooting and killing all them animals. Most half inch shooters are only able to do that on the internet. Wasn't until the internet that most of us didn't know how inaccurate our guns are according to someone else. All our dead animals in the freezer and the septic tank gonna rise up and go back to living? Just because it don't bother you to drop large amounts of cash on all the different loads out there to get a 1/4" tighter group don't mean Blooze does. Speaking of which Blooze was a primitive archer for many years, I am betting he has enough ethics to know when to pass on a shot. Keep your lofty ideals to yourself. There yours to live by but don't shove them down everyone else's throat...mb

My opinions are exactly that. Blooze asked for them and I offered mine up. If you're cool lobbing lead from a 1.5 MOA rifle at game animals 300 yards away, that's your call. In MY OPINION, it's unethical and I didn't need the interwebs to tell me not to take shots that I couldn't make consistently during practice. God blessed me with enough common sense to figure that out all on my own. I went to Montana last year and stacked two bullets inside 1/2" at 200 yards to verify my rifle's zero from a field position, so it can be done. Don't give two chits if you believe me or not.

Blooze is looking at rifles that run north of $1k, so I highly doubt another Franklin or two in ammo is going to be a deal-breaker. He can use all of the ammo for practice anyway, so it's not like the money is getting flushed down the toilet. I'm not shoving anything down anyone's throat, either. Simply offering my perspectives, based on my personal experiences that have proven effective for me. You do you, however chitty I might think it sounds.

Now I really need to mess with that damn BOSS!!!!