Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters A Close-in Deer Rifle

A 700 Mountain Rifle in most chamberings available,
A 600/660 in most chamberings - I’ll suggest 243, 6mm or 308
A early 700 “carbine” in most chamberings
A 336 Marlin in 30-30, 32 Special, 375, 38-55
A Savage 99 in 250 Savage, 300 Savage, 303
A BLR in most chamberings
A Model 100 or 88 Winchester
A Winchester 94 in 30-30 or more power
Several light 70’s or 77’s.
Then there’s ultra lites and various other rifles from smaller manufacturers

There’s so many good choices!

The best choice is a matter of preference, experience etc.

I have many of these. My 700 7x57 Mountain Rifle is possibly my favorite for conditions you write about. I have a FX-3 6x on top of mine and I’d prefer nothing else.

Like most of you, I ain't hurting for deer rifles at any range, but one of my favs for genuine "close in" hunting is this one.

.38-55 with 16" barrel, Weaver 1-3x

Amen to that. Which is why my Marlin 30-30 wore a 1-4x 20mm Leupold from 2001 until 2020. Only reason it came off was that I'm now allowed to shoot a half hour before and after sunset. Figured I better get an illuminated reticle for those opportunities at first and last light. Put on a Vortex Strike Eagle 1-6x that wasn't being used. Played with it in the woods next to me in the evenings and I really like that illuminated reticle in low light. Filled an antlerless tag with it so far at about 60-80 yards. Except it was 3:15 PM in broad daylight, scope was on 3X, which is all that's needed in that scenario. Still waiting to get my first low light opportunity with an illuminated reticle.

Here's another photo of a deer taken up close.

This occurred in Colorado around 20 years ago, when my friend Brad Ruddell (who worked for Weatherby for many years) and I went on a deer/elk hunt in the Middle Park area of Colorado. The buck was glassed bedded down quite a ways away, almost on top of a ridge near a thicket of quaking aspens and other stuff. We decided that I'd sneak onto the open ridge below the thicket, and Brad would sit around 100 yards above me in the thicket. Then another guy would come up the ridge below us and, hopefully, move the buck toward one of us.

It turned out to be Brad. The buck ran through the thicket and he shot it at close range with his "over-scoped" 7mm Weatherby Magnum--which Brad used a couple days later to kill a bull elk at around 300 yards. (The bullet, in case anybody's wondering, was a 175-grain Hornady Interlock Spire Point.)

Which is yet another of many examples of why I don't think the rifle, cartridge and sights don't matters as much as the shooter....

Using a rifle that fits and the scope mounted so when the rifle is shouldered, you're looking through it and not searching for the right cheek weld is PDQ.

Excellent!

Guy

I always thought to best gun for close in shooting, was whatever gun you happen to have with you...

The others really don't matter if they are back home in the gun safe, or in the trunk of your car, or your truck's camper.

Sure you can use a long barreled, bolt action magnum with a high magnification variable scope for still hunting or tracking in thick cover. You can use a carbine with a low magnification scope as a bean field/plains rifle too. That doesn't mean either is well suited for the job.

👍

No thanks. I'll continue to select my rifle based on the cover and hunting style. Still hunting calls for a different rifle than an afternoon blind sit watching a field

One minute I can be in the thick at the top.......and the next looking at this guy 300 yards away. I'll be carrying a bolt action, and I won't be at a disadvantage in either case.



Still hunting in the thick...If I wanted to shoot a gun instead of the camera, it wouldn't have been a .30-30




Posted this before....However, he was on the run at around 25 yards. Leupold 6x...I saw him take the hit thru the scope.

Some guys just don't seem to understand hunting someplace where there are no fields or power line cuts, just woods.

Some guys just don't seem to understand that their hunting experience is far from the only experience.

My son had to learn to hunt eastern NC. Very different from hunting WV. Here we use the terrain and it's easier to find places to set up.

Yeah, you might keep that in mind. I've known a lot of experienced and highly successful deep woods still hunters and trackers. Never knew a one that used a long barreled magnum rifle or high magnification scope .

You are right....some guys don't understand. Woods are open compared to this....

Is always a lever action of one sort or another....

Give you credit....well done!!!!

We've got plenty of thick stuff here too. I don't care if you want to carry a bolt action with 6x scope around all day. I prefer one of my levers for woods hunting. I have turned the variable x scope on my bolt guns up as far as 6x a couple times when hunting farm country though. Once back in 1993 to kill a buck 440 yards across a field and again to kill a piebald doe 270 yards across a field at last light in 2021. I've never needed that many x's to kill a deer in the woods.

I don't expect you to care.....but since we are having a conversation. 1.5-5 and 3x are my two favorite woods scopes... ....and if needed, of little disadvantage out to 300 or so.