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Joined: Aug 2003
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7mm mag without a doubt for me. 163bc
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I had a .340 Weatherby and that was one bad dude! Factory load with 200gr B.T at 3221fps is no joke!
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Joined: Sep 2005
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I would take the 280Rem. Crap thats not a choice...lol... then make mine the 7mm mag shooting 140gr TTSX or 150gr E-Tips.
randy..
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 7,128
Campfire Tracker
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I'd probably go with the 7mm mag.
I used to be a .25 fan. I lost a good buck well hit with a .25-'06. I found the carcass a few days later still intact enough to determine entry/exit points. It should have been DRT, or within 40-50 yards anyway, it should not have gone full-steam over a ridge 400 yards away. I lost a lot of confidence in the smaller calibers right there.
Tom Sounds like you had insufficient bullet performance, not an insufficient cartridge! +1 I had a 25-06 and it liked Hornady 120 Hollow Points and they blew all the way through whitetails with ease, I am confident they would do the same on mulies.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 14,475
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I could kill a mule deer out to 500 yards with all three rounds.
I'd rather carry the 25-06, probably lighter.
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Joined: Feb 2003
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To me, the 7mm RM with a 140/160 Partition says Mule Deer all day long. Near, far, windy, cloudy, global warming - its the perfect marriage!
Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it.
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I'm craving any Seven or a 25-06 in a Montana just for mulie hunting!!
Last edited by Shag; 03/16/09.
Your Every Liberal vote promotes Socialism and is an attack on the Second Amendment. You will suffer the consequences.
GOA,Idaho2AIAlliance,AmericanFirearmsAssociation,IdahoTrappersAssociation,FoundationForWildlifeManagement ID and MT.
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 35,900
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 35,900 |
All would work......I would take the 7 mag of the three offered.This is because I use it for that purpose a great deal.
The 280 Remington is overbore.
The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,584
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All 3 of the rounds you mention will do you just fine. For me, it would be about which rifle they were coming in and which one felt better to me than it would be about which round.
Good luck to ya
Dober My thoughts exactly.
Anybody who seriously concerns themselves with the adequacy of a Big 7mm for anything we hunt here short of brown bear, is a dufus. They are mostly making shidt up. Crunch! Nite-nite!
Stolen from an erudite CF member.
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25-06 like my winchester 70 classic sporter
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 131
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I used my 25-06 on tons of deer in high school, before I thought I needed somthing bigger.
25-06 works, 257wby is more of a good thing. either or!
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Joined: Jun 2004
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Its been said all 3 are great choices, so I won't kick that dog again. I have all three calibers in comfortable rifles. I will be toting my 257 Wby this fall in Colorado. Mainly because I feel like its the lucky one to bring me a 180" of mule deer. Sounds cool anyway.
BTW I'll be shooting the little blue bullets, in the 100 gr variety.
Joseph
Joseph
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How far are you shooting on average? What kind of country? Flat, steep, wooded, etc? That would affect my decision. Of the three, the 7mm Rem Mag would be the most versatile. You could load light for a flat shooting round in open country or you can load heavy for timber. You can even load in the middle if you hunt windy country.
With that said, get a 300 Win Mag! 150gr Swift Scirrocco is a great open country, medium game load. Shoots super flat, hits hard, takes animals down hard.
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 2,040
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I would go with the 7mm Remington Magnum, if I had to choose from those 3 cartridges. The load would probably be a 150gr Swift Scirroco, a 140gr Accubond or a 139gr or 154gr Interbond.
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Joined: Dec 2003
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With many options sitting just a grab away - the two I reach for more often than not, in Mule Deer country are the 25-06 and the 7mm-08.
The 25-06 is a Browning Bolt Action (pre-A Bolt) with a fat Weatherby Mark V style bolt and a squared off fore end. It wears an old Redfield Wide-view 2X8. It is a heavy rifle, but so accurate, and it always did what was asked of it - regardless of distance - with animals as big as big bull elk. I always used either Nolser Partitions or Barnes X type bullets out of it.
The 7mm-08 is a first generation Remington Titanium. It was terrible out of the box, but after many gunsmithing hours, shoots well now. It is topped with an Ultra-light 3X9 Leupold scope. It is so light that it's the rifle I want to pack when the country gets vertical in aspect. The older I get - the more I appreciate the ultra-light weight of that set-up. It also performs great with TSX's as far out as I ever want to shoot a deer.
Brian
Vernon BC Canada
"Nothing in life - can compare to seeing smiles on your children's faces."
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I really like the 2506. Why,because it is a real step up from smaller calibers for big deer. Now of course everything bigger works.The kicker for me is the fact that this is a shootable cartridge in the lightest of rifles and work for low volume shooting for everything from deer on down. Bottom line for me is I enjoy shooting this cartridge year round. They say familiarity breeds contempt.When it comes to familiarity thats what I want in a huntin rifle.
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Campfire Tracker
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I will use either my .257 Wthby or my Tikka T-3 Lite in .300 Win Mag. I used a 150 gr Interbond from the Tikka to take this buck last November... almost 180 inches. The other buck is a 150-class.
�That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.� George Orwell
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All three will work well, I'd just go with the one that fits the hunt. If it's a lot of walking, I'd go with the lightest. Glassing and stalk, maybe a little heavier gun. The biggest mule deer i ever saw killed was shot by my uncle Harold McCallum with a handloaded 38-55 just out of Chemult Oregon in 1964. Three on one side and four on the other with about a 30 inch span. He had the head mounted but after his death i don't know where it went. A side note is the rifle he shot it with was a Winchester 94 serial number 8. Harold collected Winchesters and hunted with a lot of them. Doc
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." Thomas Jefferson, 1776
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