Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting deer with a .243 vs. 30-06

Different strokes for different folks. I prefer to stay out of the shoulders in the interest of meat preservation.

to each his own ... I'd rather lose a little meat rather than have to worry about tracking a deer at night thru really dense pine thickets ...

then again, I can basically shoot as many doe as I like, so losing a few pounds of meat here and there doesn't bother me at all ... but if I had only a few tags per year, I might consider only taking head shots on doe ... (grin)

I have 90 grain GK BTHP Sierras going about 3150 from my 250 Savage, well below MOA. Think that would empty a brain pan?

I would expect so. I run the 85 gr. BTHP GK's @ 3150 out of my .243 and they'll clean a brain pan slick as a whistle.

Yep, you preserved lots of meat on those 7 deer you lost...

WTF are you talking about ?

WHOOPS!!! Too much liquor. Post should have been directed at Blueridgejohn. Sorry...

That was an amazing post there, goofball.

Laffin my arse off here buddy ! Been afflicted by the PUI {posting under the influence} malady myself from time to time. Merry Christmas to ya !

So how was my shot placement on the 40 some I have killed with .30 calibers and lost none???

BlueRidge, you asked what if you don't get good shot placement? More power is not any guarantee nor necessarily 'buffer' or offset YOUR miss.

Things happen, but if you know your rifle and have practiced, you should not fire until sure your first will find it's mark. MOST often it will, assuming you have discovered thru trial and error, what YOUR limitations are - and work w/in that.

If you hunt where game is moving fast or whatever conditions hamper precise placement, do the best you can whether you launch an 80 Barnes in 243 or a 225 from a 358, you STILL have to be in the 'vitals' ballpark, to win IMHO. A poorly hit animal even w/large caliber can go a long ways or survive.

I say GOOD bullet + GOOD shooting = Success

I Prioritize HITTING VITALS first, and usually all else works out.

The collective body of evidence shared by many other hunters have shown that a 257 Roberts is not inadequate as a deer cartridge. So, you're 70% lost deer percentage is due to your [bleep] ups and could be attributed to lots of things. Wrong bullets for the shot taken. You suck at finding deer. You didn't hit them where you should have. Or a combination of those and others. It's still on you and not a fault of the cartridge.

I read this last night before I went to sleep and it made me think very hard.

So I went to a pickup truck forum and I was looking for the post that 350 and 5.7 GM engines really dont work in pickup trucks.

My world has been turned upside down.

Hank

Nah, it's only for people who can shoot well. Those who can't must use something bigger.

I have killed over 20 bucks with a bow, and a few pope and youngs, I seriously doubt my deer tracking skills are bellow average... And I still ask the question, how come I have lost none with the .30's and several with the groundhog guns??? Oh and the ones lost were with the 117 remington core lokts...Don't give me no BS about that being a bad bullet, it gets it done in the 30-06 and has probably killed more deer than any other bullet made... If a gun requires a better bullet, the gun is't the best out there...

And why not just hunt deer with a .22 mag conclusive poaching evidence shows it does a fine job?

Did you go to school stupid or did you come out that way?

Glad you chimed in Scott...I was restraining myself, now that Ive found where the Rocket Surgeons hang out....

The 243 sucks..the 30/06 is great.

The 30/06 sucks.....the 243 is great.

The 280 is Almighty and better than both...cause it is in between.

There.......!

Merry Christmas!

Excessive verbiage Bob...

7x57 trumps all...

.270 might as well not even exist....

Ingwe: It grieves me to do so, but I am compelled to agree...

My last two 270 bucks were only "merely dead"....they were NOT "most sincerely dead"........