Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What caliber does the least amount of meat damage on deer??

Hunting around for a rifle the does no destroy the meat at 100-200 yards. I hear guys talk about the .375 H&H, .375 Ruger and the 45-70. What round have you guys had luck with?


Thanks

Just shoot em' through the ribs behind the shoulders (not through the shoulders) with whatever you have and don't worry about bloodshot meat.

Yep

That said, I have found the 375 H&H and premium bullets to be meat friendly when used on shoulders.
I am certain it is all about
1) speed
and
2) bullet

The one in the hands of a competent rifleman who's looking to kill cleanly and avoid excess damage.

A big heavy slow moving cast bullet is hard to beat at those ranges if avoiding meat damage is important. Shoot em thru both shoulders, no tracking and hardly any meat loss.

22

.20 grain .177 caliber full metal jacket. Best if you shoot 'em through the eye.

Same with the 17 HMR...grin

anything through the eye works

I like to shoot through both lungs over the heart so to save the heart for table fare. Back when I was shooting a bunch of deer on annual kill permits, I used many different cartridge combinations throughout the years. Using the heavier bullets of several different standard cartridges resulted in more saved hearts with lesser damage while using the lighter end bullets from the same cartridges tended to result in the more damage. Of all the combos I used, standard velocity large game loads out of the 375H&H resulted in the best overall performance with markedly quick kills while having saved hearts and minimum damage. Most of the smaller cartridges I used that also performed well with markedly quick kills resulted in more lost hearts with more overall damage. The 375H&H was very consistent.

At that time, I was using the 375H&H, which was my bear rifle, to get plenty of trigger time. But even though it performed exceedingly well, I no longer use it as a regular deer rifle as it is a bunch of gun to handle day in and day out if you have no intention of shooting anything bigger than a deer.

Best

.30-06 with 125 Ballistic tips. Gut shoot em so you don't ruin any meat. Wanna see a pic? Oh and no I wasn't the shooter, nor did Genius intend the stellar shot placement.

100gr HP at the base of the ear at say 3700fps. No meat loss or run soured meat.

Use a compound bow if you want minimal meat damage!!!

To answer the thread title, I think its the caliber you shoot the deer in the head with...

All Bullshi++ aside, this post nailed it! Well done!!



X-VERMINATOR

I assumed that you could tell by my title that its 264wm

You, sir, needs to get you a .358!

Exit wound on the shoulder of small buck, killed at about 10-15 yards with my .358 using a 225 Partition at 2500 fps.

Nice thing about .358 is it puts the smackdown on 'em without tearing things up too bad.

Over the years and on average I have found that Nosler Partitions are a bit easier on the chops than some other bullets.....I'll bet Barnes X's are good too.

That said, all calibers/bullets kill by destroying tissue.The differences are ones of degree..

try a snare and a good sharp knife to cut there throats with.