Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles More deer have been killed with the xxxx than any other cartridge.

When I started hunting 30+ years ago, you always heard that the .30-30 has accounted for more deer than any other cartridge. I am wondering if that statement will still hold true?

Seems (to me) like the trend is smaller caliber, lighter bullets and higher velocity. I don't hunt in the New England anymore, so maybe the line about the .30-30 can still be true up there.

Perhaps the 30-30 has the most however military rounds seem to dominate due to numbers as well.

When I see another hunter in the woods in VT I expect to see a 740 in 30-06.

As for myself I don't think I have ever even fired a 30-30 let alone wanted one.

M94 30-30? LOL

I don't hunt with one anymore, but if I had to venture a guess I would say the 30/06 has killed the most Mule deer of any rifle cartridge. Probably holds true for elk and pronghorn as well.

Most hunters of these animals are not the rifle looney's that you find on these boards. They buy one good rifle in 30/06 or maybe a 270 or 280, some K Mart 150 grain or 180 grain ammo, sorta sight it in then hunt the with it for the rest of thier days.

Wonder how many the market hunters killed.

Because of the exploson of deer herds around the country and the liberalization of bag limits and regulations, I think that more deer have been killed by hunters in the past 35 years than in the previous 150 years. We have been living in the Golden Age of deer hunting. If that is true, then the calibers that have killed the most deer are the ones that have been selling best for the past several decades.

From the beginning of time to date, on all kinds of deer, my guess would be:

1. .30/06
2. .30/30
3. .270
4. Tie between .308 and .243

I would guess that the round ball of a muzzleloader has topped them all.

I doubt it. Deer were nowhere near as plentiful in frontier days as they have been in the past 75 years.

22 LR

Around here I'd say Joe Average is shooting a Savage or Remington 700 in .30-06 or .270 with some .243's thrown in. I don't think I've seen anybody else that had a .308. A handful of old school 7 Mags as well.

Around here you see a lot of Rem 742s and 760s in .30-06 and .270 with some BARs in the same.

Don't forget about the 12 ga shotgun

30-30

I think in the last 10 years Buicks have killed more deer than the several cartridges combined.

Another vote for .22 LR

I read somewhere recently that the .30-30 was the #1 best selling centerfire cartridge in the US from the early 1900's up until the 1960's when the .30-06 finally nudged it out of first place. The .30-30 still ranks in the top 5 in ammunition sales today. It's still very popular in NY and I run across other hunters armed with .30-30's every season. My vote would go to the .30-30.

agreed

Not even close.

In 25 years as a game warden, I saw a few deer killed with the .22 LR. But it was a VERY small percentage of the total. The .22 LR has killed hundreds of thousands of deer, but the .30/30, .30/06 and .270 have each killed millions.

I'm with the 22 LR crowd.

The folks that lived in this area killed all their winter meat (deer) with .22 rifles. That's all they had.

My best guess would be as follows:
30-30
30-06
243
Toss up as to 12 gauge or .22
DMc