Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Recommended caliber for Saskatchewan deer.

Use whatever you use at home it will work the same up there. Just make sure its free from any oil it will freeze. Be prepared for 0 degrees F, and stay in the stand all day.

I have been invited to hunt private property in Saskabush several times in recent years, but, so far, other issues have interfered. I hope/expect to go next year and will just use one of the same rifles I do here; I might well take my mint P-64-70 .264WM "Westerner" with it's Zeiss 4.5x14 scope, running 140NPs at 3250.

But, my advice after almost a half century of BC hunting and 60+ years of varied outdoor activities, much of that "pro" bush work in resource management, is to ASK your outfitter.

If, for some reason, that is not possible or you prefer to not seem a "novice" when you hit a camp full of middle-aged largely foreign "dude hunters" as they are called here in BC, my next suggestion is to use the rifle YOU shoot best and with a good bullet, the NP is never a mistake.

For general Whitetail hunting and we have them in BC as big as ANY Alberta or Sask. specimen, I prefer one of my 7x57, 7/08 or ,308Win. rifles and I DO load NPs. However, I am a retired resident with lots of time to hunt and I usually don't care if I shoot anything or not, so, perhaps a bit more zip might be better for you.

I would avoid .243, 6mm and so on and start at the .25-06-115NP at 3000+ and go from there. If, there IS a "better" tool for this task than the old .270 Win, well, I ain't never seen it.

I have yet to meet a deer where my .243 and 85TSX/80TTSX can't penetrate vitals from any angle. I've seen a few whoppers take a dirt nap, and I'm not picky with my shot angles. The big boys don't give you an extra second to wait for the perfect presentation. Most of the time with the biggest bucks you take what you've given within 3-15 seconds, or you go home with a consolation deer. I've recovered 2 85gr X/TSX bullets. The second of the two entered the onside rear quarter, broke femur, penetrated paunch and vitals, and ended up in the opposite shoulder. The first bullet made the same trip in reverse.

Give me any chambering from .243 on up, but make SURE to give me a TSX/TTSX/NP/etc. to stoke it with.

I can like a TTSX or TSX, but only in something FAST. I killed a 6 point bull down in WY a few years ago with 140 TSX out of my .280. The results of 3 to the lungs at 100 yds weren't that great. One through the guts and into the offside shoulder as I rounded the slash pile he walked behind at 5 feet dropped him like a lightning strike. I shot several deer and antelope with 100 TSX from my .257 Roy and it's alway impressive. I'm a fan of BT in slower stuff (and my RUM). I wouldn't take a 400 yd shot on a hard quartering buck with a .243 stoked with any bullet, with my 300 RUM and a 180 BT it will be dead on the spot. I'm no ballistician, all I can do is go by what I've seen, big bullets going really fast seem to really impress things whether they are up close or far away.

Gotta use what you have confidence in, but the long story short is that anything that kills whitetails a few miles south of Canada, will also kill them a few miles to the north...

Guided non-residents are typically hunting baited stands. Ranges are short and deer aren't hard to kill. Chances are there will be snow on the ground.

Locals tend to use the .270, 30-06, 7mm Rem and .300 Win with a few .308s thrown in. That would likely cover 80% of what gets used. The last 20% could be just about anything. In my circle of enthusiast friends the STW is very popular as is the .257 Weatherby but we live on the prairie not the bush.

The .243 will be met with plenty of sneers. I'm not going to start in on that debate, but plenty of people hate it.

I posed this question to a guide in Saskatchewan and he said to use a .30/06 with 180-grain bullets.

When I asked him why, he said that it was the one load he could be sure of obtaining in the north country.

Apparently he's had some bad experiences with hunters bringing SAUMs, WSMs, and RUMs and either getting separated from their ammo or running short. He then has a loooong drive to Saskatoon to try to find some ammo.

That's the thing about the TSX/TTSX is that it levels the playing field for smaller cartridges.

I wouldn't hesitate to bring the 257Roberts on a hunt out west, so it's pretty hard to imagine a 243 with a TSX being a bad idea.

Well, no offence intended to anyone, but, if you know many highly experienced "western" Canadian hunters, you will find that many of them TRIED the 6mms and a few the "Bob" and you do not see many of these still using these rounds.

That is, of course, due in some measure to the usual purchase of a few rifles to be used on ALL legal big game species and very few will choose a .243Win. in this role over a .270Win. where the same rifle will be used on both deer and elk.

I frequently read comments on the very few "gun" sites that I ever visit by various posters about killing "hundreds" of game animals or, a real favourite, "truckloads" of elk, moose and so forth. I tend to view such comments in much the same light that I do the assurances of politicians about pretty much any aspect of life...........

YES, with a GOOD bullet, a 6mm WILL do the business on deer and even elk/moose and the 25s are, IMHO, a bit better, especially the excellent .26-06 and/or the .257 Bee, one of the three "Roy" cartridges which I have never fires.

BUT, and this is merely a query as I realize that the TSX type of bullet in a .243Win. WILL whack a baited deer from a close-range stand, I do not "get" WHY anyone would choose a cartridge/bullet for an expensive and perhaps "once in a lifetime" hunt that is marginal in all-around uses in the area being hunted.

A .270Win. or .280Rem. will do anything that the .243Win. can do in this situation and a lot more "all-around" and I have found these to be ideal for deer killing here in BC. Based on my field experience with the Alberta Dept. of Environment, 1990-1993, I think that this would hold true there or in the other "Prairie Provinces" as well.

JMHO, I no longer own a 6mm of any type or a .257" cal. but, were I younger, I would definitely have one of each, a 6mm Rem. and a .25-06, built on those HVA actions sold cheaply by "Tradex" and with STS bbls. by Ted Gaillard. With my Ruger MKII lam. stock, sporter weight .220Swift, these would give me the battery for winter predator culling that I hope to do.

I guess I would take my 284 Win, 308, or 300WSM, in about that order. Keep those coyotes & wolves honest too.


OBTW, I carry enough ammo so I don't have to buy any from the local mini-mart.

If I was going to Saskatchewan for deer, I'd probably take my Ed Brown Damara, .300 Win Mag. It's light, powerful and very accurate. It may me more gun than I need for that task, but it won't get caught short.

My one trip up there was to kill an elk and I used the outfitters .300 Wby, Vanguard, shooting 180 gr. NPT, factory ammo. It did the trick.

DF

There's no use shooting the messenger.

I agree.

[quote=kutenay]
BUT, and this is merely a query as I realize that the TSX type of bullet in a .243Win. WILL whack a baited deer from a close-range stand, I do not "get" WHY anyone would choose a cartridge/bullet for an expensive and perhaps "once in a lifetime" hunt that is marginal in all-around uses in the area being hunted.

quote]

I don't understand the obsession with seeing how small a cartridge can be gotten away with. Apparently, neither do most of guided hunters. Talking to several Saskatchewan outfitters the overwhelming choice of those that show up is the .300 Win, with a surprising number of Weatherbys thrown in for good measure. I've found that when its time for travelling hunters to put their money where their mouth is they bring plenty of gun and leave the debates at home. The pattern seems hold reasonably true throughout the world, lots of .300s.

Good points I think in both these posts. I have not traveled the world to hunt, but here in NA,as a class I see more 300 magnums of some stripe or another than any other category of cartridge in camps frequented by traveling hunters....and have heard the same sentiments abut 30 caliber magnums from many outfitters. Use a 300 magnum on enough animals, with good bullets and good placement, and the distinctions between them and smaller stuff will eventually become apparent.(I won't get into the ability of some hunters to shoot them well, which can be the fly in the ointment)

They are wicked killers of about any BG animal. But I still don't think they are required on a Saskatchewan deer hunt, even though I have used them myself up there.

I would not fetch along a 243 for the chore if there was a choice of anything larger, since, good though they might be, there is other stuff that is simply better IMHO. My choices for central Canada start with a 270 and end in the 30 caliber class.

As to the small gun stuff, I think folks sometimes confuse "lethal" with "fully sufficient"....as a ridiculous example of this, a 22 rim fire and a 280 are both "lethal"....but only the 280 would be considered "fully sufficient" in the BG hunting context. If folks don't know the difference, I can't explain it.

Like you said here, it is a bit different when you are a resident and moose, elk, deer etc can all be on the menu. When I lived in Manitoba I often took a .250 Savage because the only thing I was hunting was deer. I will be leaving shortly on my annual "big" hunt. I won't be carrying a .250 Savage.

Well, I've only taken about 70 or so Saskatchewan deer, but I would feel fully confident with a .243, or .250 Savage or .257 Roberts with good bullets. I usually have used something bigger because a lot of our hunting overlaps with moose, elk and bear seasons. I do not know one single local hunter who chooses a 300 magnum for whitetails, although a few do shoot 7mm Remington mags. Far more common are .270's, .308's, 30-06, 7mm-08, etc. etc.
A 25-06 is about ideal for open country whitetails in my opinion. Choosing a 300 magnum for any deer-only hunt seems kinda silly to me, besides being a little disrespectful to all that good venison. But if a visiting hunter wants to use a 300 mag and can shoot it well, they kill deer very effectively, that's for sure.

You should!!!!

You'll be the talk, or should I say squawk of camp. Do it! I dare ya.

That's it, should be the holy grail of expensive hunts.

Northern bucks as opposed to tiny frail southern bucks do carry a lot of weight, I can't imagine anyone wanting to use less than a 130 grain .270 class round on a $5000 trip.

If hunting over bait at 100 yards or under I would think a good ole 45-70 would do the trick. I've killed more bears than I care to count over bait with my 450 Marlin and never had to shoot twice. But use your 270 win. with Barnes tsx or NPs and you'll be fine. Good luck on your hunt. Kevin