Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer of a lifetime- which gun/load?

what is a deer of a lifetime??? most deer of a lifetime stories are about the ones that got away due to a stupid badly placed shot.they are the ones that will keep you awake at night.these days with everyone feeding deer and tryin to grow bigger deer there is always a bigger one out there it seems.i try to kill the biggest deer that i've seen in my hunting area,some years i do some years i don't. i enjoy eveything from shooting practice to time in the stand to the kill and yes even the butchering of animals.the whole thing makes them all deer of a lifetime.

my tikka t3 lite in 270win,hornady 140spbt.

Well said. We rifle hunt for quality bucks that we are proud to put on the wall. Our standards aren't quite as high for bow hunting. We also love the meat and most years will get a doe late in the season if we haven't had an opportunity on a buck. Hope has been most successful here lately with one buck a year for the past 3 seasons. Two with a rifle, 7-08ai shooting 120 gr TTSX at 3180ish fps, and one with a bow.

2013, 194 yds, 7-08ai, 120 gr TTSX


2011, 40 yds, 7-08ai, 120 gr TTSX


2012, Bear Homewrecker, Muzzy MX-3, at 20 yds


Here's my one contribution recently:
2012, 284 win Model 70, 120 gr NBT, 3120 fps, 35 yds

Remington 760 in 30-06 with 165gr Hornady SP handload
Ruger M77 MK II in 308 with 150gr Hornady SP handload

This is a hard question to answer for me as I hunt such a wide variety of terrain. I killed my largest to date with a 45-70 handi rifle that I have not had out of the safe since 2009.
I have killed more deer with a 300wm Browning BAR than any other gun.
If I leave the house today;
If I plan to shoot less than 300 yards my 25-06ai is what I take, it is a custom Sako AV topped with a meopta 4-12x50 shooting 110 accubombs at 3410fps.
Beanfield hunting that could exceed 300 yrds gets my rem sendero 7rm out. It is topped with a swarovski 5-25x52. I shoot 150 nbt over imr4350 for 3100fps.
I got a nice 10pt yesterday with it at 423 yrds

I'll take damn near anything so long as it's slinging good bullets.

If I was going on the hunt of a lifetime or knew the buck of a lifetime was going to show up on a certain day, I would definitely have my custom Pre-64 257Wby in my hands. Got a Conquest 4.5-14x50 with target turrets up top, slinging 100gr TTSX's.

A Savage model 99 in .250 or .300 Savage. Just depends on which one I'm carrying that day.

this

So far I've had 2 instances where I had The-Big-One come in on the Opener, well before sunrise. In each case, I've had my Savage 99 in 308 WIN in hand.

If the next Deer-of-a-lifetime comes in, I'll probably be holding the '99.






The load? I download the 308 WIN to 300 Savage levels. I use H4895 under a 165 grain Hornady Interlok SP.

Shaman, I believe I've killed deer with that exact gun, in those same overalls, kind of funny. I mean not the exact some ones, I have my own pair.

MM

LOL

A few years ago we were talking about how somebody was trying to sell their B&C mount for $10K. At the time, I'd just gotten that big boy back from the Taxi, so I made the offer that if someone wanted to give me $10K, I'd throw in not only the mount and the rifle, but I'd throw in the S10 that dragged him out, and I'd even let them rent the family for a while so they could back the buyer up on how he'd taken the monster.

I think I still have the pics. Let me dig a bit. . .

(dig, dig, dig . . )





Sadly, I had no takers.

BTW: I found some bibs at Wing Supply the other day that are close to those. They're a different pattern, but they're Walls. It's been close to 10 years since I've found good cheap 3X bibs. The ones you see in the picture were the last pair I found. I'm still wearing them too.

Good question, thankfully I"m picky about my shots, and I"ve passed a couple bigger than anything I have. Rather than risk a bad shot. Glad I do it that way. There are a couple I can still see at times though...

As to what it means, it means just that to me, the best deer I will ever kill. Not the best that year or so on. I only kill mature bucks or cull bucks these days. So I don't always get to shoot a mature buck each year. Sometimes not for 4-5 or more years. No big deal. I still think the young culls and does eat better anyway.
Especially after cutting up a 6.5 year old buck that had been aging for 2 weeks yesterdya... meat was still tough and smelled....

My favorite for deer is my Ruger M77 Hawkeye 358 Win using a 225 grain NP's over a near max load of Ramshot TAC. I wouldn't hesitate to use it out to 250+ yards and it shines as a woods gun as well. It's been on an unsuccessful elk hunt as well and will go again.

Obviously, it would be the very gun that I'd chosen to take on that particular hunt. Otherwise, why would I be there if I wasn't packing a gun that was anything other than adequate for whatever ethical/legal situation that arose?

White model 91 .451 With a little bit of powder and a huge hunk of soft lead.

1st gen 700 Ti .260 Rem, 2x8 VX3 leupold.
That's all I need and all I have been using for the past 7 years.
Edit to add, hand load with 120 gr. Barnes TSX 's

Pre-64 model 70 FWT, .308, 165 gr. partitions over RL-15.

Custom Remington ADL 700 in .280 Remington.

Cooper .280 Rem with 150 gr. Partitions.

Nice Deer Rifle, Grunt.