I will be Hunting deer will be 20 yards - 300 yards. The 300 win mag is to much HP and ton of meat damage. What caliber do you use with, that don`t destroy a lot of meat.

Don't overthink the meat damage fad topic. We always were most concerned with getting a deer.

Use the gun that is best for you.

The 300 magnums kick me quite a bit. I shot one today with 150's over H4350 and the 7mm magnum kicked less with 140's and that just has to be a 300 yd. deer gun.

My favorite is whatever is my pet rifle of the moment. It was the 30-06 the last few years and today for longer ranges it's a 7mm RM.

I think meat damage is more of a shot placement is than caliber. Also the bullet you choose make more difference than caliber, just my opinion.

A broadside shot through the lower vital with any caliber should not render much meat damage. That said I don't try to get rib meat either.

Meat damage is more about bullet construction than the round itself. Tough bullets at moderate velocities do the least damage, as well as avoiding shoulder shots. Something slow moving like a 35 Whalen with a heavy bullet would do little meat damage.

The ones I've liked best in this regard are the .375 H&H with 300s, .30-30 with 170s, .358 with 250s, and 9.3x62 with 286s, and .300 wsm but only with TSX 180s.

The worst for meat was the .270 with 130gr Sierra ProHunters. Horrible.

I don't consider avoiding meat damage a "fad". The stuff is too good to me to consider using rounds or bullets which provide a grenade effect on stuff I want to feed my family with.

Slow and heavy seems to be the message I get. I've not used mine yet, but rumors say one can eat right to the bullet hole when using a 405 grain 45-70 slug traveling at about 1,200 fps. One should also expect consistent pass throughs.

I have nailed a few does with 22-250's in the brisket and had blood shot meat in the loins.

223 with triple shocks. Or stick whatever in the head/upper neck.

For me it's been hard cast lead at low to moderate velocities. 405gr bear tooth bullets out of a 45/70 guide gun.

Of course the opposite answer is to put a high velocity fragmenting round into a double lung shot, I don't eat the ribs.

Slow and heavy has worked for me best...6.5x55 & NAB's or C&C 140's, but amazingly clean entry/exits with reliable DRT's from 9.3x62 & Speer 270's has been the best.
My 270's regardless of bullet used, it takes careful bullet placement, along with the usual suspects like my 300WSM/300WMg thru even fragile 243's in years past.
Ron

Heavy for caliber slugs at moderate velocity put thru the ribs to double lung them will kill fine without excess meat loss. Failing to change your load or caliber will still show you that thru the ribs with a double lung shot reduces meat loss the best.If you think that busting shoulder bones,ribs and spine for shot placement is the way to go, get use to meat loss period no matter what you use. Magnum Man

If you want the least amount of meat loss, shoot them where there is the least amount of meat. Duh! Head shots are a little tough on trophies, but that was not mentioned. I have found that a 168 TSX at 30-06 velocities through the shoulders at up to 225 yards, I lost very little meat. Eat almost right to the bullet hole. And I have only had one deer go more than two steps.

I use Piledriver Jrs here. I get just a little blood ring around the hole.

I also use Beartooth's 300 grain WFN in my .44 mag, running along about 1580 or so fps. Same thing.

Regardless of angle, it goes through, does little meat damage, and cuts a big ol' bleeding hole. Stevie Wonder can follow the blood trails.

Centerfire.22's are illegal for deer here in Colorado - the minimum is a .243 caliber. Lots of good choices in that cartridge, whether you handload or use factory.

The last deer I took was with my .300WM at less than 50 yards. The bullet was a 180g Barnes MRX (predecessor to the TTSX) that left the barrel at ~3038fps. Here's a picture of the exit wound:



With the hide off:


Here's the entrance wound:


I agree with others that bullet choice is a bigger factor than the cartridge. A .243 with the wrong bullet can make a mell of a hess.

The deer above was taken during elk season in open sage country. I took two others with the same load, also in sage but at much longer ranges. Both went straight down and again meat damage was minimal. One got hit broadside, the other in the chest. Both bullets exited. That said, a .300WM wouldn't be my first choice is I knew ranges would be under 300 yards.

I prefer my .257 Roberts to a .243 but the .257 is more of a handloader's cartridge as factory options are pretty limited. In short action rifles I'd go with a .260, 7mm-08 or .308. In long actions a .25-06, .270, .280, 7mm RM or .30-06. In any case, I would use a Barnes TTSX or low velocity to minimize meat damage.

That, and I would put my shots just behind the front leg.

Keep velocity under 3000 fps with cup and core bullets, and you're a step in the right dirrection. When I was shooting a 300wm as my main hunting rifle, I settled on 180grn Hornady Interlocks at 2950 +/-, and that seemed to solve a lot of the mess. The 150grn and bullets of frangible design will tear a carcass up. Shoot a sturdy bullet in the ribs and you'll have no more damage than any other standard deer rifle.

That said, my 257 Roberts with 115 ballistic tips at 2800 fps has done everything I've needed for a deer rifle, and doesn't make a mess on the receiving end.

Sounds to me like a .270 Winchester would be in order, use any good 130gr(I like Speer Grand Slams and I just bought 200 Nosler Partitions from SPS). Close to the same trajectory as your .300, but with a LOT less recoil, BIG medicine on whitetails.

I'm on board with this. Shot a lot of deer at various distances with the 270,7mm's,and 30's loaded with Partitions of various weights....only one instance of excessive damage jumped out at me,and that was on an 80 yard lung shot with a 140 gr at 3300 fps from a 7 rem mag. Two steps and down...blood shot on the off side ribs but that was it.

Tougher bullet construction minimizes the blasting/shredding effect of high velocity impact.

.30-30 would do nicely in this situation. LOL

If you reload you can put together some shells for your WM that clock around 2750 fps MV. That will take care of anything inside of 300 yards and not spoil too much meat.
As many other posters have said, slow bullets and careful shot placement work best. When talking about meat, velocity is not your friend.

+1

Yep!

I was amazed at how nice & neat the wound was on my whitetail this fall shots/ a 90 gr GMX @ approx 3450 fps. Great blood trail, short run, and ate right up to the hole.

Meat damage is not so much about caliber as it is about bullet selection and shot placement.

If I were you, I would probably be looking at something like the .257 Roberts, and a Barnes TSX bullet, for behind the shoulder, lung shots.

Then they'll get to complain about well shot deer running farther than they used to .

That Barnes bullet in Coyote's pic did an amazingly small amount of damage to that deer given the impact velocity. I've seen worse (slightly) from my 30-30.

That buck was not a straight-down DRT. I had to trail it for 3 or 4 yards. Every step took it closer to a 4x4 trail so I didn't really care. The final drag to where it lays in the photo (you can see a tire track to the right of my pack) was 2-3 yards. Wish they were all like that.

Like others have said I'm a big believer of heavier bullet for caliber. I shot a moose one time that was looking away from me in some thick stuff. Shot it with a 375 H&H 300 grain Barnes bullet and I could eat up to the hole. Not one bit of blood shot meat.

200 grain 30-06 will do the same thing.

I had good luck with the 30-30 Winchester shooting Federal 150 grain factory ammunition and the 250 Savage shooting the 100 grain factory ammunition. Looked like you could eat all the way to hole with either. I think any cup and core bullet going a moderate speed would do the same (2200 -2800 fps).

6.5x55 swede with 120-140 bullets ( hot core, hornady, nosler partition), shoot em thru the shoulders, DRT, very little meat loss.

.22 LR will certainly minimize meat damage.

Better to lose a little meat than the whole deer. So what if you lose some meat, I don't much like shoulder meat anyhow, so that's where I aim.

I use the 130 ProHunters in my .270s, and don't have to trail them anywhere except straight down.

So shoot them in the ear.

You could, of course, use the PPM 7x57 WhifflebulletPusher and just bruise them a bit when the slug bounces off, that would save a lot of meat.............