Big Game Hunting

[Chuck Haggard]

You should get an AR in 6.8SPC. That is a pretty decent deer round. In TN you can use .223, but I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon.

Yeah, but I can get into the .300BLK with only a barrel, same bolt, mags etc. as the 5.56 guns.

7.62X39mm/30-30 equivalent ballistics ain't a bad deer rifle round.

[Al T.]

I've hunted quite a bit and the .308/.30-06 are the workhorses for me. I have a scout (M600 Remington, Burris Scout Scope) for stalking and a Winchester Stainless Classic CRF '06 with a Leupold 3x9 for everything else.

I am thinking about a .25-06 for the small deer we have here.

[JHC]

Georgia deer hunting in the big woods of the National Forest up in Lumpkin County. Close range stuff and I use a Marlin .30-30 or more often, a N4 Recce. In fact six .223 rounds have take six deer at 100 yds down to 20 feet. I generally use BH 77 grain OTM because I keep a lot of it handy and the N4 zeroed for it. And it's worked fabulously on a couple. However I think the best single performing round for deer has been the 60 grain Nosler Partition.

[WDW]

Georgia deer hunting in the big woods of the National Forest up in Lumpkin County. Close range stuff and I use a Marlin .30-30 or more often, a N4 Recce. In fact six .223 rounds have take six deer at 100 yds down to 20 feet. I generally use BH 77 grain OTM because I keep a lot of it handy and the N4 zeroed for it. And it's worked fabulously on a couple. However I think the best single performing round for deer has been the 60 grain Nosler Partition.

Are you using a 1/8 or 1/7 twist barrel with those 77gr. .223's. I hear 1/9 won't stabilize them. I rarely shoot anything over 55gr. so I really wouldn't know.

[JHC]

1/7 twist. But I've shot 75 and 77 grains through a 1/9 rifle - only at 100 yards and they were stable (made tiny round holes) and the groups were as OK as that rifle normally shoots most loads.

[will_1400]

18.5" Remington 870 12 ga with slugs/rifle sights for deer. It might sound like over kill, but I've only hunted in southern Michigan and the local regs forbade the use of any bottle-necked cartridge for hunting. And considering I was in a swampy area where the longest possible shot was 25 yards, the 870 worked well enough for me.

[Prdator]

I've killed Semi-truck loads of deer and antelope with rifles bows muzzle loaders and handguns!!
Over the last few years I've kinda gone from a hunter to a guide, I get a huge satisfaction from my hunter getting a deer as I do if I kill one. Last year I got to guide Tom and Lynn Givens, and that was a blast!!!
One of my other hunters killed a 155" plus buck two years in a row with the first one a 175" Non-Typical with a 3rd main beam!!!

This year I plan to get back into it and take a deer myself!!

[ACP230]

My favorite deer rifle is a Ruger M77RL in .250 Savage. It had a Weaver 1.5-4.5 variable on it early on. Now it wears a Leupold 2-7. Very accurate MOA combo for three rounds. Then the barrel starts to heat and the group expands and rises. I've rarely needed more than one round while hunting anyway.

I've killed most of my deer with it. Many of them did not move from the place where they were shot. Of those that did move the farthest one went was 125 yards. My shot placement was lacking a bit on that one, I hit too far back.

Before the .250 I used a couple of .30-06s. One was a sporterized Enfield. The other was a Browning BAR. It is a fine rifle and shoots inch and an eighth inch three-shot groups with Remington 150 grain Core Lokt soft points. With a slightly hotter reload a few years ago it shot the same bullets into exactly an inch.

Also took one buck with my old Winchester Model 12 in 16 gauge with buckshot.

[Wheeler]

I use a paper clip and a pocket knife to stalk deer.


If I ever have time to get into the woods, I either use a Winchester M94 30/30 or a Mauser M96 American .30/06. Anything larger is overkill here in Ga. IMO. I have a nice little M94 in .357 Mag that I like to carry in the woods from time to time but have yet had the opportunity for a shot with it.