oldelkhunter

In the past few years I have used a 6mm Rem,25-06, 270win,270 WSM, 7x57,7mm-08,280 REm, 7WSM, 7 Rem mag, 308,30-06, 300 wthby,300 WSM,300Win for my deer hunting. My longest shot was 300 yards(Doe in a food plot 300 wthby)and that was twice the length of my previous long shot.That is onlyone shot out of a tractor trailer load of dead deer. I pretty much hunt bottlenecks between food plots and bedding areas and my shot is usually 30 yards or lessand none over 120 . The question is why am I not using just a plain jane Remington 7600 in some civil non magnum caliber ?

Superj1975

Thats kind of like when you see a guy who is 5'3" tall driving around in a lifted Ford F-350 crew cab.

statjunk

Because then you'd have no way to justify the purchase of all those other guns! That's why.

If you really want to get a vote, put a suggestion box out near your hunting area and if any of the deer you're shooting suggest otherwise I'd just keep doing what you want.

Tom

Simp

I 'd be willing to bet probably 90% of hunters in America are overgunned for Whitetail deer. There's just something about the word "magnum" that drives deer hunters crazy. They got's ta have it!

oldelkhunter

Out of all these guns the one that irks me the most is my first Elk hunt and picking a caliber, I made the big dumb mistake of reading Jim Zumbos first Elk book and he described appropriate calibers and rifles. My Sako 30-06 Fiberclass wasn't listed in his book. He thought the 06 was an ok round. That really planted the seed and I didn't use the Sako(one of the best shooting rifles I have ever owned period)and bought a magnum blaster remington 700 that froze up on the hunt because we were hunting in near blizzard conditions and Getting in and out of a truck repeatedlyduring the hunt caused a bunch of condensation to build in the bolt body which caused an unbelievable amount of rust(you know the sage advice about using a thouroughly degreased firing pin and bolt) [:@]. Thankfully I don't own that 700now. I would howeverpay a great sum to get that exact Sako back

trailer

Good question ...? I’ve gone down on power for deer hunting and my 2 designated cartridges for deer hunting will be my 260 Rem. & 7mm-08...

ipscshooter

Not all of us. Some of us are able to avoid the hype and make sane decisions about deer cartridges. I use a .243 Win....

oldelkhunter

A lot of us also hunt western game and a lot of us like to use one gun on everything..there is no such thing as the all around gun in my opinion if one were to hunt in all types of terrain andon all types of Deer and Elk.

Jimimac

Interesting thread... I've thought about this stuf myself.

I went on my first hunt out west this year and killed a buck with the same .308 I hunt whitetails with here in PA. I had no intention of buying a different rifle just for the sake of that hunt. I still would have used the same gun if I had drawn an elk tag. I sighted in a little higher at 100 yards than I normally would have and practiced out to 300 yards regularly. I had extreme confidence that if I could get within 250 yards of a buck he was dead. The buck I took was at 225 yards give or take. He didn't care that I wasn't using a magnum.

Sometimes I think there is too much made of all this when a round like the old30-06 or a .308 can get the job done pretty well regardless of location.

Retaks

I use a 300 WSM. I hunt in PA, DE(shotgun only), AL, and LA every year. And about every other year we go to Canada. I was using a Remington 710 in 30-06 but got tired of the gun and decided to get a new rifle. I wanted another 30-06 or a 25-06 but the local gun shot had 2 Tikkas for cheap. A Tikka T3 Hunter in 338 Win Mag for $450 and a Tikka T3 Lite Stainless in 300 WSM for $520. So i want with the 300 WSM. He couldnt order another Tikka in for the prices he had there otherwise i would have got a 25-06 if i had to order a gun.