well, t. mobley; I would first like to welcome you to the forum and commend you on your interest inthe great sport of hunting.
I, like many of the others on this forum, will tell you that you do not need a cannon or magnum size rounds to take down and kill whitetail deer.
Alot of factors must be looked at first before you choose which kind of gun you will want to invest in.
First, I would like to take a look at my "application". What I mean by application is, what is the terrain and surroundings that I will be hunting in. And also I would want toconcentrate on whatdistancesI would be making "safe" and "ethical" shotsfrom. That is,Knowing your gun's capabilities of trajectory, velocity, and energy thatthe bullet will have left at the distance you will be shooting atand being able to apply all your knowledge and experience you gained at the range and bringing it to the field.
Second, I would want to look at how "seasoned" of a shooter you are before you purchase. Alot of people think that they are seasoned shooters, but if you spend any time at your local rod and gun club you will see how many people are not very seasoned. This actually causes alot of people topurchase the wrong guns...."for themselves".For some reason, so many people " now a days" are under the impression that they need magnum sized loads for deer.
Here is a prime example. JoeBlow's friend owns a 300 win mag. so 3 months later Joe Blow is out buying one. The two of the friends decide to go to the range on a nice saturday morning andfire offa couple boxes of ammo each. After 5 or 6 shots Joe Smoe..."this is Joe Blows friend by the way" starts to complain that his shoulder is hurting and that he can't seem to get a good group on the target. The two friends decide to adjust the scope and fire off 3 more rounds to see ifJoe Smoecan get a better group this time around. To no avail, Joe smoe's group did not get any better, but now hes holding on to his shoulder in pain...and refuses to fire anymore rounds that day. Now its Joe Blow's turn. He fires his first 5 rounds and they are not even hitting paper. They dont know where the bullets are hitting so they dont know where to make adjustments on Joe Blow's scope. At that moment an elderly man from the club walks out to the range. He asks if everything is alright. The two men tell the man that something must be wrong with thier guns becauseJoe Smoecant get good groups and Joe blow cant even hit paper. The older man checks the scopes to see if they are tight and checks for any other mechanicalmalfunction that he feels could be the cause of an accuracy problem. He then asks if he could see one of them shoot, Joe blow volunteers. He tells Joe to shoot 3 rounds and reminds him not to flinch. The old man watches Joe Blow shoot and claims that Joe blow is flinching even before he pulls the trigger. This causes Joe Blow to become very upset because his reputationas a very seasoned shooter is being questioned by some old timer at the range. It is at that moment that the old timer picks up Joe Blow's gun and asks if he could test it out a couple times. Joe Blow agrees. It is at that moment that the old timer squeezes off 5 rounds out of the 300 win mag. Much to Joe blow and Joe Smoe's suprise, the old man has a very tight 5 shot group in the upper left side of the target. Not a bullseye, but a group none the less. The old man gets up and say's there is nothing wrong with this gun at all. he compensates the man for the cost of the bullets and tells them dinner is waiting at home for him.
As funny as this story sounds....I will garauntee that it occurs at ranges around the country alot more than people would like to think. Every time I go to the range"ATLEAST", "ATLEAST" one person always leaves without a group to go on or sometimes, theyleave without hitting paper at all. And the thing that scares me the most is that...these people hunt with these guns . They decide to hunt with a gun that cannot group or hit paper at all.
Iremember waiting for 2 guys at the range one day two years ago. They were shooting a 7mm mag. I can remember what the one guy said to the other before he shot. He said " have you ever shot this gun before?" And the other guy said " NO, BUT I BET THIS SUCKER CAN KICK" ........ anyways, halfway through thier shooting session, the idiots took off thier shirts and folded them in a ball and put it between the gun and thier shoulder because they said it was "kickin too hard" I didnt get to shoot that day because these idiots used up so much time wondering why they cant get a group thats acceptable.
This is my point, If you have to roll up a shirt and put it between your shoulder and the gun, you have no bussiness shooting it.
A whitetail is very resiliant, but it can be killed with a 243.
The whitetail has been killed with all of the following, plus more.......
243, 250 savage, 257 roberts, 264, 25-06, 270, 7mm, 7mm-08, 300 savage, 30-06, 308, 280, 38-40,38-55, 45lc, 44 mag, 32 sp., 30-30, 244 rem, 35 rem, 32-20, and 25-35
Today, some of these are seen as obsolete. But many of these calibers stood the test of time.
I would stick with 30-06 or less for most applications. I like the recommendations of the 243, 7mm -08, 270,and the .308
If you even get lucky enough to pick up an old relic, a 257 roberts was also a nice deer cartridge too.
There are also alot of people out there that can shoot the magnums and shoot them well. If you feel that you are one of those people, then you could also opt for the magnums too.
But as for me, anything from the 243- 30-06 is fine...for whitetails.
