ORIGINAL: HEAD0001
I hope no one brings up the trajectory bit. You either know your rifle and how to shoot it, or you do not. a few inches of drop are not going to make a big difference. A 165 grain bullet in a 30-06 is deadly on deer with no hold over or under out to 300 yards. If you shoot past 300 yards then you better know your rifle. And if you are shooting over 300 yards then I would definitely recommend the heavier bullets. Tom.
The plain and simple fact of the matter is that I'd wager a fair 75% of the deer (and that maybe conservitive) shot in this country and Canada are taken at ranges under 200 yards. Some of you guys out west certainly do shoot a lot of deer at ranges greater than that, but a lot of you also have magnum rifles you use for big game hunting. Most of the whitetails in the this country that get shot with rifles get shot in the south, which is the land of long seasons, liberal bag limits and super thick swamps. The amount of hunters who think they need a super lazer flat trajectory to shoot deer inside 200 yards (and the # of hunters who think 200 yards is "long range shooting") really blows my mind.