For Texas mule deer, I prefer the .300 Win Mag as my go to gun

How dang big are those mule deer in Texas!?Here in colo I use a 270 fer deer and elk. 130 and 150 gn nosler partitions. My pard Jack has taken elk with his 243 consistently. God Bless him, I wish, Jack O,Conner was still here!

My favorite is my 7mm Rem Mag.

I get a laugh out of these threads especially the "every deer I've shot with X caliber has dropped dead in it's tracks" folks.

I shot my mule deer exactly where I was aiming from 175 yards and it ran 50 yards before falling dead. Was it poor shot placement? No. Was it poor bullet performance? No. Was I under or over gunned? No.

The shot took out both lungs and didn't even hit a rib. I'm not even sure the deer knew that it was hit, it simply spun around and started running off before it collapsed. I didn't ruin any meat whatsoever. I think the results would have been the same whether I was shooting a .243 or a .338 Win Mag. I like my 7mm Rem Mag and am comfortable shooting it, that's why it is my favorite!

I have killed mule deer with
Archery equipment
.270 win
.280
.7mm Rem Mag
.300 WBY Mag
.300 RUM

I have a .270 WSM that I hope to make into my favorite deer gun.

I have killed way more mule deerwith my .243 than any other gun I own...25 compared to 3 with my 30.06.

7x64 with the 156gr Oryx works for me. I don't own a .270 but that would work as well...

I like the 25-06 with nosler 110 grain accu-bond. Flat shooting and hard hitting. Shoot the rifle that you can place your shots with. I know a guy who hunts with a .243 and kills everything he points at. Why? Because he knows his rifle and can shoot it accurately. He understands bullet performance and downrange trajectory. In other words, he can hit what he aims at. Most of the guys I hunt with take heart/lung shots. Good percentage shot; wastes little meat; animals bleed out from the shot. Quick and clean.

Honestly and truly it don't much matter on deer.
Since the question said favorite, there are no wrong answers.

I started with a 270Win.
I switched over to a 338WinMag after buying it for an elk hunt.

After that it was just lots more fun to use the 338 than the 270.
Did it kill them deader, nope.

Was it signifcantly more convincing? Yep.
Was it more fun? Yep.

Just like that K-THUD when the bullet hits.
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Generally, Ifound high velocity screws up meat much, much more so than medium velocity with a large bullet.
That high velocity tag applies to a large number of "non-magnum" deer rifle favorites.

If I am just deer hunting I will grab my 25-06.
If I am deer hunting & still have a elk tag left? I will grab my 340-Weatherby.

IMHO I do not think mule deer are any tougher than whitetail. Mule deer will die pretty easy with any bullet to the vitals.

.243, 100gr crlckt.