O.k. so I have some questions that I hope you guys can answer. I am going to start deer hunting this year, and am going to be buying a rifle soon. Probably is I’ve never hunted deer before so I’m trying to learn all this by myself. I’ve hunted lots of ducks and pheasant and jack rabbits, but I have never owned a rifle. I don’t want to ask my friends who deer hunt cause I don’t want to look like a weeny not knowing about rifles!

What I am confused about is calibers. O.k., so I have shot a .22 before and I know that is a pretty small gun. So I understand that .22 is a bullet .220 inches in diameter, for the bullet. O.k. What I don’t understand is, people say a .270 or .260 or even .243 is more rifle than say a 30-30. I don’t understand. If the bullet is .30 inches, bigger than a .270, wouldn’t it be able to take down deer farther away? I mean, the bullet is bigger and has more charge behind it! Stands to reason you could kill things farther away with it.

Comparing a .30-.30 and a .30-06: They are almost the same size bullet. WHY DOES THE .30-06 HAVE A LONGER RANGE THAN THE 30-30?? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Sorry to be so ignorant. Guess I need to learn a little about ballistics.

The .22 calibers are really .224" in diameter. The 30-06 has a longer range than a 30-30 because it has more powder. The 30 in 30-30 stands for how many grains of powder it has. The 06 in 30-06 is the year they chambered rifles in 30-06. The .30 calibers are really .308" in diameter. The .270 is really .277" in diameter. You find this a lot in the calibers. I would suggest the 30-06 or one of the WSM's or WSSM's.

Man, all I have to say is that this system needs some sort of standardization. It is kina confusing (and maddening).

the 243 is more rifle than the 30-30 ballisticaly basically it has more powder behind it and is movin alot faster than a 30-30 since the 30-30 has such a heavy bullet you would have to lob it in on a deer because of the drop where as a 270 is light and is a 30-06 case necked down to a 270 caliber bullet so you have a light fast bullet which could shoot a deer at 400 yards + if needed

the 30-30 is a flat nosed bullet so it creates more wind resistance than the 30-06 cartridge which usually cased with a more areodynamic bullet with more bullet weights and options so that is why it is a better caliber

Bzoneboy, I suggest you take a look at some ballistic tables. Remington, Federal, and Winchester have them. The sites are: remington.com, federalcartridge.com, and winchester.com.

Get out in the woods as much as you can and begin to learn the habits and areas liked best by the deer in the area you are going to hunt, get to know the land, the bedding areas the feeding areas and where they travel. In the long run, knowing and understanding the Whitetail, (assuming that is what you are going to hunt) is more important than what caliber or make of rifle you shoot.

Since you do have friends that hunt deer, I would suggest that you do speak to them. Find out what caliber rifles they own and possibly get them to allow you to fire them at a range, preferably a couple of different ones the same day. Do a bit of research on the web sites buckmaster posted so you have a bit of background then try several of the different rifles available. Time is on your side, you have plenty of time to make a selection now before next season and do some practice with it and become proficient at ranges you expect to be shooting at.

You don't mention anywhere, where you are from. Since you already own several shotguns, you might consider using one of them with slugs. The slugs that have been developed over the past 20 years are deadly accurate out to 100 yards if you have a shotgun capable of shooting them proficiently. You might consider a slug barrell for your favorite shotgun as an alternative or as a backup.

Don't forget to consider using a bow, bow shooting is a challenge in and of itself and you can have hours of fun just shooting a bow in the backyard or at a 3D range while learning the basics.

You have already been given the low-down on calibers and power of various cartridges. It is generally conceded that the .30-06 is up to the task of taking any game in the lower 48 states, in the hand of a moderately skilled rifleman. Some contend that there are more appropriate cartridges for specific game, but they won't deny that you can be very successful with the .30-06 and that historically the .30-06 has taken a high proportion of each of the big game species. Thus, the .30-06 is a pretty good first choice. You may find over the years that you collect other rifles chambered in other cartridges that more perfectly cover specific species (for example, the .25-06 covering whitetails and pronghorn antelope, the .338 winchester magnum covering elk and moose), but the .30-06 gives great flexibility and you can buy .30-06 ammo anywhere, in case you forget to pack your cartridges and wind up in Spotted Horse, Wyoming -- population 3 plus a llama -- and need to buy some ammo before proceeding on your hunt.

Some calibers are calculated based on the diameter of the lands of the rifled gun barrel and others are calculated based on the diameter of the grooves between the lands of the rifled gun barrel, just to make things more confusing ("rifles" are called this because they have spiral grooves, called rifling, cut into their otherwise smooth barrels to impart spin to elongated bullets which stablizes these bullets along their axis of travel, so they don't flip end over end, like a football thrown by my daughter. The lands are the uncut portion of the gun barrel, the "high" points; the grooves are the cut portions, the low points or troughs). Personally, I find the lack of standarization of names of cartridges charming and filled with romance. Just learn what each one of them means and the history of the name.

Hunt deer where deer are. Thus, you want to confirm that your choosen hunting ground has deer by checking for deer sign -- deer poop, antlers dropped in early spring, antler rubs on trees such as cedar evergreen trees in mid-September or October, deer tracks, visual sightings of deer. Deer are a prey species -- deer eat vegetables, other animals eat deer. As a consequence, deer are very cautious and try to keep out of sight to avoid being breakfast or supper. When deer travel, they prefer to stay in trees or on the boundaries between trees and open areas. Deer are very thoughtless and uncharitable in that they do not like to parade through large open areas offering a great field of fire to the deer hunter. Generally, deer eat at twilight and bed down in cover during daylight hours. Thus, generally, expect deer to be eating at first light in the morning, stop eating, and move to cover shortly after first light, for example from 7 AM to 9 AM. Similarly, expect deer to move from cover to feeding grounds to be feeding at last light, for example from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM. During the middle part of the day, as said, deer sit on their beds, chewing their cud. This general scenario is altered in some circumstances. For example, during a full moon deer may feed all night and not move during twilight hours, already making it to their beds while the sun is down by the light of the moon. Also, if deer are pressured by hunters during hunting season they may become scarce during daylight hours. Even so, it is a good strategy to find a place you think is on the path between the deer's feeding ground and its bedding ground, be in this place 60 minutes before shooting light and to be back in this place, or similarly located place, at 2:30 PM. Try to be very still, as deer detect movement easily. When you move, move slowly. If possible, only move part of your body -- for example your hand only, your hand and arm only. If a deer looks at you, don't look into the deer's eyes, avert your eyes (the position and appearance of our eyes are typical of a predator). Place your self in shadows. Break up your form in some way -- camoflage clothes, have a background behind you that breaks your shape up. Wear a hat that shades your eyes. Try to conceal the lower part of your body, which frees you to move your feet, for example, without danger of alerting your prey. Avoid making noise, especially unnatural noises such as metal zippers, velcro noises, nylon brushing against nylon, etc. Deer have very good noses, so place your ambush spot so that the expected point of appearance of the deer is up wind of your ambush spot (wind blows from deer location to you, not other way around). Wear your hunter blaze orange.

During the rut -- when mature male deer are looking for females to breed -- some of the typical stealthy, cautious behavior of male deer, at least, changes. Bucks may be out and moving in the middle of the day, looking for females, during the "rut." They may move in the open, if they are following a scent trail of a female who moved across the open in the dark of night. It has never been my fortune to observe any of this behavior. There are typically many more does than bucks. Bucks seem to be more cautious than does. You have a better chance of bagging a doe than a buck. Does may be better eating than bucks, and in my book there is no dishonor or diminishment of the hunting experience taking a doe.

Many people like to hunt from tree stands because this gets their scent up above the level of the deer and reduces their ability to smell you. You can hunt deer during the middle part of the day, for example by stealthily creeping through the woods to try to surprise deer on their beds, but this has never been a skill I have acquired. Some people stay on stand (at their ambush spot) all day long, hoping that other hunters leaving their stands may push deer to them during the middle part of the day. One point made is that you can't bag a deer when you are not in the woods, thus staying out all day increases your odds of bagging a deer. Carry everything you may need with you, so that you don't have to leave because of something you failed to take with you. Take toilet paper, food, water, a knife. Don't forget your knife. Did I say that you should remember to take a knife? Know how to use your knife. It is best if you saw someone gut a deer, but second best is to have recently read instructions on how to do this. Since you are already an experience bird hunter, you should be able to figure this out pretty quickly having read instructions once. Have a plan to get your deer out -- 4 wheeler, 4 WD pickup truck, a short length of rope to drag your deer out, a wheeled cart. You may want to have a professional process your meat, particularly your first time out, but skinning, quartering, and butchering your deer is pretty simple, many hunters do this themselves, and you have more control over your end product this way. Think about learning to do this if you stick with deer hunting.

So much for my advice. Others can provide more detailed advice. YOu will enjoy deer hunting. It is great fun.

Thanks to all who replied, especially Alsatian. Great advice. Guess I should have said where I was from, I live in N. California. I'd love to go out and scout for deer right now, but that's kind of a problem seeing as how there is better than 30 feet of snow on the ground! I'll have to wait until spring.

I did look at the ballistics tables, and I also downloaded a program called winbal that shows you ballistics of any gun you want. It is great and taught me a lot. I know most of you grew up deer hunting, but you have to admit that the way rifles are classified is a little confusing to a newcomer? I think it is anyway.

Another thing that is going to make my hunting more difficult is that there are two species of deer in california (plus hybrids). In the northern sierras and southern cascades that's where your mule deer hangs out. But, it's almost impossible (or very unlikely) that you will get drawn for that area--DFG only lets a certain number of people hunt it ever year and you have to enter a lottery for it. In north west california, you have the coast range and that is where the blacktails are, and is probably where I will have to hunt. So I'm trying to learn as much as poss. about blacktails. From what I hear they are pretty tough critters to hunt, but my goal is to get one this year. Like I said, it's not safe right now to go trekking out into the backcountry because it snows a lot and I don't have the equipment for that. So like I said I will wait until spring.

Thanks again for the info, great board here!

Rifle ballistics can be confusing, but you don't need to worry too much about them. Take a look at the area you will be hunting in and get an idea of the length of shots you think you would be taking and the terrain you would be taking them in. From there you can figure out what basic type of rifle you will need(short, easy to handle in the brush- heavy, stable designed to take accurate shots at long range, etc). Then you can pop in here and we can give you our feelings on particular rifles for your needs. That is a lot easier than trying to match up the perfect ballistic chart to your shooting. No matter what you wind up with, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Your ability with the weapon is FAR more important than what it shoots. You don't need to be a master sniper, but should be able to put rounds in a 4 inch circle at whatever range you think you will be shooting at every time. A good .30-06 bolt action is probably a great place to start. Get good optics for it, nothing makes me crazier than seeing someone with a $500 rifle topped with a $40 scope and $20 rings from Wal-Mart! Welcome to deer hunting! You're going to LOVE it!