Big bore Question

RBHarter

West Central AR
Hey penny in the pot .
I never had need of a mag cartridge . The 06' and it's spawn are enough even for the hunts above the tree line in granite flag stone . Now that I live where the gopher piles.....er..... Mountains top out at a soaring 1800 ft and a power line cut is about the only place you can see over 100 yd I've drifted away from those power house monsters and lean on cast in things like 7.7 (eventually) , 30-30 , 358 Win , and 45-70 (just in case I have to shoot through 8" oak to get to the vitals) .
That doesn't mean I don't have the big guns , I'm young enough that an elk in the high country is still possible .
 

Ian

Notorious member
Jim said something about bullet and range having a lot to do with it and I think that's key. Doesn't matter what the launch platform is if the bullet doesn't hit the mark or is not right for the impact velocity.

Quickest deer kill I ever made was about 25 yards with an 1860 Army and a round ball. I've also double-lunged several with .270 and 6.5mm soft roundnose jax and had them run hundreds of yards. My general opinion is if you're using something smaller than .35-caliber you really need to use premium bullets, load them to their recommended performance level, and hunt at the distances that the bullet will work best.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
I think I "Know my limitations" when it comes to engagement ranges on a fine game animal. Most of those "limitations" have to do with the ironwood, chamise, buckbrush, and manzanita that grows between my location and the MANY deer I see every year during the season at 200-400 yards off the muzzle. This brush is often 10-15 feet high, and utterly impenetrable on foot. How do they clear it to cut fuel breaks? With earthmovers, or they drag a heavy chain between 2 earthmovers, that's how. Retrieving a deer out of that kind of vegetation is impossible, and given the heat usually present during my Zone's season you had better be on that animal in under 5 minutes--or it will spoil and/or get hauled off by a bear or lion. Power line cuts? Non-existent locally.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Hawk, I'm sure there are people who can and do actually practice at 400 plus yards to the point they are actually hunting, but it's not a single one of the guys I've come in contact with up here. That's the difference between hunting and taking a Hail Mary and bringing home 1 out of every 8 or 9 deer they shoot at. It's also part of why we have so many fat coyotes up here. Ask these guys about wind and you get a blank stare. They hold for the "big part" and hope for the best.
 

Ole_270

Well-Known Member
Most of the mag boys would have a cow over my choices for deer hunting. Only one time in the last 10 years or better has the ol 270 come out of the safe. Mostly it's been the pair of 250 Savage, 257 Roberts and 243, or with cast out of the 38-55 used when I'm feeling like it. It's been over 20 years since I shot one over 200 yards, most at under 150 and I don't live around big woods, I'm in Kansas. Killed two deer this year cause mamma said there wasn't enough room in the freezer for more. Both were at or under 100 yards with a 250 Savage, the heavy buck with my 43 year old Ruger M77 tang safety shooting 100 Speer Hot Core, and the doe with an ancient(built same year I was born, 1953) M99 Savage shooting the 87 Hot Core. The buck dropped to the shot, the doe went maybe 40 yards.
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
I used 130 gr. Nosler Accubonds in both of my 270s. Both rifles will shoot 3/4" 5 shoot groups at 100 yards. The Accubonds do a good job and deer don't usually go very far after contact. Partitions might be better due to the close to far possibilities, but the partitions aren't as accurate.
We have two weekend "fun shoots" a year during the off season and make a competition out of it.
One of my brothers can't shoot much over about 100 yards. He has been an auto mechanic his whole life for small businesses and has gotten so much crap in his eyes from grinders and wire wheels, that eye damage limits his vision. He wouldn't wear eye protection until it was too late. One of those tough guys that thought it was for wimps. Too late now. As I get older, I can already see my eyes will eventually affect me and limit my range.
Our deer aren't as plentiful as other parts of the country. We might see two or three small bucks and three or four doe on a good day. A lot of days, nothing but squirrels and crows.
We try to let the little bucks grow to 4-1/2 years or older and we have a "quality deer" restricition in our County. Inside spread has to be over 13".
It's a bitch when you see a deer that you know is probably 4-1/2 or 5-1/2 that only has a 12 " spread. Can't shoot him, but he needs to come out of the gene pool.
 

JonB

Halcyon member
I'm not much of a deer hunter, but when I did hunt them, it was with 12 ga slugs in my 870 or a 357 Mag revolver, since southern MN doesn't allow rifle hunting.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
It Is funny that every deer I killed with a flintlock & round ball; the most any ran was 40 yards mostly heart shot or lungs!
I did have a raining morning hang fire and hit one in the rear leg "femoral" artery...The strangest thing I have ever seen! He stopped and I thought he was taking a Pee! But I found out it was blood! From shot to a downed deer it was about 3 yards! I watched the poor thing bleed out and just fall
Not a great memory but I didn't have to ever chase one!

BTW The old eastern PA "settlement" hunters aways gauged their loads by the ball getting stuck under the opposite side under the hide!
From some of the early 18th C journals I have read! They made meat and retained their lead!
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
My other brother shot one broadside, right behind the shoulder, thru both lungs with a 100 gr., Hornady, Spire Point from a 6mm Remington. Range was about 80 yards. Buck was trailing a doe during the rut. The shot knocked the deer down.
Not a big deer. Probably 3-1/2 year old east Texas 8 point buck.
Shot about 5:30 PM. The rest of us hunted till dark and then came to help. My brother didn't come out of his stand until the first of us got there.
Four of us trailed that deer from 6:15 PM till after 9:30 PM across property that had been clear cut the year before. It was hard tracking, but we found the deer. The bullet left an exit hole big enough to put your fist in.
Based on landmarks, we estimated from Google Earth that the deer went nearly 300 yards with no lungs.
I don't know how he did it! Maybe trailing the doe had him pumped up.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
This all proves how effective advertising can be.
Not much different from fishing lures. No need to catch a fish, just catch a fisherman.

Hunters are no different from anyone else, we believe the hype. Advertising is NOT a public service announcement, it is a way to get your money into their pocket.
 

Bill

Active Member
Some of the best and most successful deer hunters I ever saw never ever shot a bench rest group ( didn't know how ) and they seemed to be able to shoot while running or falling down as well as most could standing still. They all seemed to have an old rusty 30-30 that showed green and rusty dust inside the muzzle and only shot it a few times a year. They would just stomp through the woods till one jumped up then kill it. Woods and mountains in southeastern Oklahoma they always got a deer and it might not be very big, they were deer hunters not buck hunters

Bill
 

Ian

Notorious member
Central Texas and down this way to the SW is much the same, meatgetters with a beat-up old .30-30 and the last two cartridges from a box bought ten years ago. Sight adjustments rusted in place from where they were set 40 years ago. Shoot little bucks for meat and tip the hat at the big ones.
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
The State of Texas regulations are making us Buck Hunters.
We can only shoot does the first 9 days of the season and have a Quality Buck Restriction.
We don't shoot many does as we are trying to increase the size of the herd in our area.
Two bucks only and only one can be a Quality Buck (13" or more inside spread). The second buck can only be a spike.
We have some big old bucks that have small or goofy racks running all over our property breding more of the same.
I've watched one buck for the last five years that has never been legal. He has two big club antlers on each side that are not wide enough to be legal. I know he's making more just like him. Nothing I can do about it.
We know all the game wardens. They alway show up opening weekend, just in time for our big breakfast spread and that's great.They know they are always welcome!
But, big fines and possible forfeiture of guns if you get caught with an illegal buck.
Very frustrating.
Piggies on the other hand are mighty tasty.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I haven't hunted native deer in so long I have no idea what the regs are here. Used to be shoot what you have tags for at the times indicated in the annual handbook. Axis and pigs taste so much better than whitetail do that I kind of lost interest.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Nevada is 1 by lottery draw tag per year and you can't put in and draw for 3 different hunts ......

Arkansas it appears that you get 3 tags with your license and the specifics are a little vague on exactly how to call a tag used ...... There seems to be about 12 seasons and variations county/region and it lasts from October to January .........I'm confused but I expect after a couple of seasons it'll be less weird .
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Age does have it's privilege. :) A combined hunting fishing license for pocket change and it doesn't expire until you do. Life is good. :)
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
Our County restrictions are well intended, but must have been written by someone who doesn't understand deer growth.
Dad hunted whitetail deer his whole life and thought deer grew a set of points each year. A spike was one year old and a five year old was a 10 point and they just kept getting bigger and bigger as they got older. Just doesn't work that way.