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In your opinion, what is the best caliber for hunting deer? Take into consideration long range accuracy and knock down power.. Please explain your answers..

7 mag.....just cause,,,,nuff said

merlebo05 wrote:In your opinion, what is the best caliber for hunting deer? Take into consideration long range accuracy and knock down power.. Please explain your answers..

Depends on what you call long range.. For the average hunter here in MS anything over 200 yards is really long range.. Any of the 308 family of cartridges (308, 7mm08, 260, and 243) are more than capable of taking deer out to 400 yards easily, but the issue becomes bullet drop.. Any of these cartridges when set to about 2-3 inches high at 100 yards will be dead on at 200 yards and will be about 3-4 inches low at 250 and 6-9 inches at 300 yards. So for anything past 250 you are going to start having to compensate for bullet drop, by either holding higher on the deer, using a BDC scope or preset turrets.

Once you get into the long action calibers like 30-06 or magnums your issue becomes overcoming recoil. Most people can learn to accurately shoot a 308 fairly easily, but once you go bigger than that it is hard not to develop a flinch. A small flinch on a deer sized target at 100 yards is not a big deal, maybe 2 inches high or low, left or right, but 2 inches a 100 yards is more like 4-5 inches at 200 yards and with deer sized game that is a big deal..

My favorite caliber for what I call long range (anything out to 300 yards) would be a 260 Rem or 7mm-08 with a 120-125 grain bullet.. It is a happy medium between bullet weight, ballistic coefficient and low recoil. If you are going to consistently shoot out to 300 yards and more your going to need to practice (ALOT) and use most likely use a larger, heavier, and longer rifle, something that is not easy to carry to and from the blind..

I was poking around on the internet webby thing the other day. My dream hunt would be a CO Elk hunt or an Alaska hunt.. So when I am bored I like daydream about the hunt and try to decide which rifle I would take and I stumbled on this thread.

While we southerners argue on if the 30-06, or 270 or 7mm Mag is the best choice for our 150lb whitetails, those that actually hunt in AK are contemplating using the puny 7mm-08 on Grizzly Bears. How could this be? How could anyone think this puny little "youth round" is adequate for Bears??

Please note that apparently the 7mm-08 is not legal for Bison though..

http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/sho ... 8-question

Bullets matter more than head stamps.

stang67 wrote:Bullets matter more than head stamps.

True. There are dozens of great caliber bookended by whatever you feel is arbitrarily too big or too small. Personally anything .243-.30-06. I like the .308 but don't actually own one!

Blackduck wrote:

stang67 wrote:Bullets matter more than head stamps.

True. There are dozens of great caliber bookended by whatever you feel is arbitrarily too big or too small. Personally anything .243-.30-06. I like the .308 but don't actually own one!

My primary gun this year will likely be the Ruger American Predator in 308. But I have a backup 260 Rem American and Tikka..