Caliber: I’ve shot whitetails, mule deer and a few blacktails with a dozen different cartridges over the years, and from those experiences I’ve drawn the following simple yet practical conclusion:
Choose a rifle caliber that shoots a 130- to 165-grain bullet accurately out to 300 yards and you’ll be in great shape for deer anywhere in North America.
Five time-tested standbys–.270, .308, .30-06, 7mm-08 and 7mm Rem. Mag.–fit that criteria and, all things considered, are my top choices for straight up mule deer hunting and whitetail hunting.
Quick note about the .270: I have shot a bunch of bucks with this cartridge, and I prefer the added weight and anchoring power of the 150-grain bullet over the 130-grainer.
Quick note about the 7mm-08: This is the most overlooked cartridge on my list, but it’s top-notch for whitetails in Texas and elsewhere where bucks tip the scales around 150 pounds. Love the 140-grain bullet. I grew up hunting with the .243, but experience has taught me that the 7mm-08, with its light pushing recoil, is a better choice for young hunters, and it’s about perfect for today’s growing number of lady deer hunters.
Quick note if you hunt out West: For those of you that hunt elk and muleys, the .270 with the 150-bullet will do the job, though it is minimum. I suggest you power up to the 7mm Rem. Mag. or the .30-06, both of which typically shoot 150- to 180-grain bullets accurately.
Quick note about the rifle you’ve seen me use to drop a bunch of deer on TV: I’ve shot as many big whitetails with a Remington Model 700 chambered for 7mm Rem. Ultra Mag. (RUM) as anybody, with both 140- and 150-grain loads. This overlooked cartridge is fast and powerful, and delivers devastating performance on deer and elk.
Action: I prefer a bolt-action rifle plain and simple. I am a Remington man, but any modern bolt gun will prove rugged and dependable and probably last you a lifetime. While some individual rifles will shoot a little better than others out of the box, all bolts, save for the odd lemon, will give you all the hunting accuracy you need, provided you test several brands/weights of ammunition and then sight-in with the load and bullet weight the rifle likes best.
Using most any new factory bolt-action with a factory 130- to 165-grain load, you will be able to fire 3-shot groups at 3 inches all day long at 100 yards. That won’t win you any bench-rest shooting matches, but it will enable you to kill a lot of deer. With a bit of load tweaking and more shooting time at the range, you can cut those groups to 2 inches and under. That’s plenty of deer-hunting accuracy.
Stock: A synthetic stock is lighter than wood, and it comes in a gray, black, green or camouflage finish. Synthetic is impervious to rain and snow, and for that reason alone many of my stocks are composite.
But there is no denying the romance of wood. Every once in while I pull out my old .30-06 or 7 RUM and run my hands over the walnut stock’s dents, gouges, scrapes, and scars. Twenty-five years of memories come flooding back—the stunning vistas of Alaska, the exciting stalks in rough terrain, the big racks coming through the woods, the spot-on shots, the misses… You don’t get that with a composite stock.
Synthetic or wood? Both are good, the choice is up to you.
Trigger: Hunting rifles generally come from the factory with trigger pulls of five or six pounds. Over the years I have taught myself to shoot heavy triggers pretty well, both through shooting a lot and dry-firing more. But you’ll shoot better with a crisp-breaking four-pound trigger, which I have found to be about ideal for a hunting rifle.
Soon as you purchase a rifle, test the trigger with a pull scale (guy at the gun shop can do this) and lighten the load to 4 pounds or so if needed. These days many modern rifles come from the factory with triggers you can adjust yourself, but I recommend you have a gunsmith you trust do the job.
What rifle, caliber and bullet do you use for deer?
I shoot a Remington model 700 in .270 that dad gave me when I was 14 years old when he bought his .280 mountain rifle. It’s as old or older than I am and has killed may whitetail, mule deer, & coyotes. You can not tell the vintage by looking at it, beutiful, well taken care of and my favorite gun/rifle. Always have shot a 130 grain bullet. Took a mule deer with it at 400 yards, nice flat shooting rifle. Now days I shoot Barnes Vortex tipped Tripple shock and they get the job done.
I shoot a Remington 700 Mountain rifle in .280 and use Remington Premier Accutip 140 grain bullets. I lost track of how many deer I have taken with that combo. I do not recall that I ever had to track one, they all went down in sight. I shot a Montana mule deer at 300 yards and he only went perhaps 30 yards. Light weight and accurate, love it.
For me it’s the Win Mod 70 featherweight in the .25 Winchester super short Mag in the 120 grain cartridge. Absolutely devastating on the smaller deer here in Texas. Although I’ve never taken a 400 yard shot, it’s certainly capable of doing it. I use a Leupold 2 to 12 scope. I’ve got the trigger pull set to 3 lbs. I’m getting old and the recoil is just right for this old shoulder.
When I was younger I shot a Winchester Mod 70 in .270 cal with a 130 grain rem core-lockt bullet. One deer got away from me in 30 years of hunting. Thanks to Jack O’Connor for putting this great caliber in my hands.
My #1 rifle is a Winchester model 70 Featherweight bolt in 7mm rem mag, using winchester 150gr power point bullet. I do all my hunting Whitetail in CT,ME,NY and shots are realistically 50 yards and closer with the rare 100 yard poke.
My #2 back up is a Remington Model Seven bolt in 7mm-08 using Winchester 140gr power point bullets.
The Win power points shoot best out of both rifles and those PP load combos are devastating at those ranges on Whitetail, a lot of internal damage. Note, I did try Nosler Partition 140gr in 7mm-08 thinking the load would perform better “was the hot round at the time” and it is a great round for a little longer shots.
Example- I was hunting Northern Maine and shot a good 8pt at about 30yrds, the deer was looking straight at me so I put the round right under his chin in the white patch and down he went without a twitch. When I picked the deers head up the bullet had hit the spine/sholder and broke a lot of bone,great, but my concern was the bullet hole in the neck was the exact diameter of the bullet with about 2 drops of blood trickling out. My point is if I had hit that deer through the lungs and didn’t hit a rib there would be a zero blood trail and in thick cover as is all the areas I hunt its not a good thing. Both great rounds just something to put in the old computer, we can’t always have or wait for that perfect broadside high shoulder shot so I stick with the Power Point round.