What do you harvest deer with?

Depends on where you live. Down in Central Texas they're so numerous and so dumb that I could hunt them with a flashlight and a bamboo spear.

I'd hunt them, or shoot them, but would be embarrassed to call it harvesting. Seems too apologetic.

I worked for Remington for a summer in the barrel shop engineering department. I worked on cold and hot forging of center fire and shotgun barrels. Our test department was full of Brownings. Remington was always trying to be a cut rate browning. They are ok arms. Nothing wrong with them, but just something missing in my opinion. Just stop messing around and get a browning. That's my put.

I did have a test model o/u shotgun come apart in my hands during some functionality testing, that was interesting.

I've heard or read that more deer have been harvested with 30-30 than any other cartridge.

That's not saying it's best. Just factor in how long that cartridge has been in existance & how many hunters have used them over the years.

Anyone ever played the video game TheHunter?

http://www.thehunter.com/pub/

If you really want the hunting experience without the mess... This is the game for you. I play it all the time.

chaparral wrote: Depends on where you live. Down in Central Texas they're so numerous and so dumb that I could hunt them with a flashlight and a bamboo spear.

What part of Texas do you live in?

Woody wrote:

SillyImportRacer wrote: Apparently there is no Miata.

Miata.

I'll see your Miata and raise you a trailer.

It pushed the car a couple inches back on the straps, and splattered blood forward against the tow rig.

I'm over in Warner Robins, and I've been thinking about deer hunting for the first time too. Most of my friends around here shoot .270, 30-30 or 30-.06.

Ive always been a shotgun guy and have done some quail hunting and skeet. I figure when I buy a rifle it will be a 30-.06 for the same reason I swing a Mossberg pump 12. Ammo is cheap, plentiful, and has versatile loads available. Add in that I'm a big guy, so a heavier gun doesn't bother me much, and most of my deer hunting would be from a stand instead of stalking.

My friends all carry 30-06 to the blinds, but I have a ruger m77 mk2 in .223 that was given to my dad some time ago. My plan in the nearish future is to get a 6.8 spc upper for my AR15. It's about the same as .270 and shoots flat and accurate out to 200+ yds.

I've never hunted in GA so I can't testify to the terrain, but here is what I recommend.

If you have the chance to shoot through brush, you probably want something with a heavier ball. For that I use a Winchester .32 (very similar to a 30-30). I shoot 180-185 grain 3/4 jacket rounds. That gun will drop darn near anything up to 80-100 yards. Past that range it gets pretty slow and drops like a rock. If you hit your target, the round will mushroom and turn most of the deer's guts into jello and it will hit the ground before it even knows what happened. Big lead doesn't get easily deflected by little branches, it hits hard, and shrapnels into big impact. Short distance shots are key for accuracy.

Longer-distance stuff I use a .308. I think the rounds I'm shooting this season are 135 grain but I have some 155. Unless you go with non-jacketed rounds, it will be a straight-through shot. The accuracy of your shot will be the main factor, but the impact of that much lead hitting at that speed will flatten pretty much anything that you hit in the vitals.

A good combination of those attributes that I use up north here in PA are the .270 and .243. The .270 is a 30-06 shell that is necked down for a .270 round. Lots of punch with a projectile that flies very true. Small branches will have little effect on it. The .243 has a very small projectile that flies VERY true, but it lacks the heft and weight to be unaffected by even the smallest obstacles.

I also use an 8mm Mauser. Its a wonderful rifle with a world-reknowned reliable bolt action.

My recommendations for good all-around calibers would be .308, .270, and 6mm. All of them are available in a Remington 760 or 7600 pump model which is dead-nuts reliable and very common (read: inexpensive). Those balistic choices will offer a very wide variety of hunting success in most terrains. Bolt actions are beefy, but they make scope mounting tough. They also aren't the fastest unless you're a pro. Pump actions like the Winchester model 94 are cheap, light, and reliable, but since most of them are top-eject they also make scope mounting difficult.

Put it this way... If I were buying a gun today to hunt, it would probably be a Remington 7600 in a .270 caliber with a variable-power 3-9x scope.

... but then again, I already have a 30-30, a .32, a .308, a .284 bolt, an 8mm Mauser bolt, a .243, a few 38-55s, and a handful of other rifles that would cover everything from varmints up to small elephants

SWMBO uses a Savage in .243, and carried my old Weatherby in .308 before she got that. I carry the king of the American hunting rifle, the venerable Winchester Model 70 in the true American hunting cartridge the .30-06 . I like the versatility of the .30-06 over the .308 however I shoot both and love the .308 as well. I am not all that partial to the .270 as it seems to have a "sharper" recoil than the 06 or .308, they have more of a dull thump.

Now as far as the best bang for the buck rifle if you are shopping modern rifles it is damn hard to beat a Savage for price and out of the box accuracy. They are normally ugly as sin with a big barrel nut however they are extremely easy to change calibers and barrels in your home work shop. For an even more budget friendly rifle you can get a Stevens which is a rebranded Savage for less money.

The Rem 700 is an extremely common rifle however they do have some issues, including an issue with the safety previously mentioned. Most are not as accurate as a Savage out of the box though they can be tweaked to bring out the potential. The Rem 700 has a HUGE aftermarket.

The Winchester 70 will cost you a pretty penny and is a damn good rifle, older ones are generally better than newer and pre '64 have a huge premium attached.

Weatherby is the Cadillac of the American hunting rifle and unless you buy from the Vanguard line, not a true Weatherby action, they can cost you Challenge money. DO NOT buy a rifle in a Weatherby specific cartridge a box of ammo can cost you $90 for 20 rounds. The Vanguard line is based off the Howa action and has proven to be an excellent rifle for the money and can be quite accurate. Sub MOA accuracy is easy to obtain.

The Ruger American is a fairly new rifle that is made well and is showing quite a bit of promise for being a budget rifle.

Get a common round that is easy to find in YOUR area. Some ammo is more common in specific areas, there are reasons for that. I have covered options for bolt action rifles. There are options for Semi Auto and Lever action as well of course. My preferred hunting Semi Auto is the Browning BAR, try and find a Belgium made one. Lever actions you can go with the classic Winchester 94 in 30-30 or Marlin 1895 in just about anything up to .45-70.

here in the mountains of WNC ... heavy brush and somewhat steep terrain, with limited sight lines ( pretty much what you'll get in N Ga ) my .35 Marlin just can't be beat .. 200 grain bullet with HUGE stopping power, twigs and small branches don't affect it at all ... not much reach ( compared to the .270's or 30-06's .. but with the heavy brush that's ok )

Mosin Nagant.

rotard wrote: Ruger gunsite scout in .308.

+1

I've shot my boss' extensively, what a damn handy little gun. Great caliber, light, manageable size in tight areas, good optics rail, bolt, box mag. I have to buy one.

One thing I'd like to add - don't overthink it. Georgia hunting law on valid big game weapons is pretty much "anything bigger than a .22 rimfire" - and at least for deer, you can get away with pretty much anything in that description.

I've got a .30-30 Marlin lever action and a Mosin Nagant myself. My thoughts on them, as someone who is just a rather casual hunter:

The .30-30 is light weight and doesn't kick too much. It doesn't have the range of some other rifles out there, but in northern Georgia forests, you don't get many long range shots anyway.

The Mosin Nagant is unbelievably cheap, has more power than you need to take down a deer (could be handy if you want to try hunting hogs or bear), and the Russians still use the cartridges for Druganov sniper rifles today. Downsides? It's heavy, lots of kick, and it's not easy to put a scope on one. The bolt wants to go in the obvious place for the scope.

In reply to Conquest351:

College Station

Weapon of choice, Acura EL. Apparently only avaliable in Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acura_EL

My brother was driving one on HWY 118 between Haliburton and Bracebridge in Ontario one fine late afternoon in February. A pair of deer ran in front of us. One of the two deer were "launched into orbit" according to the person following us. Were we speeding?? Yes!!! but only about 20KPH over the limit... Cops generally don't even put their doughnut down for 20 over, but don't go 50kph over under any circumstances there......

Anyway we popped the rad and had to wait for a tow.. It was only a 3 hour drive home. But took 9 hours since the tow truck took hours to get there, and had a (scary) blowout on the highway less than 10 minutes from our destination. Best deer Sausage ever!!!

One more vote for .308 w/ 3X9 scope, 150-180 gr, ballistic tip optional

Pa. farm and mountain hunter here, works for me

Mine: Model 70 .308, '58 vintage, Redfield Widefield 3X9 scope... oldie but goodie

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Safety sammy says "Leave the safety on until you are ready to fire" so even if it goes bang - it should be aimed at something you were planning to shoot. I have 2 of them and put hundreds of rounds through each over almost 40 years. No mistaken bang-bang. I've never even heard of that problem. I suppose I'll have to google a bit now.

I completely agree with safety sammy (and would add loaded or unloaded). On the other hand I do have and uncle that is missing a few digits that might tell you about the best laid plans and his hunting mishap.

It sounds to me like the rifles that have had more rounds through the barrel would be more at risk ie "lightened or polished trigger components" (words lawyers dance around with in court). I am no gun smith by any means but the thought dead wrong comes to mind when I hear the 700s mentioned.

I haven't hunted anything but flying orange discs since I've been in Ohio, but between all my family and friends we all have our own preferences of the "best" deer rifle, all have their merits, and detractors.

My personal choice is a mid '90s Synthetic Stock Winchester Model 70 in .270 flavor, with a Leupold 3-9x40 VX-1 scope. My Model 70's favorite store bought round is 130 gr. Federal Power Shok. I get more consistent grouping with the cheap Power Shok, than any of the fancy high dollar Teflon coated/ballistic tip gimmick bullets I've ever put through it, and I've put a lot of rounds through it.

My only complaint about the Model 70, is a minor one, there have been a time or two, mostly when shooting at a range, that I wished my rifle had a removable magazine. However it's internal magazine holds 5 rounds, and if you can't hit a white tail with that, you don't need to be out hunting.

My brother swears by his .243
My cousin claims the 7mm Mag is best
My dad has taken many with his 30-30
My girl friend's dad almost exclusively uses .308
A guy I used to work with says 22-250 is best
My uncle and the majority of others I know all use 30-06

I'd say shoot a few, see if there's a range that'll let you rent rifles, and see what you think is best.

• Lee

My Dad uses a Winchester .270 and Mom used a Remington ( I think) .357 lever action.

Last time I was out in the woods which was about 15 years ago, I carried a .410 over/under and was probably the only member of my family that hunted and never shot a deer.

I did tag one with a Subaru once. No one else sees the humor in the story when I tell them that you have to slow the bullet down to 55 mph and put headlights and a horn on it to get deer.

I haven't hunted since I was a kid. No philosophical problem with it, just no time during hunting season due to work. I have a Winchester .32 special lever action. It's older than I am and has a fair amount of value.

Compound bow FTW.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: My cousin claims the 7mm Mag is best

7mm Mag would be my "you can only have one*" rifle. Light bullet, light load for varmint, heavy bullet, full power will bag elephants.

*Assuming good access to ammo/reloading.

A gun that has adequate power, fits you and that you shoot well is probably more important than the cartridge type. Anything from a .243 to a .45-70 and anything in between will do a fine job.