All around deer hunting cartridge.

[Wyoboy321]

My go to has always been a 7mm. Wby Mag. It's taken tons of elk, a few, deer and antelope and a moose.

 

[buffybr]

300 weatherby is my choice for anthing i need to put my sight's on and drop but it would not be my first choice for a coyote rig i would get a 22-250 for that. the reason i say 300 wby mag is let's say im moose hunting see a coyote i can pull up bam and not need my 22-250 there with me i know you can do that with the 06 but the weatherby is my choice.

How often do you hunt moose?

When I built my .300 Wby it quickly became my favorite rifle. It looked great, shot great, and I could use it for just about any animal that I would want to hunt. And I did, on numerous hunts here in Montana and Texas, and on multiple hunts in Africa, New Zealand, and Azurbaijan.

But when I bought it, and before I ever shot it, I re-stocked it in AA Fancy walnut that I spent over 100 hours, bedding, finishing, and hand checkering it with my favorite multi-panel checkering pattern. I hated to take it out in rainy, foul weather. So for many of those hunts I would take my SS, plastic stocked 7 mm Rem mag instead.

Then last summer I built a 2nd stock for it that is impervios to weather, and I took it on a Northern Alberta moose hunt, which was clear and dry the whole week that I was in the bush.

 

[Yoder]

One of the most versatile rounds is the 30-06. I think you can get bullets from around 100 to a little over 200 grains.

 

[The_Dinkmaster]

My 2 cents (which is worth less than that) would be the 308. You can find a bullet size small enough to do the job for a varmint and larger sizes to take the bigger game. Decent velocity with low recoil. Only issue would be distance. At longer ranges there's obviously more effective rounds.

 

[Forestryguy]

Absolute one cartridge. Any flavor of .375.

 

[Honyock]

270 or 6.5 creed

 

[jkmoore3s]

Mine one cartridge for everything is 338 federal. Shooting 180gr accubonds it will take of them all.

 

[Wolfshead]

My current favorite is my Tikka TSX compact in .308 Win.
last season I shot my handloads which consist of 150 grain Nosler Accubonds, 46 grains of Varget, in a Starline brass case with 200 CCI primers.
I have that load dialed in out to 300 yards, and would not go much further than that.
I have never actually taken an animal past 270 yards so that is good for me.
Deer are not that hard to kill. Think about it, hunters are consistently taking deer with traditional archery equipment every year.
Everyone is entitled to shoot, and hunt with what they like, but I don’t feel the need for a large caliber or magnum is necessar, and quite possibly over “kill”.

 

[Boarmaster]

My all around used to be a 30-06, then a 270 win now a 7mm08. I’m getting older.

 

[huntermiwi]

If by "deer", do you mean whitetail? Or do you mean the entire deer family (moose, caribou, elk, mule, black-tail, etc.)

Whitetails are relatively easy to kill - 6.5's in cartridges like 260 Rem, 6.5 CM, 6.5 PRC and their 7mm siblings all work well for the ranges I consider ethical to hunt whitetails at (especially in eastern US).

What do I actually use? 260 Rem. Why? Because I have been using 260 Rem for 25+ years. It fits in a light rifles with short actions. (I bought two Model 7 Stainless rifles in 260 Rem for my kids to use and I still use them.) I laugh at all the buzz about the greatest invention since slice bread - the 6.5 CM. (Inside 400 yards, the 260 beats the CM. You can argue the 6.5 beats the 260 Rem at 1000 yards for shooting steel - but that isn't hunting. )

If you change the question to be the entire deer family, then the 7mm to 30 calibers shine. If I had to pick one, I would go with 300 WSM. Why? I like short action light rifles. (If you want to lug around a heavier long-action rifle to shoot a 300 WM or 300 PRC go for it. The dead moose won't know if it was a 300 WSM or a 300 PRC that killed him.)

FYI: I hand-load and stock-piled alot of brass so no concerns about availability of brass for 300 WSM.

 

[lefthandedasian]

.243, 6mm Rem., 25-06. .260. .270. .280 7mm-08, .308, 30-06,

This guy must listen to Ron Spomer

 

[FLS]

This guy must listen to Ron Spomer

??? I don’t see anything in that list that’s not a good deer cartridge.

 

[Boarmaster]

If by "deer", do you mean whitetail? Or do you mean the entire deer family (moose, caribou, elk, mule, black-tail, etc.)

Whitetails are relatively easy to kill - 6.5's in cartridges like 260 Rem, 6.5 CM, 6.5 PRC and their 7mm siblings all work well for the ranges I consider ethical to hunt whitetails at (especially in eastern US).

What do I actually use? 260 Rem. Why? Because I have been using 260 Rem for 25+ years. It fits in a light rifles with short actions. (I bought two Model 7 Stainless rifles in 260 Rem for my kids to use and I still use them.) I laugh at all the buzz about the greatest invention since slice bread - the 6.5 CM. (Inside 400 yards, the 260 beats the CM. You can argue the 6.5 beats the 260 Rem at 1000 yards for shooting steel - but that isn't hunting. )

If you change the question to be the entire deer family, then the 7mm to 30 calibers shine. If I had to pick one, I would go with 300 WSM. Why? I like short action light rifles. (If you want to lug around a heavier long-action rifle to shoot a 300 WM or 300 PRC go for it. The dead moose won't know if it was a 300 WSM or a 300 PRC that killed him.)

FYI: I hand-load and stock-piled alot of brass so no concerns about availability of brass for 300 WSM.

Back in 2008 when I started hunting in Alabama for whitetails all the older guys that had grown up there hunting deer used the 260 rem. The younger guys mostly 7mm08. They used to sort of be amused at all us guys from Florida and our big weatherby magnum rifles with 26 inch barrels and huge scopes. It didn't take long for me to come around…. I never did go with a 260 but I bought a 7mm08 with a 22 inch barrel.
Now I one of the old guys with my 7mm08 and the young guys are using 6.5 CMs mostly.

 

[alexnelon]

One of the most versatile rounds is the 30-06. I think you can get bullets from around 100 to a little over 200 grains.

You can even get factory powderpuff loads for whitetails.

Hornady has 125s at ~2650fps that (on paper) should be pretty dead-on with the same zero as the heavy 180 grainers inside 200 yards or so.

If you're not a handloader the 30-06 is a very strong option.

 

[eaglemountainman]

7-08 in a Montana
And the old classic, .300 Sav in a Savage 99F

 

[TLB2]

Im a 308 or 7mm08 fan

 

[lefthandedasian]

??? I don’t see anything in that list that’s not a good deer cartridge.

Oh, my comment was a compliment! Basically every caliber you listed Ron also says is perfect for deer. There's no need to go overboard into magnum territory lol

 

[Squincher]

You could be randomly assigned to hunt deer forever with any of dozens cartridges and kill every deer you ever shot at. I based my choice on availability as much as anything.

 

[Pokerface]

6.5X55 Swede. Soft shooting , easy killing. I don't live in a place where I could kill a moose , but I have read that is used a lot where it was developed....Joe

 

[204_ruger]

I used to use a 300 wby. Using Nosler 125 gr bt. It worked on deer hogs and coyotes. Then started using my 280 rem. Now i have a new xbolt 280AI. Planning on reloading hornady 175 or 180 gr eld for coyotes deer and hogs.