It's still hanging up covered in dust in my barn somewhere. I'll take it down at some point Sam and see if I can figure out the inbox system and send you some pictures and info on it.

Sounds great Carpenter! Thank you!

killed deer with .222, 22-250, .220 swift, .243, ,270, 30-30, 7mm, 30-06, and a few with my truck and wife's car.

Very welcome!



It's tough to pick a caliber isn't it? Especially once you get into reloading it's like a whole 'nother rabbit hole.

I have not shot a deer with a rifle for years. I shot the first 10-15 with a Model 88 Winchester 308. Then I bought a Remington 700 22-250 for coyotes and prairie dogs. I got so confident with my abilities with that rifle I used it to cleanly kill a lot of deer with. And it killed them as fast as any big magnum would. Bullet placement is more important than caliber choice in my opinion. If I wanted to kill a deer with a rifle today I would probably reach past several rifles in the safe to grab that 22-250.

My favorite rifle for deer is my Ruger 44 Magnum Carbine. It looks and carries like a 10-22. I don't even need a sling. I am comfortable out to 125 yards.
It is very handy for running shots. Never had a deer run off, Had one crawl about 7 yards.
If I hunt where longer shots are likely, I take out my 270. Shots flat and thumps a deer nicely,

I'm sure he will enjoy it a great deal ! I've got the Model 100 and then a custom built on a old short Sako action what a tack driver !
The 139 gr Hornady BTSP is a favorite of mine to shoot !

When I was a teenager, my dad always said the 30-06 would kill anything in North America. So he gave me his 3006 to carry deer hunting and he used his Savage 30-30 bolt. As I now think about it, humm?? Anyway, so when I got my first rifle it was a 30-06. Over the years I've used any number of calibers in different types of actions from 17 rem to 458 Lott.

Today at the ripe age of almost 70, I carry a 308, titanium action in synthetic dress deer hunting. With age and bad shoulders, weight and recoil become issues; I'm thinking about an upgrade to 30-30 or small 6.5mm.

Another thought in the back of my mind is, what is the available of commercial ammo, especially with the ammo issues of the past years.

Ammo availability is a real issue but easily dealt with. Find your load you like and buy 2x more than you will shoot in your suspected time frame.

Few people shoot 10 rounds out of their deer guns a year after the I got a new
rifle wears off. So figure X $ worth of ammo figured into the price of the new gun along with optics and rings solves that problem.

Don't tell anyone you have a stock of ammo you will be blamed for the next shortage by those that dont prepare and only buy a box or two when they run out.

I have enough in several cal to last me the rest of my life and well I to the kids for deer hunting. That's not including all the components for loading more. But im like a squirrel with ammo. I see a good price and buy it. Sometimes I dont even have anything to shoot that caliber in.

Killed deer with 12 gauge slugs, 223, 22-250, 243, 7mm mag, 30-06, 351 WSL, and 308. I want to add 30-30 (my dads), and 30-40 Kraig (my Grampas) to the list

at my house there is no differnce between 308 and 30-06 there is typically a 50-200fps difference between the same projectile in 308 vs 30-06

308 worked so well I figured why beat myself and the semi auto 30-06 rifles I had up

most of the 308s are bolts , all my 30-06 are semi auto it just happened that way. I had a bolt 30-06 but I sold it.

it takes a couple grains more powder to compensate for the case being bigger but they are nearly the same

Here's A debate..........

I don't believe in the slow calibers like a 30-30 being superior at being a brush gun.

Slow moving objects are way more easily deflected from their path than a fast moving one.

I tend to agree with you hippie. I don't shoot the 30-30 because I think it'll bust the brush better, I shoot it because it handles so quick on the close and fast shots. I have always been tempted to set up some targets in thick brush and see if there is any difference in deflection between say a 270 or 06 vs something big and slow like the 45-70 or the 416. I don't shoot through brush unless a critter is already wounded and I figure he needs another round, and that rarely happens.

have took 1 , an 8 pt. buck with a 250, 100 gr nosler ballistic tip at 2850 fps. killed him graveyard dead, he never kicked.

I have to use a shotgun in illinois. I have 2 I shot with a regular 20 gauge over the years where it didn't do a good job.12 ga never fails.

I did a little testing heavier as in more mass moving tends to stay straighter than less mass moving

when your putting 95gr out of a 243 and 170s out of a 30-30 though a stick the 243 does deviate more quite possibly from deformation.

if you were running a 58gr vmax and shot through a 1/2 inch branch the bullet would probably be a bunch of pieces of flack hitting the target. so bullet composition has something to do with it and bullets tend to deform more at higher velocity.

I did the testing with 308 using 150s and 180s
shooting through 1/2 inch plywood with a big sheet of cardboard behind it to catch the bullet pattern
shot at 25 yards
we started with the cardboard about 10 feet behind and found it was hard to call
we moved the carboard back to about 30 feet and we could see a definite pattern the 150 were more spread out in the cardboard compared to the 180s

if the deer is 5 feet behind the bush with a 308 in 150 or 180 it won't change that much
if it is 25 feet behind it starts to change enough to matter

no gun is really the brush buster people want , bullets are effected by hitting stuff.
it dose take distance for it to change direction

heaver seems to be better at changing less after impact, enroute to the target.

Pete, you are a wealth of information. Thank you for your contributions to all of the gun threads.

From the .22 to the 460+ they all kill deer within their limits.It is more the guy behind the stock.
NOTHING lives with a hole in the heart or lungs regardless of caliber.
A guy in forensic science told me many years ago that a deer shot in the heart or lungs will not live longer than 7 seconds.What they do in those seconds vary from drop to take off.
Some say the ones that drop have just exhaled and lack oxygen. The ones that run just inhaled. I don't really know.

I recently joined a hunting site and when the mod saw my post on this subject ,slammed me with profanity,called me a crack head,etc.I terminated that site.
Hope that doesn't happen here !

Brush busters are kid of a misnomer, all bullets deflect, just depends on bullet type, weight, etc...30-30's aren't really brush busters, but are light, handy and easy to carry, especially without a scope, actually a scoped anything is a better brush buster cause you can pick out small openings to shoot through....

Anything that DOES NOT have Credmore on it.

Six MM Remington is the prefered round for Nebraska deer and antelope.


Cnarlie