What's your deer rifle?

Jim Beckley · Post by **Jim Beckley** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:43 am

Just got my computer back from the brink. Here is a few lines from an article written by Jack O'Connor in Outdoor Life (Another Look at the .270). The new cartridges come along. They are greeted with shouts of joy. The writers leap to their typewriters and bat out pieces about their phenomenal accuracy, flat trajectory, and astounding killing power. One of the more enterprising lads takes a rifle chambered for one of the new magnums out for a "field test". He then follows up his original piece with a thrilling tale of the chase and gives a blow-by-blow account of how he slew his quarry with one shot and how the wound was still boiling and burping 20 minutes later when he got across the canyon to the carcass.
Then some the the less-imaginative make the disillustioning discovery that although these new wonders made more noise and kick harder than the old .270 they don't shoot perceptibly flatter or kill any better. Sadly they find out that no matter what cartridge they use they still have to hit game in the right place in order to make a clean kill. July 1970.

mordecai · Post by **mordecai** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 1:00 pm

I have a custom barreled Savage 99 in .260 Remington at about 19.5" for a light-weight packing rifle.

The backup is a Howa 1500 in .308 that does well enough.

I have a couple nostalgia pieces I hunt with from time to time. A sporterized US m/1917 in .30-06 with Lyman 2.5x and Redfield sights. I also have a wonderfully handy sporterized Swedish m/96 Carbine in 6.5x55.

And I always start the kids out with the Winchester m/94 .30-30... She kinda packs a punch, but the trade is the 5.5 lbs carrying weight. When I finally lay my hands on a Savage 99 in .243, the kids can work from that one instead....

lone ringer · Post by **lone ringer** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:30 pm

mordecai wrote:I have a custom barreled Savage 99 in .260 Remington at about 19.5" for a light-weight packing rifle.

The backup is a Howa 1500 in .308 that does well enough.

I have a couple nostalgia pieces I hunt with from time to time. A sporterized US m/1917 in .30-06 with Lyman 2.5x and Redfield sights. I also have a wonderfully handy sporterized Swedish m/96 Carbine in 6.5x55.

And I always start the kids out with the Winchester m/94 .30-30... She kinda packs a punch, but the trade is the 5.5 lbs carrying weight. When I finally lay my hands on a Savage 99 in .243, the kids can work from that one instead....

If you load the .260 with lighter hunting bullets you will get the same effect as if they were shooting a .243.

mordecai · Post by **mordecai** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 3:14 pm

That's entirely true... But it negates two gun-rules.

1) Try to pick a common caliber when hunting so you can find ammo wherever you are....

2) Always leave a reason open to buy another gun.

dwl · Post by **dwl** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:40 pm

Rifle Loony's (thanks to Johnny B.) two gun rules:

1. Always have a new interesting gun to build, test and shoot. Buy dies, cases, bullets and powder in plenty inorder to negate rule two.

2. Always have a back-up gun in some boring, common cartridge just in case you screw up rule one. Hey, it happens!

BlauBear · Post by **BlauBear** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:29 pm

dwl wrote:Rifle Loony's (thanks to Johnny B.) two gun rules:

1. Always have a new interesting gun to build, test and shoot. Buy dies, cases, bullets and powder in plenty inorder to negate rule two.

2. Always have a back-up gun in some boring, common cartridge just in case you screw up rule one. Hey, it happens!

Sounds like words to live by...

So a Remington .260 (or .270, pick a caliber) is great, but keep a trusty rusty 700 in .308 just in case?

jeff59 · Post by **jeff59** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:14 pm

Two gun rule???

1. Winchester Model 70 Classic .270, stainless, composite, 3-9 Nikon

backed by:

2. Remington 760 in .308, 1 3/4-5 Redfield

backed by:

3 Remington 141 in .35 Remington, open sights

This year I took an nice 8 point (eastern count) whitetail with the .270. My nephew took his first deer (spike buck) with the .308.

There's also a Remington 742 in 30.06 hanging around just in case.

Jeff

dwl · Post by **dwl** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 7:53 am

Two gun rule? Four gun rule? Com'on, we all know it's a More Guns Rule!

ter · Post by **ter** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:00 pm

For deer, I will be using a Model 70 Featherweight in 25WSSM. 37 grains of H4895 and a 115 grain Nosler partition.
For black bear I'll be using a Sako Finnlight in 300WSM, with 180 grain accubond. I can't really recall the load data from last week..................

dwl · Post by **dwl** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 7:00 am

Just reread Modecai's post about the Savage 99 in 260! I wanna see pictures of that one, Mike. I'm a 99 fan. I bought my boy a Savage 1920 in 250 Savage for his first deer rifle as soon as he is big enough to lift it.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 6:33 pm

That's just sad that you'd inflict the ugliness of the Savage design on such a young, impressionable shooter. I can't argue the functionality of the design but it's just... well.. ugly.

Edit: I take back the ugly comment about the 1920. I had the 99 design in my head and couldn't get the horrible image to go away.

Heimdall66 · Post by **Heimdall66** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:08 am

Here is my new deer rifle! A Career Dragon Slayer .50 cal air rifle shooting 176 gr. round ball. Oh yea, before someone blasts me for doing something wrong in Texas for hunting with an air rifle, the deer was taken in Louisiana. Which leads to the question.....why is there a stupid law in Texas that does not allow us to hunt with an air rifle?

Bob259 · Post by **Bob259** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:51 am

Heimdall66 wrote:Here is my new deer rifle! A Career Dragon Slayer .50 cal air rifle shooting 176 gr. round ball. Oh yea, before someone blasts me for doing something wrong in Texas for hunting with an air rifle, the deer was taken in Louisiana. Which leads to the question.....why is there a stupid law in Texas that does not allow us to hunt with an air rifle?

Love those .50 cal air rifles...

My friend has a Quackenbush and they are amazing.

silhouette13 · Post by **silhouette13** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:45 pm

older post, i just noticed, and read every page! i have 2 "deer rifles" one is a G2 contender in 375jdj w/ leupold vx1 3x9 sweet shooter does better than a 30-06 w/220 gr velocity wise but has a little less in areodynamics, great for anything that walks- especially me it is the single best carrying hunting rifle i ever had my other is a ruger #1 in 375 h&h mag, my answer to the 270-308-3006 all 'rounder it will take a 20# dik-dik or 15000# elephant so anything in between is ok like deer it is a tad heavy for all day walk abouts but for going some where and sitting a spell it is fine.

i got it late last season in nh and took it for a loooooonnnnnnngggggg walk on a power line to see how heavy it really is and it is not tooo bad and the exta weight is nice cause the recoil(felt) is actually less than the contender .

2 cents paid

dave

What's your deer rifle?

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