Hunting guys and gals, have a ?

[noodleroo]

Quote:
Just make sure you get a gun that is hard and uncomfortable to handle. Developing a flinch is one of the worst things a shooter can get

Agreed. I shoot a .243 and DH uses a 7 mag. Ouch. He shoots, it goes right through; I shoot, they fall down dead. And I don't have bruise. I highly recommend a .243.

 

[JetBlack]

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My first rifle was a .30-06. Big mistake. It took a long time to get rid of that flinch. I was 13 years old

It's a beautiful rifle and I love it, but it was not the right gun to start a kid with.

A good tip, from Field&Stream, was to purchase a .22 with the same action as your deer rifle and shoot that all the time. No flinch and it's super cheap. Worked for me. I wore out a barrel, in 20 years of shooting that bolt-action .22 and replaced it with a better barrel, last Thanksgiving. Now I love it all over again. A muzzle loader is a good way, as well. You can load super light loads, behind light bullets and shoot all day for dollars. It's nice and meditative too.

An hour at the range is better than an hour at the therapist.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

30-06 or 7mm mag would be the two best calibers for me when hunting elk. Shot placement is everything. You can always go bigger but in my opinion these calibers are big enough. Many elk have been dropped with smaller calibers but put the bullet in the right place. For two hundred years before the metal cartridges and rifled barrels came to be, thousands of big game animals were killed in the North American continent with a patched round ball shot from a black powder muzzeloader with a fraction of the energy created by the modern firearms of today. To be redundant, SHOT PLACEMENT IS THE KEY.

 

[Boyd]

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Rooster, what those patched round balls gave you impact energy and shock value

That's why I love my shotgun. If I make a poor shot (everyone tries to avoid but happens sometime if their life), the animal is still going down if I hit it anywhere near center mass. The shock will literally knock it down and kill it most times. I rarely need a follow up shot with my shotty

 

[Turkeyrangler]

I have a Remington 700 in 270 and 300 win mag. The 270 is great on deer. Our bucks up here average average around 150 dressed. My biggest was over 325 live weight. The 300 will really reach out and touch something well. I've used a 30-06 Remington 7400 on a 1200 pound moose and put the bull down in short order. Any of those with a well placed round that is made to penetrate will take down an elk. The only problem I've had was the 300 win mag isn't a good round for a lot of shooting unless you have a great recoil pad on the rifle. After ten rounds or so you begin to flinch a bit. Beats the bejesus's out of ya. I do completely swear by the Remington700; best rifle I have ever shot for the money.

Everything on this wall was taken with a Remington rifle except the turkeys.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Quote:
Rooster, what those patched round balls gave you impact energy and shock value

That's why I love my shotgun. If I make a poor shot (everyone tries to avoid but happens sometime if their life), the animal is still going down if I hit it anywhere near center mass. The shock will literally knock it down and kill it most times. I rarely need a follow up shot with my shotty

I personally gave up modern gun hunting. I bow hunt or Muzzeload with traditional styled muzzeloaders. In Washington, shotgun hunting for deer is rare if even legal. I don't see it done.
I got a whitetail buck at 60 yards last year with a 54 cal muzzeloader shooting 90 grains of blackpowder. He was dead before he hit the ground. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat, as they say. Just be safe and have fun. what ever method you choose, practice and save the beers till you get back to camp.

 

[birdicus7]

The best choice for you is one you feel comfortable with. You can debate muzzle velocity, kinetic energy, etc until you're blue in the face! Face it you can kill an elk with a .22 if you place the shot correctly. However I would never attempt it. I would take a look at the new short magnums available. I have a 7mmWSM and love it. Most of them are very easy to handle on the recoil end too. Good luck.

 

[Rebel Rooster]

Sooooo many variables! Soooooo many rifles... Firearms are like hand tools... You have "Snap-on" "Mac" "Craftsman" so many good tools and they all work extremely well... it's a matter of what fits "you" and your hunting conditions... I hand load, (gives me a lot more control) so... We have everything in the gun cabinet from, .243 to 7mm mag & right in the middle there is the .270 win... I shoot it in a 700 Rem. My daughter shoots it in a Rem 7400. My son shoots it in a Savage. My nephew shoots it in a Weatherby... All .270 wins and all take a different load to shoot at optimun performance... Loads have to be experimented with to find out what shoots best in any rifle... After 30 years of loading and shooting... the best combos that I have found in this caliber are; the Barnes X and the Sierra Game King in 130 to 140 grain depending on application... All the .270 win is... is a 30-06 Springfield Brass necked down to a .270 caliber... The bullet has the same energy as the 06 and is faster and flatter at longer distances... I would say that the .270 is one of (if not the best) all around hunting cartrige ever invented...

 

[JetBlack]

Quote:
+1.

I've never had a deer go more than 30 feet. At least as important as caliber, is shot placement. The Rem 700 will help you there, as well. That gun will shoot better than you do. There really is very little you can do to upgrade the accuracy that gun can give you, out of the box. Over the years, I have repeatedly considered getting a competition, bull barrel fitted to the action. When I hold up a 100 yard target, I just can't justify the expense! How would I know if accuracy got better?

It is boring to shoot at the range. You can shoot one bullet or 20 and the target looks the same. One tiny, ragged hole.

10 shots. from a Les Baer bolt action, at 100 yards.

To shot a group like that i'm assuming you handload? What load do you reccommed for a 20 round 1/2 inch group?

Steve

My gun likes 150 grain BTSP's over 51.3 grains of Win748 for hunting deer. It's easy to shoot and mushrooms the bullet completely with all rounds going through and through.

For fall target shooting (to win turkeys, for thanksgiving), it's 168gr BTHP National Match bullets, which require some care to seat without damaging them at all. No crimped case mouth! 54.1 grains of Win760.

I bought two boxes of 165 grain BTSPs to see how they work. Seems like they should be even better than the 150 grain, for power at distance, with some of the additional accuracy of a bullet so close to the perfect length for the twist rate and speed of a .30 caliber. I have hopes....

 

[chickboss]

LOL! Well now my head is spinning with options! I will be hunting in SW Oregon, where it is pretty brushy with lots of hills. I'll be staying close to home and have already located several areas that I think will be pretty nice to try out. Lots of deer down here, and I have been seeing bucks all over the place, unlike last year when they were few and far between. I am just trying to wrap my head around all the information about the different calibers, ect., benefits, drawbacks. To give you an idea, I have just started to read ballistic charts, so really green when it comes to the technical aspects of it all. I love reading all your responses, thank you! And I will definantly post a pic if I get one!

Oh, and I could totally see getting into bow hunting later on!