What Would It Be ?

[jhjimbo]

IF you were to buy a first rifle for deer hunting or add to your current rifles for deer hunting what caliber would you pick ? What mfg. if you know ? And, where would you be hunting with it ?

[Milldawg]

I’d buy a 25-06. It will do anything any of the others will do out to 400 yards. With less recoil. Well Remington is unavailable don’t thinks mossberg makes a 25-06. So it’s a weatherby for me again. Id hunt anywhere I want with it.

[dewman]

Bergara B-14 Hunter, 7mm-08 or maybe a 260 Rem.
If I still lived out west, a 257Weatherby in a ss bolt gun. Don't know what make till I handled several.

[fitch270]

Right now today?

For a first rifle that would be a 6.5 Creed in a Mountain Rifle configuration of some sort. Totally dependent on ammo availability at time of purchase. If I absolutely needed a rifle the actual purchase could be determined but what was available to feed it.


To add to my current inventory it would be either a stainless steel Rem700 in .270 or possibly a lightish weight stainless 7mm-08 of several possibilities. At this point I’m thinking of keeping any new purchases to chamberings I can already hand load for.


Most hunting here at home in the short term but mulling future trips.

[jhjimbo]

I have been thinking a lot about this. At my age I have too many in the safe. I think I have one rifle already that would replace several I have. I am talking about the Marlin 1894Mag in .450Marlin. Look at the ballistics - almost 3,000 energy and a solid 200yd trajectory. Nowhere I hunt would require more. Some I could sell are Remington 700's in 30-06, and 7mmRemMag. Remington 742 in .308 and 30-06, Weatherby Mk V in .300WbyMag. Mauser 6.5Sweedish., NEF .44mag., Nef 45/70., NEF .308, If I don't get drawn the Weatherby Mk V in .340WbyMag.,
All those could be replaced by the Marlin for the type of hunting I do. I count 11, there may be others.
The Marlin uses the 325gr Hornady Leverevolution that I hand load for and shoots less than 2"
minute of venison.
I would keep the .17WSM, .22lr, .and .22Mag, .223, 22-250,. 7.62x39, Mod 94 30-30, .450Marlin .

I think I would have enough coverage with those I keep. (not considering shotguns in this exercise).
What are your thoughts ?

[Pmacc60]

If I was going to start from square one I would buy a out of production Remington 7600 3006 carbine . It was the right choice for most of my hunting needs over those years and still will be. I always have one so next hunting rifle I will buy probably a 6 mm creedmoor either XBolt or Fierce rival .

[Pmacc60]

Right now today?

For a first rifle that would be a 6.5 Creed in a Mountain Rifle configuration of some sort. Totally dependent on ammo availability at time of purchase. If I absolutely needed a rifle the actual purchase could be determined but what was available to feed it.


To add to my current inventory it would be either a stainless steel Rem700 in .270 or possibly a lightish weight stainless 7mm-08 of several possibilities. At this point I’m thinking of keeping any new purchases to chamberings I can already hand load for.


Most hunting here at home in the short term but mulling future trips.

6.5 CM ?? Light weight rifle ?? We are no longer friends !! Lol kidding of course ! You know the CM comes with the man bun option .

[fitch270]

6.5 CM ?? Light weight rifle ?? We are no longer friends !! Lol kidding of course ! You know the CM comes with the man bun option .

Hey, I’m a GenX’er, pony tail all the way.

[Pmacc60]

Hey, I’m a GenX’er, pony tail all the way.

Ok , I can see that ! Lol

[jhjimbo]

I like these hip guys with the little tuft of hair standing up on the front. Hey guys, that was the hair style of Beaver in 'Leave It To Beaver ' in the '50's, 60 years ago. What goes around comes around. When will skinny ties come back? Glad I don't wear ties any more. BTW, whoever thought of ties should be shot. Women can wear open shirts all the way to their navel but guys are choked all day by a tie ? Not fair.

[jhjimbo]

I'm set for deer rifles and probably won't ever buy another for that purpose.

For a first (or only) deer rifle, I've been very pleased with the Ruger American Predator in 6.5 CM but would be just as satisfied with the same in .308 Win.

I don't care what detractors say about the 6.5 Creedmoor. It's been a very good cartridge so far on the deer and pigs I've dropped with it And, I no longer have enough hair for a bun... 😁

Ancestory.Com says I will keep my hair all my life - so far so good. They also said I don't sneeze when I look at the Son. True. I did not know some people do.

[FirstBubba]

I've had a desire for:
a) .300 H&H
b) 7×57 Mauser
Either or both in a Ruger No.1.
Either can/could be used for whatever, wherever.
Neither will ever be realized.

[Ernie]

I am fully set-up for whitetail deer, antelope, mule deer, and elk already.
I could easily do all four with a bunch of cartridges/chamberings I already have in revolvers and specialty pistols.
The 357 Mag or the 44 Mag could do all of them, if I want to keep things short (relative term for me) in terms of range.
FWIW we have a lot of locals who regularly kill elk with a 243 Winchester (which would include cartridges like the 6XC, 6 Creed, 6x47 Lapua, 6 Dasher, 6GT, etc...)
6.5 Creed kills a lot of elk every year here too...I said this just for the haters.
Darrell Holland built me a 6.5 Creed rifle with his action, his signature stock, and PROOF carbon wrapped barrel and his brake. I let a friend borrow it for his elk hunt, because his optic went down on his 243 Winchester. He filled his tag this past Sunday with it at around 250 yards.
Now he is in the process of getting a custom 6.5 Creed rifle built-I ruined him for life!
because I play at distance, I would go with more horsepower.
Truth be known, animals are not that hard to kill!
Well constructed bullet placed well=dead critter!
I enjoy using different cartridges-It's fun!

[DakotaMan]

I would do the same thing I did 54 years ago when I bought my first hunting rifle. That was a 25-06 Ackley Improved (AI). It's about as fast as the .257 Weatherby, hits just as hard and is more accurate. The only difference is that now I'd buy a 7.5 twist barrel so I could shoot the heavy for caliber 131g to 135g VLD bullets that will stay supersonic for more than a mile. The killing impact of these cartridges is beyond reason. This cartridge is hard to beat on anything from 1000 yard competition targets to prairie dogs, coyotes, antelope, deer and elk. The 75g to 135g bullets sound small to most big lead slingers but I've never seen any other cartridge kill game like these two cartridges. The only negative is bullet deflection. At this speed, you need clear air between you and the target. Since clean air shots is all I ever do anyway, it has never been a problem for me. However, if you MUST shoot deer through 25 yards of saplings and brush, I'd suggest a .35 Remington with round nosed 200g bullets.

I hunt in the woods, on the prairie and in the mountains. About 75% of the game I have taken have been on the run. The high velocity of this cartridge makes those shots almost as predictable as a still shot. It's pretty much like shooting a big fat quail at 200 yards.

My first one was on a Mauser style action and it has served me well. In over 40,000 rounds fired, I have experienced one failure with it. That was caused by a weak detent spring on the bolt shroud that stuck the bolt as I went to shoot an antelope. Cost me $0.27 to fix it. It's still shooting lights out (many barrels later) with 3.5" five shot groups at 1000 yards.

I just built two of these for a friend and his wife with titanium Rem 700 clone actions and Proof Research 26" Sendero contour barrels and Jewell triggers weighing in at 7 pounds. They shoot and are easy to carry! Not that you would need it but they have a one mile range for deer sized game. This custom rifle would be my choice for the calendar year 2022.

For factory actions, I consider the Howa 1500 action (also used in the Weatherby Vanguard or the S&W 1500) to be one of the most accurate push feeds and like that for hunting and highly accurate varminting. The Tikkas are also very accurate and work fine, except I insist on a 26" barrel for speed since that is why I shoot the 25-06 AI.

I often get the question, "Isn't a 25-06 Remington the same thing"?

My answer is "It is until you shoot a 25-06 AI". The AI is as much as 200 fps faster than the 25-06 Rem and you notice it on time-of-flight, running game and on the stunning impact on game.

[Old_Sarge]

I think I honestly had one of the best first deer rifles you could buy for a 13 year old. My father blessed me with a Remington model 7400 30-06 with a Nikon 3-9x40mm scope on top. To this day I wish I would have held on to that rifle. I would love to be able to gift it to one of my kids or if any of them have kids pass it down to one of them. I feel like the next best thing for a first deer rifle would have been a Remington model seven chambered in 243 or 308. I would have loved to have a Leupold 4-12x40mm scope sitting on top. I think that set up would be hard to beat in the woods or over watching a corn field. As for adding a rifle to the fold I guess I would go with a Browning BAR safari II chambered in 25-06 with a Leupold 4.5-14x40mm. I would hunt some down here in Ga. I got a area that I hunt that has an open field right up nest to a big pond. I would also use that rifle to go on hunting trips out of state that I’ll start taking shortly now that I’m retired.