Favorite deer rifle/cartridge/bullet?

[Guy]

For deer & smaller, what's your favorite rifle, cartridge & bullet?

Tell us a bit about your setup, your load, what you like about it please.

For deer, antelope, coyote... My favorite is a 25-06 Rem 700 CDL, with a 6x Leupold. I'm shooting 115 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips at about 3150 fps, though I have used other bullets from this rifle. The excellent accuracy, gentle recoil, flat trajectory and quick kills with this combo have impressed me. Closest big game kill was a mule deer at about 20 yards, farthest was another mule deer at an honest 400 yards. I've taken coyotes out farther than that with it.

Nicknamed my Ballistic Tip ammo the "Blue Cyclones" because of the blue tips, high velocity and great results on game. Typically I neck size my 25-06 ammo, using Wilson dies and a Hart arbor press. I've been using Retumbo for my 115 gr loads for several years now.







Tell us about your favorite deer rifle & load?

Thanks, Guy

[EUDE75]

My favorite deer rifle is my Marlin cowboy 45lc. I ordered it 6 months before Marlin released them. I've killed more deer with it than any other gun. Most of my hunting is in the woods so i don't generally have long shot. I like it because it loves the same load my 45 blackhawk does. I shoot a 325gr cast bullet with 22gr of H110.

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[Eric Feral]

.223. I got a ton of over run 72gr federal fusion soft points and loaded them up after cleaning them up. They are beasts

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[SAWMAN]

For here in NW Fla with it's small'ish deer but big'ish hogs I prefer my 6.8SPCII. I have a 10.5" AR pistol and a 18" AR. I also have a Ruger Mini-14 chambered in 6.8SPC.
This chambering is pretty much between a 223/5.56 and a 308Win. Shooting a .277" bullet of between 85grs and (normally) 120grs it has proven to me time and time again to be a great killer at <300yds.
I killed this 266lb hog with my 10.5" 6.8 with a thermal sight. One shot. The hog went about 30yds with heart and both lungs in shreads. Hornady 120gr SST. ---- SAWMAN

[muforester]

CZ 550 American in 6.5x55. Very accurate rifle with mild recoil. Killed a few deer with Hornady 140gr AMAX. Recently went to 155gr Lapua Mega Bullet, but have not got a chance to test it on game. I use Lapua Brass, Norma MRP powder, and Wolf primers.

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[Wolfdog]

Over the years my favorite deer rifle /load has been a sporterized M38 Sweede in 6.5x55 120 grain Nosler(the old solid base when they still made them the NBT now) loaded over RE19 killed a boat load of deer with this round and did well on the pigs I shot with it as well.

[JeffreyDeGraff]

I would have trouble choosing between 2.

First is an original Ruger M77. My father bought it sometime in the mid 70’s ( he died in 1979). It was chambered in 7x57, my mother always told me that that gun always frustrated him because he could not ever get it to shoot accurately no matter what bullet or powder he tried. When I was 18 I started handloading, I poured through all my fathers notes about that rifle, and re-tried some things he had tried and some things that he hadn’t tried. No luck. Some time in the late 90’s I bought a cheap-o Adams and Bennett barrel, on sale for $65, and had it chambered in 6.5-284. It doesn’t shoot bug hole groups, but I do have several loads that shoot under an inch. My favorite is 140gr hornady spire point with H4831 going right at 2850fps. It has a Nikon Monarch Gold 2.5-10x50 scope. The rifle has minimal recoil and is a pleasure to shoot. I don’t know if I love it because of what it is or for nostalgias sake.

My second is an old nazi ‘98 Mauser, chambered in 257 Roberts with high luster blue steel and an oil finished walnut stock. It wears a 3-9x40 zeiss conquest scope. I shoot 117gr hornady spire points with H4350 2850fps or H414 2950fps. It’s a very accurate, and beautiful rifle and a dream to shoot.


JTD

[BeerBucksDucks]

I am partial to my Ruger M77 Hawkeye in .243 win. Topped with a Vari-X II 3-9x40. I have taken quite a few whitetails with it over the years. I started out loading 85 Barnes TSX over H4350. That load accounted for 4 or 5 bucks and always got the job done. Since I can’t seem to leave well enough alone, I started loading the 95 Nosler ballistic tip over H4350. My first hunting load was pretty anemic at 2750 FPS but killed a buck for me last year. I tinkered with that combo and got it up to 3025 FPS with good accuracy, so that’s what I’ve been running. I’ve taken that load out to 800 on steel with the added dial from Leupold and killed my buck with it this year. I think I’m going to leave it as is for awhile.


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[Jbotto]

Last year, after ten years of a dry spell with deer hunting, my rifle finally got a chance to speak. I was using a 165gr Gameking in top of a load of IMR4064 in my .30-06. Pretty low charge honestly, might even be a starting load. It did the job but I’m thinking about switching to lead free hunting bullets. So by next year I hope to have a new load worked up.


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[Rahl07]

6.8 GPC with a 130 Fusion over SW Blackout.