best deer caliber

All with the right bullet will kill any deer, so which ever you shoot best. For me, I hate recoil, so .270 with 130gr. bullets.
 


I've killed several dump-truck loads of North American big game with a .30-'06. I've also killed a little over sixty head of African plains game with the '06.

The cartridge is obviously quite capable for cleanly killing everything from coyotes through eland. Even better, the .30-'06 has a relatively low recoil, so most folks can handle it well.

Given my choice of ANY one round to handle deer, I would probably opt for the .280 Ackley and I'd use 139-grain Hornady Spire Point Interlocked bullets. But that's just me.

Steve Timm


PS. Here is a photo of an eland I whacked in the Northern Transvaal. I killed him with a single 180-grain Hornady Spire Point bullet out of my .30-'06. He fell dead-right-there with all four legs pointing towards the Afrikan sun.

Eland is the largest antelope and this critter weighed 2,352 pounds on the farm's certified scale. Big bugger.

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And here is are a couple of photos of our trophy room. All of the Afrikan and Canadian game was killed by me and my .30-'06.

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And here is an incredible impala. Again, I killed it with the common .30-'06.

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Finally, a Limpopo bushbuck that is on the first page of the Rowland Ward Book of Game Records. Yup, the .30-'06 works on these gorgeous beasties, as well.

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I have a .30-06 and the .270.
My .30-06 sits in the safe. I take my .270 on every hunt that I can. I feel more comfortable with it, and I have dropped over 25 deer and unk amount of hogs. Most took two or three steps. No further.

This is total preference. You have opened a can of worms.
Just compare the two and get what fits your needs the most.
Remember that ammo is game specific.
 
Deer are easy to kill, and any of the 3 will kill them easily near or far. My favorite deer cartridge is the 7mm-08.......
 
Given the three choices I would go with the .270, but give me a .260 for deer hunting and every other caliber will go unused. Just me, love those 6.5's
 
All three will work and work well! But you really don't need a 300 mag to kill deer. Come deer season, I'll have one of the following in my hands.

25-06
7-08
30-06
Hoyt Bow
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I use and love my 270! I have shot lots of deer and a few coyotes with it and it has never let me down. The 06 is great round also but really doesnt give you anything more.

Originally Posted By: RHcoyotehuntery doesnt anyone pick 300 win mag
I don't like the recoil the 300 win mag has. It doesn't kill deer any better than the 270 or 30-06 with added recoil. If u want a bigger go to 375H&H and for large game and 270 for deer.
 
If deer and black bear is as large as you are going then 270. It has less kick and shoots as flat as the 300. The 30-06 will work better on larger game as will the 300. There really is no best deer caliber. There are many different calibers that will do the job very well.
 
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