The question came up yet again on the 24hourcampfire: What is the Ideal Deer Rifle/Cartridge.

Yes, one of those will do nicely. The fact of the matter is that they all seem to kill deer, some a bit better than others. However, we don’t have the luxury of replaying every deer hunt and retrying a shot with a different rifle or a different load. Would an ’06 done a better job? Should I have used a spitzer on that one?

I will attempt to answer this in a different way. I always listen to the voices inside my head to tell me which rifle to choose. I occasionally try to keep from obeying the voices, but it is not something I would reccommend. The rifle and cartridge that the voices dictate is the one I choose.

What do the voices tell me? What do they base their decisions on? It’s hard to say.

Sometimes they want to remind us of the past. On those days, I will select something like the Remington 742 in 30-06 that my buddy Jerry sold me back before my first season. He was sort of my big brother that I never had. When I carry that rifle I can hear his booming voice over the 20 years its been since we last hunted together. On those days, I spend a lot of time alonse sitting on stumps or up in the stand, just listening to the wind– just me and the voices.

Sometimes we feel like roaming the woods. On those days, I often take my Remington 1100. It comes up quickly, and instinctively buries itself in my shoulder as a doe rises from her bed 40 yards ahead. On those days, my voices and I are just happy to be out in the woods.

When the voices have serious deer business to perform, there’s the ’06 bolt gun or the Savage 99 in 308.

For some, there is great magic in donning buckskin and shouldering their flintlock. They and their voices can reach back in time and join the hallowed few of the Frontier. For others, it might be that their voices ask of them a goal of attainment. Go, they say, and seek the wisdom of O’Connor! Buy a 270! The glory of Carmichael! The courage of Teddy! Buy that 1895 Winchester! Let his spirit rise within thee!

If you read my posts much, you’ll often find me dissing the shoulder-busters with their Wizzums and Super-wizzums and Super-short-ultra-wizzums. For me and the voices, it just has never seemed like a whole lot of sense. They seem like so much to do something so simple. However, I suppose I can see how the voices might one day be attracted to this aspect of the Great Deer Gun Pantheon. The things these new magical instruments offer is a fresh start. I can see a time when the voices would grow wearisome, say after a particulary worrisome blown shot or a missed opportunity, and they would send me off to the gun store to buy a rifle that carried the promised of new, powerful medicine. .

I would shoot it all summer and not mind the recoil, knowing each jolt would bring me and the voices closer to finally purging us of the memory. This would be our pennance for not shooting true to the dream.

For a young man, with young voices inside, a new cartridge may carry strong magic. His voices may call him to haunt the gun counters of summer, waiting for the new catalog to appear, and to order THE new rifle of the season

Who are we, mere mortals, to deny these voices. Yet as men, how can we admit these secrets to the world?

“Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen. ”
Homer (800 BC – 700 BC), The Iliad

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