Deer Rifle Advice
Dear Shaman:
I am a fairly new deer hunter, looking to purchase my first deer rifle. I’ve been reading the magazines and I’m pretty sure I want. . .
. . . blah. . . blah. . . I figure I need it to be flat out to at least 600 yards. . . blah . . . blah . . . able generate n0000 foot lbs of energy . . . blah . . . blah. . should I get the Remington or the Ruger?Sincerely
Newbie in Blah. . . Blah
Yeah. Right.
Dear Newbie:
Put down the magazines.
Sincerely,
The shaman
Guys. I get a bunch of emails from guys this time of year looking for advice on a deer rifle. First off, the best time to get a deer rifle in most spots is right before Christmas. Guys get strapped for cash for Christmas presents and sell good rifles cheap. Second, since when do you need a deer rifle that is flat shooting out to 600 yards, or even 300 yards, or even 200 yards?
Look, I am no expert on hunting West of the Mississippi. I’ve never hunted a Sendero or glassed from a Mesa. I have also never hunted a bean field that had its own zip code. Your mileage may vary on this, but here in the Trans-Bluegrass up along the Greater Ohio River, take the vast majority of my deer inside 80 yards. I’ve asked this question of a lot of deer hunters in a lot of different ways, but the question is always something like “How far out do you shoot deer? The answer keeps coming back something like “80 yards” or “Inside 100 yards.”
That is the number you should be aiming for.
“But Shaman! Jim Zumbo says. . .”
Yeah, and Jim gets paid to hunt. How often do you get out to the range? How often are you going to shoot that artillery you’re contemplating? Are you really going to get out and practice offhand shooting at a 300 yard target?
I will tell you what is realistic.
Inside 50 yards– this is roughly not much more than bow hunting range. This is the range you can expect in most heavily wooded environments. Just about anything goes at these distances. In fact a bore-sighted rifle will probably hit somewhere on an pie plate if you aim for the center.
Inside 100 yards — If the woods are open you may see 80-100 yards from your treestand. 12 GA smoothbore may or may not make it out that far with accuracy. Ditto for some muzzleloaders.
Inside 150 yards — 30-30 and 44 Mag rifles are not going to get out this far without working at it.
Inside 200 yards — Modern inline muzzleloaders and shotgun slug loads can make it here with proper care and feeding. This is the normal working range of your centerfire rifle with a bubble-pack scope, factory ammo, and a weekend or two of shooting from the bench. Just make sure you have a rest.
Most rifles in the range of 30-06, sighted in 2 inches high at 100 yards will hit 2 inches low at 200 yards or thereabouts. To be proficient at killing deer beyond 200 yards requires practice and discipline. Quick example: You have a 30-06 shooting 150 grain factory stuff that goes 2700 fps at the muzzle. You’ve taken my advice and have zeroed in at 2″ high at 100 yards. A whitetail deer with a big rack suddenly shows up at 300 yards. You shoot. The deer runs off, and you never recover it.
Bullet failure?
Shot too high? Too low?
Need a bigger rifle?
Deer is bullet proof?
The answer is you don’t know. At 200 yards, that bullet was 2 inches low. At 300 yards, it was about 27 inches low. How did you know it was 300 yards? You guessed? At 275 yards the drop was 21 inches at 325 yards it was 31 inches. I can keep going if you like. At 600 yards that bullet would have dropped 135 inches.
If you had gotten a 300 WIN MAG, the drop at 300 yards would be only 6 inches, at 600 yards 100 inches, but now you’ve gone and increased the recoil by 25% over the ’06. Unless you are a recoil hound, that rifle is giving you quite a wallop. If you haven’t worked at it, you probably have a flinch.
Enough?
Concentrate on shooting deer where they will be found. Find a rifle that will shoot out to about 200 yards, and concentrate on killing inside 100. If you keep seeing deer at 600 yards, you are too far away. Get up and move closer.
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