What caliber Do You Hunt With? Non Valk

[DIGGER]

I hunt a lot.   I shot a Remington 700 BDL 270 caliber most of my life.   

I have never been a big fan of assault type rifles.  However, when it looked like Hillary was gonna win the presidency, the day before the election I bought a DPMS 223 caliber AR15....mostly for the grandkids to shoot deer with.    I really...really like that gun.   Extremely accurate at 100 yds,  very user friendly,  very lightweight,   and very very deadly.    You have to PLACE your shot but it'll bring anything down.  2 yrs ago my 8 yr old gson took down an Aldad Ram that weighed around 250 -300 lbs in 1 shot with that 223 caliber AR15.    Being semi auto when a pack of hogs come in you place your first shot then it's like a pinball machine on the rest.    Took down 3 at one time last year.   The AR has become my weapon of choice for hunting deer and other animals.

[The emperor has no clothes]

I haven't hunted in a while. But when I did, a Browning BAR 338 if I was in Brown Bear country. Otherwise a Winchester 270 pump.

[Beardo]

Ruger No 1 .300WM. A little big for deer but great for moose. Grew up shooting a Ruger M77 bolt action 30.06. Went through a spell of can’t-hit-a-barn-door when I was in my early 30’s. My old man recommended the No 1 single shot, he’s had one in 7mm for years. He said knowing you have one shot is a great accuracy-improver. I bought one and haven’t missed an animal since.  They do reload quickly if a second shot is needed with a cartridge holder on the stock, but I’ve never needed one, especially in .300WM...one has always been enough.  We hunt open prairie and across coulees a lot so my average shot is around 250-300 yards so the hitting power of the .300WM at that distance is nice.

I’ve got nothing against any other gun, this gun is just what works for me. Super basic. No complex action to jam. Easy to run a rod through if you fall and jam snow in the muzzle.

[0leman]

When I hunted (stopped in 1998), I used a Ruger mod 77 in 7mm mag cal.  It was a good rifle that netted me 18 elk out of 20 tries.  Plus a boat load of deer and antelope.   

Use a  boat tailed 160 gr bullet, according to  books the bullet was suppose to leave the barrel at 3100 fps.  Had it two inches high at 100 yards and zero at 300.  Longest shot was 300 yards, closest was 40 yards.   Only had to shoot two critters more than once, hey anyone can miss every so often. 

[Jess from VA]

I haven't hunted in many years.  No back breaking and heart attack dragging for miles out of the woods, gutting and cleaning and eating for me.  I'm just not a fan of wild meat (I know proper cooking can make a difference).  I loved the hunting experience (except the freezing my ass/feet off), but if you're not going to eat it, you shouldn't shoot it (nuisance hogs and such excepted).  

Also, at least in MI, the numbers of deer hunters in season exceeded the numbers of front line combat troops in Europe in WWII, and orange vest or not, it was a bit scary out there at times.  

When I did it was 30.06 and 12 gauge (waterfowl), and the occasional .22.

I didn't think .223/5.56 (caliber) was allowed (in most or any states) for hunting deer or other large game (though they seen to work fine on humans).

Edit:  (Huh)  It's best to look at the states that don't allow deer hunting with .223 diameter bullet or an AR-15 rifle. Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey, Washington, and West Virginia require larger bullets to be used to hunt game.

[Pete]

Well lets see, wild game:
223, 308, 44m, 444
22, 44m
410, 12ga

Other game!
45

[MarkT]

I haven't hunted in many years.  No back breaking and heart attack dragging for miles out of the woods, gutting and cleaning and eating for me.  I'm just not a fan of wild meat (I know proper cooking can make a difference).  I loved the hunting experience (except the freezing my ass/feet off), but if you're not going to eat it, you shouldn't shoot it (nuisance hogs and such excepted).  

Also, at least in MI, the numbers of deer hunters in season exceeded the numbers of front line combat troops in Europe in WWII, and orange vest or not, it was a bit scary out there at times.  

I used to hunt in the big national woods in N WI - Nicolet Nat'l forest comes to mind.  Success was sparse, hunt pressure was huge, and there were idiots in the woods who had no business with a firearm in their hands.  You could be sitting in your tree stand, and a hour or 2 after opening time, when the woods was dead calm, you'd hear a POW off in the distance and a couple seconds later a CRACK on a nearby tree, and see the tree shake.  Some bored impatient idiot firing rounds at squirrels and the like.  I ordered 7-1/2 minute angle maps from the NGS, studied them, then I would go back into the most remote swamp I found, and sit in a tree in the swamp, and wait for the morons to drive the deer to me.  I would buy reflective tape, cut it into little squares and put them on tacks, and use them to mark my trail into the swamp to be found with a flashlight in the dark.  You would never notice the tacks in the daytime but with a light it was like following a highway.  Then go back there with a .44 or short carbine slung on your back, a headlight on your head, as you'd need both hands to navigate through the swamp, stepping from clump to clump not in the water, and holding on to the brush with both hands.  It could be tough to get your deer back out but I was young then.

It could be a challenge sitting in a tree stand with the wind and the temps well below freezing.  You'd have to dress so warm it was harder to move, and easy to fall asleep on stand.  I used to tie myself to the tree.  We camped in a wall tent in a glade of trees, with a foot of snow on the ground.  Cooked in the tent - in bear country - get back from stand, fire up the stove and it would be 80° in a few minutes.  Basically dared the bears to mess with us 'cause we slept with magnum pistols under our pillows. ("Young and dumb and fulla cum")  If successful - gutting and hauling the deer out was not pleasant.

Now we hunt spoiled.  In a heated hut with office chairs, windows, snacks and drinks, with solid shelf rests with sandbags and watching an automatic corn feeder 73 yds away.  Can drive right to the carcass, use a small hill to help gut it and put the truck in the adjacent gully to make the loading on the tailgate pretty easy.  And use a winch if it's too big to lift.  My gripe is I can't get my pal to stop drinking beer and pissing every 20 minutes. But I'm his guest so I've done all the bitching I can get away with and he's not stopping.  At least it's light beer, Keystone Lite 3.9%.  He doesn't get buzzed on 4 beers (I'm the driver) just pisses constantly.  The wind is usually in our face.

[Gavin_Sons]

For whitetail I use 44 mag and 6.5 creedmoor, use to use 243 but I upgraded to the 6.5. Longest kill with 44 mag is 140 yards,  250 with the 243 and 325 with the creedmoor. I love the 44 mag for inside the woods under 100 yards. I'm confident the 6.5 would easily kill a deer out past 500, have not had that opportunity yet. We can not use 223 for deer here, has to be between 243 and 300 win mag. Every year they add calibers that can be used. We are only on year 5 for being able to use high powered rifles. My choice is bolt guns for hunting. My buddy uses a 300 black out in an AR with a surpressor. Haven't used the 12 gauge slug gun in 10 years. 

[Chrisj CMA]

.50

[DirtyDan]

Hunting non Valk ?

How about

Hunting WITH a Valk

Dan

[Crackerborn]

It all depends upon what game is being pursued and where.  I picked up a 7mm-08 for prairie goats but have not chased them with it as yet.  .300 Win Mag for elk,  moose and other large critters,  .308 or 30-06 for forest rats when not using a bow.  A .22-250 for varmints like coyotes and prairie dogs.  Just now a 50# long bow is my late season forest rat caliber of choice since I have plenty of venison in the freezer. 12 gauge for fowl if not using the long bow. I hope to chase a moose next season with a bow, probably  the compound.

[Leathel]

For area's hunting off the quad and taking longer shots 300RUM

Long-mid range lightweight rifle 7mmSAUM Mod 7 custom

Bush/kids gun suppressed 7-08

0-500 yard goat gun 243AI suppressed

Goat culling mid range .223AR....loads of fun ......but you need to be conservative go through lots more ammo with second shots that are not really required


....but its been a few of years since the last hunt, to much riding happening

[cookiedough]

Mark T's story reminds me of when I was younger and full of piss and vinegar as well.  We use to go WAY, WAY back AWAY from all others in our hunting party.  My dad and I use to hunt together for he was clumsy and someone needed to stay with him at all times falling down a lot, etc.  I remember one year I had to drag back 2 nice size does by myself basically over 3 miles thru mostly open fields but up/down hills.  By the time I got them drug back, there was NO hide left on the backside of both of them.   Another time I also went back into the SWAMP and NEVER did that again.  Stepping on the bogs and such not quite totally frozen around them,  I took one bad step and landed up to my neck full of water - darn cold walking back frozen to the bone.     We stayed out all day long if needed to since it always seemed that mid-day when others went back to their vehicles stirred up the deer out of hiding and that is when we saw more deer to shoot as well.

Use to use under age 20ish a winchester .30-30 lever action loved that short gun for ONLY shots 100 yards and under, but after missing several deer pushing 250 yards out,  jumped up to a Ruger M77 bolt action .30-06.   Dad had an older Savage lever action .308 that had a short lightweight barrel the darn thing liked to kick UP if not holding onto it tightly with such a light barrel bopping the scope in your eyebrow area.  It also ONLY ejected shells if NEW shells we used Remington.  Reloaded shells would snap off the casings and jam the gun and for some reason that .308 caliber would blow a HUGE hole in deer more so than my brothers Remington 700  .270 caliber or my .30-06. 

Never knew .223 calibers were legal to shoot deer, but like said, if can kill a human with a good shot placement, see no reason why it cannot kill a deer as well, although I think the knockdown power is a tad bit light longer range I would think?

We use to go to nearby Iowa County to hunt deer since was rifle country for did not like Green/Rock county where we lived since back in the day had to use a shotgun in those counties being our old standy Mossberg 500 pumps - great guns for the money spent, just limited to 100-125 yards out for accuracy.  Several years ago though WI changed the rules to allow rifles in those counties and others - smart move!

[Forge]

Marlin 1895 lever action factory ported 18.5” guide gun in 45-70. My hunting is limited to 125 yards or so by brush. I fire a 300 grain bullet and anything I hit has dropped immediately.

[Patrick]

31 1/4" 2317 Easton's