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What is the ultimate deer rifle?

The arguments that have occurred over this question of “The Ultimate Deer Rifle” would melt down the Google servers.  When it comes to hunting weapons, there are as many opinions as there are hunters.  Why is this?  Well, the long and short of it is;

  1. Deer are not hard to kill and you can kill one with just about any weapon.
  2. Most people’s opinion is based on their own personal experience and social conditioning (what they learned to form their “Mentors”), not scientific facts and empirical evidence.

So, what is the Ultimate Deer Rifle?

The answer to this question depends more on you than it does the gun. Any gun can kill a deer; so the real question is; What gun do YOU need to kill a deer?  There are two factors you need to consider when choosing a weapon for YOU to kill a deer with.  These factors are:

  1. Your ability.
  2. Your hunting scenario.

 

What is the ultimate deer rifle for your Ability?

Your personal ability is about well you can hit what you are aiming at.  How well you can accomplish this goal has more to do with your phycology then it does your physiology.  You can only accomplish what you believe you can accomplish or what you think you need to accomplish.  Your ability to shoot accurately is governed by how accurate you think you need to be.

Now, most people know this, but when it comes to deer hunting, most American hunters have some kind of psychological block that is a result of incorrect social conditioning by their mentors.  In almost every other aspect of rifle shooting, most people abide by the motto, “Aim Small, Miss Small”, except when it comes to large game animal hunting like deer.  In this case, the mentality is reversed to, “Aim Big, so you can Miss Big”.  What I am talking about is the mentality of “Aiming for the Breadbasket”.

99% of American hunters have been taught from childhood to “Aim for the breadbasket” when they go deer hunting.  But what does this mean?  It basically means; aim somewhere in the forward chest cavity area (aim big) to increase your chances of hitting a vital organ (miss big).  Because of this “Breadbasket” mentality, American believe that you need a large caliber weapon to kill a deer with, because what they are trying to kill the deer with is “Mass Tissue Damage”, rather than precisely aiming for a lethal vital that will kill the deer instantly.  This “breadbasket” has lead to very wrong idea that you need a gun capable of killing an elephant to hunt deer with.

So what is your ability?  Can you hit a dime at 300 yards?  If you can, you don’t need a .300 Win Mag to kill a deer.  Have trouble hitting a pie plate at 50 yards?  Maybe the .300 Win Mag is right for you, that is if you don’t mind losing the whole front half of the deer.

 

What is your hunting Scenario?

Your hunting scenario will also determine what kind of weapon you “Should” use.  One of the easiest and most effect deer hunting weapons is not a rifle.  It is a shotgun with 000 buckshot.  In some highly populated areas, the laws actually prohibit the use of rifles for deer hunting and limit your weapon choice to a shotgun.  Many people have been killed by a high-speed rifle round miles from where the deer hunter missed his deer at.  But a shotgun is a short range weapon with a minimal effective range.  It would not be a good choice for long range situations.

In some cases, you may have to hunt at long ranges of 100 yards or more.  In this case, you would need a rifle that can shoot accurately and have enough power to kill a deer at longer ranges.  So the range you intended to hunt at is what will determine what caliber of rifle you need, as each caliber has a limited effective range.

 

My Personal Choice for The ultimate deer rifle

I have done most of my deer hunting in Texas, where most shots on a deer are from 100 to 200 yards.  I have hunted almost exclusively with one gun over the last 30 years.  With this gun I have taken over 100 deer at ranges up to 300 yards, never wounded a deer, and never used more than one shot to kill it.  The gun that I use to deer hunt is the Savage Model 110 .243.

 

 Savage Model 110 .243 Caliber. The ultimate deer rifle

 

Paired with the Nikon PROSTAFF 5 Riflescope 3.5-14×40 this rifle can stack bullets on top of one another at 100 yards.  It is the only gun I have ever needed to take any size deer in Texas.  The .243, in my opinion, is the Ulitmate caliber for a Deer Rifle.

The design of the 243 calibers was based on the 6mm PPC rifle cartridge. You have probably never heard of the 6mm PPC because they are very rare.  Dr. Louis Palmisano and Ferris Pindell, who invented the 6mm PPC, engineered it to be the most accurate cartridge ever invented. It has proven itself to be exactly that over the last half-century.  The 6mm PPC is used predominately for competition level shooting.  It is so accurate that a group of 10 shots in under 1/4 of an inch at 100 yards is not even worthy of notice. Most people consider the 6mm PPC is a underpowered for hunting purposes, so the inventors of the .234 just extended the casing to hold more powder and give this cartridge more killing power.  Thus the .243 was born to be one of the most accurate, flattest shooting hunting rounds ever invented.

 

 

Here are some other Ultimate guides you might be interested in:

The Ultimate Survival Go-Bag

The Ultimate Survival Weapon