New Deer Rifle

My first choice would be 7mm Magnum,2nd would be 30-.06.

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what's the boards opinion?

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if I'm in backwoods Arky I can always find 30-06, 270 or 308

Those two 30 cal guns and the 270 are more than capable of killing any animal on this continent within the shootable limitations of 98% of the hunting population. A lot of cartridges come and go, but I believe those three will stand the test of time for deer and other big game long after I’m gone, and I would personally rank them 30-06, 270, 308.

As for rec’s for a $1800 rifle without glass, I can’t help you other than I’d go stainless synthetic.

I bought my son a Christensen Arms 6.5 PRC mesa. I have shot 3006 and 308 all my life. Wanted to try a semi wildcat round so I went with it. 1500 for the rifle. Put a Leupold 4x16x44 Boone and Crocket reticle. If he ain’t hunting with it I am….

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Deer Rifle

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.270, .30-06, .308, 6.5 creedmoor*

Anything else is making this harder than it needs to be just for the sake of making it hard. Which is fine, but let's not talk "better."

Caliber is basically irrelevant with the right bullet and right shot placement when shooting deer. So get something that's easy to get ammo for and go kill deer.

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Are any of these new rounds really wowing hunters enough to offset ammo cost/ scarcity? I

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No. If you aren't shooting deer at 1500 yards it's totally irrelevant and it become slightly relevant at that range. The majority of people rarely shoot 200 yards and at that range literally anything works with good bullets and good shot placement.


*the Creedmoor gets an asterisks because there's loads of ammo out there that really sucks for hunting. Otherwise it's an excellent deer caliber.

I've killed two deer this year with my brother's 6.5 Creedmore out of a nice custom Rem 700. Now given the rifle has some heft to it, that was still a very soft shooting rifle and neither deer ran more than 50 yards. Only complaint was a small blood trail on a double lung heart shot. Three small spots until the puddle where he was laying.

Does other NA game include elk? If elk are on the list, I’d consider a .30-06, 7 mag, 28 Nosler, 300 mag

My 257 WBY has killed an elk (son shot it), big horn ram, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, and truck loads of whitetails. Three bang-flops out of four kills this season. Flat shooting and mild recoil.

That's impressive out of a CA Ridgeline. They are scary light and have to be brutal shooting a 300 WM out of it. We are planning on putting my 46 Hybrid on my Dad's 300 Weatherby to see how much nicer it is to shoot suppressed.

30-06 has been killing shite and killing it well for well over a hundred years. Has probably killed more wild game and human targets than any other caliber on the planet. Every manufacturer out there makes a rifle chambered in it. Has a plethora of different ammo manufacturers for it and an unending bullet selection. Nothing wrong with any of the other calibers discussed they all serve a purpose and work but the tried and true aught 6 is gonna be hard to beat. This is just my very very humble opinion.

Yeah after shooting his i kinda regret buying my 300wm mesa last year. I think I’m put together a similar type build using a Mack brothers action and proof carbon barrel.