re: Reason I like a magnum for deer

quote:

---

They use one rifle for everything and they hunt big game

---

This is what I do. I elk Hunt in Colorado and use my Weatherby .300 there. Use it to deer hunt in Mexico. where I routinely have shots from 250 to 400+ yards. Scope is a Leupold 6.5 x 20. I'm zeroed at 300 yards. We have rolling hills and plateaus and it is filled with pear cactus, jumping cactus, all kinds of mesquite, spanish daggers and other crunchy stuff that makes it almost impossible to cut the range down at times. We have to shoot hill to hill.

My backup is a .300 Win Mag with mid price range Zeiss scope. I love my Weatherby and use it for just about everything. I shoot it out at American and group at 16". About 450-475 is the extent of my hunting comfort zone for deer. A bit farther for elk. Have shot Javelina close to 750 yards but would never attempt anything like that for deer/elk.

Have a Weatherby 30-378 that I used for a few years but I just don't need that range because I am not going to practice enough to ever be able to take advantage of the extra range. My Weatherby .300 does everything I need it to do and it shoots nails. Confidence level is extremely high when I draw down which is over half the battle.

I bought a 270 wsm a few years back when our lease had 1200yd pipelines cut, thinking i might need to take that once in a lifetime deer at 500-600 yards.

after sitting on said pipeline and realizing how FAR 500 yards is....aint no damn way im pulling the trigger on that. Hell, you can barely tell what you're looking at without a spotting scope.

now i use it because it's pretty

Are you acknowledging my point that the harder hitting caliber does actually increase odds of success with a poorly placed shot?

Or is the recoil the reason for the poor shot?

Even seasoned hunters get nervous and rush.

quote:

---

He likes the idea of it.

---

Not true at all. After the work was done on it, it changed how accurate I was as a shooter. I don't take it to the range and run through a box of shells for shits and giggles. I sight it in every year then whatever shots I take at a deer are the extent of it.

When I say I love shooting it, I mean that I love being pinpoint accurate with it. Never been able to do that with previous rifles for whatever reason.


eta: I know its too much gun for whitetail. But getting a great deal on it when I needed a rifle is why I ended up with it.

quote:

---

This is one thing I've never understood.

---

Same folks that need a 3 1/2 ultra mag and 6 shot to dove hunt, tiny dick syndrome.

I bought me a Savage Model 11 .300 WSM today. I can't wait to shoot it tomorrow

quote:

---

anything past 300 yds is probably too far for the average hunter.

---

Lots of stands suck to shoot out of. Sides the wrong height, nowhere to rest your elbows, etc. Peoole might be able to handle 300 off the bench but out of a shaky tripod with flimsy rails it aint gonna happen. Stands where you can see far should be built for shooting far.

Premium bullets, shot placement and know you and your rifles limitations. I bank on 3 rifles...
200 yards and in food plots - .243 with 100 grain Hornady American Whitetail, never let me down...
Climber in thick stuff - .35 whelen with Nosler Accubonds... Gods hammer!
If i know i have 200 plus yard opportunities - the 7mm mag with accubonds are poison on anything from groundhogs to Moose.

quote:

---

My buddy, my brother and cousin all shoot 7mm Rums

---

That would be high up on the list of things I dont want to own.

Small bullets going extremely fast = meat grenade.

I spent some time aiming at deer out to 650 yards this weekend in a stand that is perfectly made for shooting far. When the stars were lined up I could get steady enough and the deer stood still long enough to make me think I could hit it, but that's a long arse ways to fling bullets at something that isn't perfectly still.

Like I said earlier in the thread, I think the value in magnums is putting horsepower on bigger game at normal distances with a standard sized rifle, not extending MPBR for deer.