Undecided .308 or 30-06

[Holland&Holland]

Personally I think both are excessive for whitetail. Shot my first MN deer with an 06 and it was brutal. I'd be looking for .243 or .270 in a bolt gun. Run 6.5 Grendel in my AR and it's plenty for both whitetail and Elk.

Poor shot placement?

[Ironbear]

I witnessed a deer take eight 12 gauge slugs once. Placement of the shot is far more important than what you are using.

Was there any usable meat left?

Hmm. The first slug must have done something, if the deer stuck around to soak up 7 more....

[Ghost]

Personally I think both are excessive for whitetail. Shot my first MN deer with an 06 and it was brutal. I'd be looking for .243 or .270 in a bolt gun. Run 6.5 Grendel in my AR and it's plenty for both whitetail and Elk.

Poor shot placement?

Caught a rib and the bullet fragmented so bad I had bone and bullet fragments everywhere and about a 3" hole out the back side. It did drop on the spot though.

[Ghost]

I witnessed a deer take eight 12 gauge slugs once. Placement of the shot is far more important than what you are using.

Was there any usable meat left?

Hmm. The first slug must have done something, if the deer stuck around to soak up 7 more....

It was shot by several people and was running on 3 legs. I put it down with a slug to the head when it got to a point it couldn't run anymore. Nothing was usable.

[JJ]

I witnessed a deer take eight 12 gauge slugs once. Placement of the shot is far more important than what you are using.

Was there any usable meat left?

Hmm. The first slug must have done something, if the deer stuck around to soak up 7 more....

It was shot by several people and was running on 3 legs. I put it down with a slug to the head when it got to a point it couldn't run anymore. Nothing was usable.

Gotta love drive hunting

The neighbor across the street from one of our properties stopped drive hunting three years ago. He "took" a big big buck. It had 11 slug holes thru it before he fired the final shot. Too bad antlers don't eat well

Not uncommon in the slug zone to hear those stories. Kinda kills the idea of hunting for the meat

[Ironbear]

I witnessed a deer take eight 12 gauge slugs once. Placement of the shot is far more important than what you are using.

It was shot by several people and was running on 3 legs. I put it down with a slug to the head when it got to a point it couldn't run anymore. Nothing was usable.

Gotta love drive hunting

The neighbor across the street from one of our properties stopped drive hunting three years ago. He "took" a big big buck. It had 11 slug holes thru it before he fired the final shot. Too bad antlers don't eat well

Not uncommon in the slug zone to hear those stories. Kinda kills the idea of hunting for the meat

Sounds like an awful lot of high-speed lead moving every which way....

[UnaStamus]

Yup. Nothing like seeing a giant burst of dirt several feet away from you and you realize it was a 1oz slug impacting...

[goalie]

I would also keep in mind that deer are not that hard to kill. I have used a 44mag, .223, 243, 270, 30-30, 308, 375H&H, arrows and round balls out of a muzzle loaders to kill a few dozen deer.

They all work if you do your part. And they all worked WELL for me.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Deer are not hard kill, a perfect shot from any round will get the job. I've also had success with many different rounds (44mag, 45 Colt, 243WSSM, 25WSSM, 25-06, 260 Rem, 270 Win, 270 WSM, 7mm Rem Mag, 30-30, 300 Sav, 30-06, 300 WSM, 300 Win Mag, 300 Weatherby, 12 gauge slugs, and probably few more I forgot), but I've seen far too many not quite perfect shots with small caliber projectiles leave wounded animals. Personally, i don't use anything smaller than .25 caliber on deer anymore.

I was one who thought the .223 was too little gun for deer. Then I saw a few LARGE deer (over 200 pounds field dressed) that were taken with the TSX and TTSX Barnes bullets. Both shot the shoulder on purpose. Both dropped right where shot.

Considering I've shot a similar sized deer through the heart (I usually collect them for someone at work who's teacher spouse dissects them with the kiddies, this one wasn't usable....) and far shoulder with a .270 from all of 10 yards or so and had it run over 200 yards, I changed my views after seeing those deer harvested with a poodle-shooter.

Granted, there was so much blood from the buck I shot with the .270's exit wound that "tracking" him wasn't exactly difficult. In the end, there may be less blood trail from a .223, but I've yet to shoot one with a .223 that needed tracking at all.

[OldmanFCSA]

I've used 22LR out of a Ruger Single Six to drop a doe while meat hunting , but it is not recommended for anyone.
223Rem or 5.56X45 is another cartridge that should not be used in my opinion, not saying it won't work with heavier projectiles, but just not for me.
But then I feel the same way about using the 338 and above Super Magnums because of overkill, when correct shot placement is preferred.
YMMV.

I have MY beliefs and my recommendations, but even I have broken these when circumstances were correct.

Buy a 30-06 if you are only buying one rifle. This will fit 99% of your needs.
But a 308 will be great for whitetail deer in the lower 48. The shorter action means a lot to some, doesn't do anything for me.

[goalie]

I've used 22LR out of a Ruger Single Six to drop a doe while meat hunting , but it is not recommended for anyone.
223Rem or 5.56X45 is another cartridge that should not be used in my opinion, not saying it won't work with heavier projectiles, but just not for me.
But then I feel the same way about using the 338 and above Super Magnums because of overkill, when correct shot placement is preferred.
YMMV.

I have MY beliefs and my recommendations, but even I have broken these when circumstances were correct.

Buy a 30-06 if you are only buying one rifle. This will fit 99% of your needs.
But a 308 will be great for whitetail deer in the lower 48. The shorter action means a lot to some, doesn't do anything for me.

Have you seen what the monolithic bullets do on a deer? And, FWIW, IMO, the lighter ones work better. Faster. 3,000+ fps, 100% weight retention, ability to go through any bone.

Dead. Right. There.

And I am not talking about little does and 1.5 year-old bucks. The funny thing is, with that little pill flying at warp speed, you WANT to hit the bone. The biggest downside is the loss of some shoulder meat. That said, watching a 12-year-old girl drop her first deer last year (biggest one in deer camp) with the .223 she shoots well because she isn't afraid of it > a little potential for shoulder meat but a less than perfect shot placement on her first deer.

Disclaimer: I have no idea what the .223 does at longer ranges on deer (>150 yards) and I don't plan on finding out. I just know it works great with vital shots up-close, and the little-ones like shooting it enough that they shoot it well.

[yukonjasper]

Yup. Nothing like seeing a giant burst of dirt several feet away from you and you realize it was a 1oz slug impacting...

I've met two different individuals, years and miles apart, with injuries sustained during drive hunting in slug country. One guy lost most of his pinky finger and half of his ring finger on his right hand and another guy who had a big scar on his left thigh about 4 inches above his knee. Both were guys I pheasant hunted with who were friends of friends that told their stories after discussions of field of fire and respecting your hunting partners space. Neither were interested in "posting up" at the end of a field while we drove it for pheasant.

One of those trips we had an incident where someone got "peppered" by a member of the party and the farmer whose land we were hunting and whose son we were friends with, left the field immediately and he did not hunt with us the remaining 2 days. A couple of the guys on that trip were pretty scary and part of the reason the farmer left is that they kept shooting hens like it didn't matter. I think he just figured he had enough of that Sh!t show and got while the getting was good.

We stand hunt almost exclusively now for deer in rifle country. In some cases, if someone gets bored or cold, we have set up when and from where one of our deer hunting party might walk through into another guys area to maybe move the deer around. We talk about it ahead of time, so there is little chance of a problem.

[Ironbear]

One of those trips we had an incident where someone got "peppered" by a member of the party and the farmer whose land we were hunting and whose son we were friends with, left the field immediately and he did not hunt with us the remaining 2 days. A couple of the guys on that trip were pretty scary and part of the reason the farmer left is that they kept shooting hens like it didn't matter.

His land... and he left rather than permanently booting them!? I guess I wasn't there... but... that seems like such a wrong answer!

[rugershooter6823]

Went with 30-06, nothing fancy. Ruger American. Didn't want to break the bank and has lots of good reviews.

[OldmanFCSA]

Good choice for all the reasons listed above.
Now save all your brass and I can teach you how to load for your needs.

[aht_six]

Congrats! It should serve you well.