New Deer Hunting Rifle – Caliber and Make?

[Steve-o]

By George, yes!  I don't shoot trap very often, but can't hit anything without that piece of tape on my safety glasses.  It was a revelation when I learned that trick after far to many years and lousy shooting.     Why wouldn't it work for deer hunting?   

So a scout rifle might not be off the table for me after all.  I would prefer a lever action, but that would limit me to 30-30 or .35 Remington.  If I want to take advantage of more modern cartridges with better ballistics, I'll need to pick out a bolt rifle.

[HD]

Low recoil in a bolt? I have SEVERAL different guns of calibers.

I would take, out of all of them....if I HAD to choose...my Remington .270
I've taken several deer with mine, and my daughter's a legend in our hunting party shooting hers.

Close second (and this is still learning) ....my new 6.5 Creedmoor.... heavy barreled gun, gas operated... ZERO recoil.

But, keep in mind, to loose recoil...the heavier the gun.

And mine is a tank! 

[deadeye]

I still use the old Remington 700 .270. Probably will continue to use it as long as I deer hunt with a rifle.

I posted this a few months ago. Back in the early 70’s I borrowed a Remington 700 bolt rifle from my wife’s father.  It was my father in law’s dad’s gun.  My wife’s grandfather worked as a game manager in Custer State Park back in the late 1950’s through the 60’s. He used this gun to kill buffalo during the 1962 filming of the movie “How the West Was Won”.  I ended up keeping it and it has been the only gun I have ever used to kill deer with over the past 47 years including the two I shot this fall.  Many years ago my father in law modified the stock by inlaying a piece of 2x4 to make it an early version of the Monte Carlo stock. He was more into function than form. I still have that stock although quite a while back when they became popular, I replaced it with a black plastic one. I often thought about putting a notch in the stock for each deer I killed with it but by now it would be no bigger than a pencil. 

[Steve-o]

DE, what a great story.  Its a perfect example of how we get attached to our firearms.  On one hand they are tools, but on the other, when they are leaning up against the tree in the deer stand, its like sitting with an old friend.  I've got a couple such old friends, both of them given to me by my father, and I have taken most of my deer with those two guns.

But my Model 70 30.06 isn't the best tool for attempting off-hand shots.  I'm looking for rifle that is lighter and more compact.  And like you said HD, the lighter the gun, the bigger the kick.  So that is why I'm considering the 6.5mm calibers (and the 7mm-08  ); not so much to tame recoil in the field, but on the practice range.

As I talk around and around the options, if all I wanted was a lighter, more compact gun, I could always grab the 30-30 Winchester (which was always our back-up gun - and I still might ), but that isn't what you want when you see a deer on the other side of the swamp or field.  These "new" cartridges have such great ballistics!