Best caliber for deer out to 800 yards

[Hawkes]

I'm looking for info on what caliber would be good on mule deer, whitetail, and pronghorn out to about 800 yards. I don't plan on shooting at game past about 600 yards. I am looking at the 30 calibers and the 6.5 mm. Any help will be appreciated.

[Buano]

If you are shooting mule deer out to 800 yards and limit yourself to 6.5 or .30 cartridges I would recommend a .300 Win mag as my first choice and a .300 Weatherby as my second. Advantage of the Win mag is cheaper ammunition while the .300 Weatherby shoots a little flatter.

If you want a shorter action, the .30 WSM is also a good choice.

If you were to remove the limits on caliber of choice I would have included the .264 Win mag and a 7 MM Rem mag as excellent choices.

There is no justification for any of the ultra-mags at this range.

[Hawkes]

Is there any justification for a custom built rifle at this distance? Also is a 165gr Barnes a good bullet at this range?

[rick523]

Get a Rem. sendero in either 7mm rem mag or 300 win mag put some good glass on it and start practicing. Should be all you need.

[Varmint Hunter]

Any 7 mag with a 180 VLD should work fine. Any .308 mag with most 180-210 bullets should work fine too.

Some smaller calibers would work with good shot placement but it's always nice to have a little extra horsepower when shot placement isn't perfect.

A custom rifle isn't "necessary" but an accurate rifle is. You can only know how your rifle/ammo shoots at distance by actually shooting at that distance. A rifle that shoots 1.5" @ 100 yards will almost always shoot groups more than 8X larger or more than 12" @ 800 yards despite what the math tells you. (1.5" X 8 = 12")

Barnes bullets probably need 2,000 ft/sec on impact to expand reliably. What would the impact velocity be from your 165gr Barnes at 800 yds?

[LongRangeBangin]

+1 on the 300 win mag as a choice. Gobs of choices in bullet grain sizes from all the manufacturers.

[Hawkes]

Well a 165gr bullet is traveling at 2235 fps and has 1830 ft-lbs on impact. So what would be the best type bullet to shoot at these distances at this type of game?