What cartridge for NOT long range (300 yards and in ) whitetails?

There's no one best answer here, a lot of stuff will work. If I KNOW the range is 300 in, I tend to leave most of the stuff that is ideal to shoot further home and carry more portable/maneuverable rifles capable of putting things down with more authority. For the prescribed use, I have a 358 WSM wildcat (used to be the most you could shoot in Indiana) which is a ballistic twin of the 35 Whelen AI. It simply hammers game within 300 yards. I also use a 44Mag and 458 SOCOM, but not where 200+ yard shots might happen.

Edd said:

What is your favorite 80+ gr solid copper 22 caliber bullet and what is your velocity?

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I shoot a 64gr Hammer at the moment but have also shot the 90gr Berger and it flat hammers deer.

Steve just started selling an 83gr Hammer so that will make for a badass deer bullet at about 3500fps.

adam32 said:

I shoot a 64gr Hammer at the moment but have also shot the 90gr Berger and it flat hammers deer.

Steve just started selling an 83gr Hammer so that will make for a badass deer bullet at about 3500fps.

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Deer don't need much killing, but how would that work on the possibilityof bear in the OP?

Bigeclipse said:

If you did not have a deer rifle (maybe a very rare hunting of a black bear) and wanted to buy one for 300 yard shots and in, which cartridge rifle would you be buying?

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Simple answer. 308. I have a Pierce built, Bartlien barreled 308 that ballisticaly compares to a 6.5 Creedmore out to 500 yards both in velocity, bullet drop and kinetic energy delivered (according to the G3 Ballistics software sending 168 Bergers in Lapua Brass with Federal primers and a propellant load I won't allude to.

I rarely hunt over that. One I like to get as close as possible and two, at almost 70, I cannot see that far anyway...lol

My 308 is my favorite long gun and if I happened to lose my ammo (handloads), any Wally World has 308's in stock. Might not shoot as good as my custom jumped loads but they still go bang.

For bear, I'd use a handgun like a 460 Smith or a 44 RM.

Dog Rocket said:

Deer don't need much killing, but how would that work on the possibilityof bear in the OP?

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I'm not sure, I have never shot a bear but from everyone I know that has it seems a black bear isn't all that hard to kill. But personally, I have no idea.

The 308 Winchester... this is the caliber I always grab to go hunting. Under 300 yds with a 180 grain projectile and you have an ideal gun. Light, short, low recoil, hits hard even through thick brush and will take a black bear down. You can find bullets anywhere around the world, it's cheap, easy to load for with a huge assortment of projectiles from 110 grain to 200 plus grains and the barrel will outlast thousands of rounds. This cartridge took all of my New Zealand animals... bull tahr, chamois, wapiti, red stag, wallaby, fallow deer and Arapawa rams all with 1 shot each ranging from 60 yards to over 300 yards shooting a 180 grain Nosler partition. You have a lot of choices, you can't go wrong with any of those mentioned calibers.

Caliber 6mm, bullet weight 95 to 100 grain. .243 fits that bill. I'm putting together a 6mm Dasher right now.

any short action 6mm and up would be great, so 243, 6.5cm, 308, etc. No need to go with a heavy recoiling long action caliber. Like everyone has said, whitetails are difficult to kill.

Bigeclipse said:

If you did not have a deer rifle (maybe a very rare hunting of a black bear) and wanted to buy one for 300 yard shots and in, which cartridge rifle would you be buying?

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An AR 15 in 6.8 spc. or the 224 Valkyries 90 gr.

jrock said:

Caliber 6mm, bullet weight 95 to 100 grain. .243 fits that bill. I'm putting together a 6mm Dasher right now.

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.224 Valkyrie in 90 grain will do the trick.

6.5 creedmoor- 160gr Hornady round nose
.308-180gr Honady interlock

338 federal-175gr CEB Maximus.

338-06 nuff said

My suggestion, for what it is worth, is the forgotten 338 Winchester Magnum.

About 28 years ago I was saddled with this predicament while starting a career being an outdoor guide in California for the flying Y. At the time I owned zero centerfire rifles as I had always borrowed a friend's 270 Win rifle for hunting. We never hunted apart at the time. I found that 308 Win was sorely lacking for the California blacks we had in the area. Then the guide service I started working for was going to issue me a rifle from their brace of rifles. This dusty Winchester Model 70 on the wall called to me, it fit like a glove. It pointed well and I dismissed all the others as they were in 308, 25-06, 7MM rem mag (my personal whipping boy of a caliber), and some other calibers. This M-70 was in 338 Win Mag. I researched the loads and found this caliber was so versatile that I immediately started loading for it. 165 grain starting loads for deer worked better than any other factory rifle load I had ever used. Very little meat loss and the deer never took a step after being hit. For bear it was 250 grain Barns X with a 3/4 load. Bear sort of grunted, humped up and fall over then died. To address the overwhelming disgust for this round due to recoil.. My gun never hit me any harder than a 30-06 did. I still do not understand people's aversion to this absolutely wonderful round. To this day I own a 338 Win Mag. I own many other calibers but I still own that 338 W/M I fell in love with while starting out.

30-06. Versatility, availability, plenty of power with commonly loaded bullets. 7mm-08 if recoil is a major issue.