Vote. Favorite caliber for whitetail deer

[Couch11b]

I was curious of what caliber is the favorite for white tail deer hunting. Thank you!

 

[Catahoula]

30 caliber is my choice for about everything including coyotes. Also love the 25-06 but it is not on your list.
Thanks, Kirk

 

[ctw]

.270 and .30 caliber for me. Over the years that I have hunted whitetails I have mostly used .30 caliber. ctw

 

[Engineering101]

I've shot a couple of dozen whitetail with my custom 6mm Rem and 100 grain Sierra Game Kings. All one shot kills including several that were running. The bullet stops on the ribs or hide on the opposite side and they go down after moving between 0 to 10 yards - with little to no meat loss. It would be hard for me not to vote for that caliber though I have pretty much every caliber. I have hit a few that were moving a little far back (like just into the gut cavity) - still went nowhere.

 

[FEENIX]

The .300 WM remains my go to chambering from antelope to elk size game up to 1K yards.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

That was a tough choice for me but I think just for white tails the 6.5mm cal is perfect for most realistic hunting applications. Having said that my main hunting rifle is a 7mm rem mag so I go either way.

 

[Couch11b]

I figured there would be a lot of 243's out there very interesting what everyone is shooting. Thank you

 

[memtb]

Inadequate selection! I only have one rifle....for hunting! Though, it's worked great on Pronghorn and Mulies....it should be OK for Whitetails! memtb

 

[Greyfox]

For the past several years I have been very satisfied with the performance on a few dozen whitetail(and mule deer) taken out to 1000 yards with the 6.5x284 using 140gr VLD's at 2975-3000FPS.

 

[lancetkenyon]

You are missing a few great selections in there. Like .257" & .277". Those 2 calibers have killed more deer and elk in my family than all the others combined.

But the .308" caliber is gaining ground for elk taken, and the 7mm & 6.5mm are catching up too for deer and elk.

But out of your choices, strictly for deer, I would choose 6.5mm.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Shot deer with centerfire .224 to .30, and my favorites are .257 & .284 calibers.

 

[HARPERC]

"Favorite" depends on factors other than just "whitetail".

I select a rifle depending on how I intend to hunt, a particular day. Loaded with a bullet appropriate for the type of hunt intended.

Caliber could be anything from 6mm-.338, with an occasional .44 thrown in.

 

[MudRunner2005]

"Favorite" depends on factors other than just "whitetail".

I select a rifle depending on how I intend to hunt, a particular day. Loaded with a bullet appropriate for the type of hunt intended.

Caliber could be anything from 6mm-.338, with an occasional .44 thrown in.

Yep! Same here. Folks ask me why I have so many different guns... The answer is mainly because I just like collecting guns and having a large diversity of rifles and cartridges to shoot and load for, but also because it gives me a wide selection to hunt with given specific game, distances, & terrain demands.

 

[Elkeater]

Pretty much do it all with my .300 win mag. Killed everything from little whitetail to bull elk with that rifle.