What is the smallest cartridge YOU would hunt whitetail deer with?

The smallest would be 243 if I had one. I use 7x57 for everything though I did take a white-tail deer in Alberta with my grandfathers Lee Enfield No1. Mk3 custom rifle.
 
Bentley Coben has shot my B&C whitetails than the rest of us have seen, and all he used for years (probably still does), is a Browning BLR in .243Win, which he refers to as 'Bertha'...
 
In a survival situation, I'd use anything down to a .22lr if I had to. But if I were standing in front of the gun safe in the morning, picking out a gun to take out deer hunting for the day, I can't imagine choosing anything smaller than maybe a .270, and most likely something much bigger than that. Deer hunting is a great excuse to use the big boomers, so that when you later take them on a "serious" hunt they are familiar friends rather than awkward strangers.

And, of course, I rarely use the same gun two days in a row...if I wanted to do that, I'd only need the one hunting gun!
 
burnt_servo said:
the short version of this was use the largest caliber round that your are comfortably able to use accurately and quickly the dispatch a animal .


the person using the rifle is more important in cleanly taking a animal than anything else .
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Hope you don't mind, I shortened your post down to the important parts.:d
 
blacklab said:
Nothing smaller than .264. I hunt where you can't watch your deer run into the next province, and I like to eat what I shoot at.
I've probably killed more whitetails than some of you've had hot meals!
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KodiakHntr said:
Were I you, I'd be careful about making generalizations like that here. There are an awful lot of guys with an awful lot of dead whitetails under their belts. ...
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And there's me. Got a lot of hot meals under my belt.
 
blacklab said:
Nothing smaller than .264. I hunt where you can't watch your deer run into the next province, and I like to eat what I shoot at.
I've probably killed more whitetails than some of you've had hot meals![/QUOTE]


If you want to spout off like that I have probably killed more animals in one 28 day hunt than you have whitetails in your life...........what does that have to do with the OP's question? Have you taken every WT with a different caliber/cartridge and done a yardage to penetration per grain weight of bullet, factoring in impact velocities and sectional densities and comparing tissue damage?
You sir are of course entitled to your opinion as asked by the OP, but the second line was not only superfluous, it is downright offensive...........
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I'd use a .223 with the right bullet. I shot 4 bucks in 3 hours including a 168 6/8 BC that weighed over 250lbs with my sks loaded with steel case MSR soft points, all of them died pretty quick.
 
Easy now, If you read my post I said "some people".
I could never understand why some people think it's macho to use the smallest cartridge they can get away with.
If you're that recoil sensitive there are ways to deal with that.
Some smart guy that shot a lot of stuff said "Use Enough Gun"
 
Exactly. Guys who know, KNOW what constitutes "enough gun". Deer aren't bullet proof. They die the same as anything else when you disrupt their important parts.

Its not macho, its simply using a tool within its capabilities. No different than bow hunting.
 
Well then I'll apologise.
I get a little grumpy when I think about the new hunters that read these kind of threads, and take buy chapter and verse.
I have too much respect for whitetail deer or any other animal I hunt to put my ego ahead of a clean kill.
 
Hmmm..... Doesn't sound like an apology. (Grin)

Still think you don't really have much concept of what it takes to kill deer if you think its ego driven, or that 22 cf's don't cleanly and effectively kill deer with good shot placement and bullet selection.
 
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