.338 win mag for deer

I've shot many deer with a 375 H&H, they dropped on the spot. SOme that I've shot with .303, .308, .30-06, 30-30 ran up to 50 yards. Last year I shot a buck thru the heart with my 7mm-08, the deer made it about 20 yards and piled up. The heart came out in 3 pieces. This year I shot 3 deer with the same gun and only found 1. I truly believe bigger is better and I will hunt with a .338 from now on. Savage of course.

I'm guessing the two you didn't find weren't shot through the heart. ;)

A 375 won't make up for a poor shot.
 
I'm guessing the two you didn't find weren't shot through the heart. ;)

A 375 won't make up for a poor shot.
Boiler room shots one at 100 one at 255 lasered yds. And I disagree, a 375 does make up for a poor (or less than perfect shot). I have never had to blood trail one I shot with the big gun. So for me anyway, a magnum makes sense and I think the .338 is perfect. As for big guns causing flinches, I never had a problem with my "Elephant gun" so the 7mm-08 is positively wimpy in the recoil dept. Taking a bit of kick and carrying a heavy gun versus wasting time finding a downed deer then dragging it back, personal choice and I've made mine. I also agree that less meat is wasted with the bigger bullet with its tougher jacket, a 300 grn Interlock doesn't open up much on a deer, kills it quick though. My 2 cents, shoot the biggest gun you can handle.
 
I've shot many deer with a 375 H&H, they dropped on the spot. SOme that I've shot with .303, .308, .30-06, 30-30 ran up to 50 yards. Last year I shot a buck thru the heart with my 7mm-08, the deer made it about 20 yards and piled up. The heart came out in 3 pieces. This year I shot 3 deer with the same gun and only found 1. I truly believe bigger is better and I will hunt with a .338 from now on. Savage of course.

No friggin way was that the fault of 7mm-08. Shooter error all the way.
 
Boiler room shots one at 100 one at 255 lasered yds. And I disagree, a 375 does make up for a poor (or less than perfect shot). I have never had to blood trail one I shot with the big gun. So for me anyway, a magnum makes sense and I think the .338 is perfect. As for big guns causing flinches, I never had a problem with my "Elephant gun" so the 7mm-08 is positively wimpy in the recoil dept. Taking a bit of kick and carrying a heavy gun versus wasting time finding a downed deer then dragging it back, personal choice and I've made mine. I also agree that less meat is wasted with the bigger bullet with its tougher jacket, a 300 grn Interlock doesn't open up much on a deer, kills it quick though. My 2 cents, shoot the biggest gun you can handle.

Wasting time finding a downed deer? :mad:

Learn to shoot accurately. Perhaps you should practice or read up on tracking skills a bit more as well, since you lost 2 deer this year due to poor shot placement.

No deer will survive a double lung or "boiler room" shot as you put it, even with the "anemic" 7mm-08.

You hunt with a 375? Evidently you're incompetent with the 7mm-08, I'd start practicing with a .22.
 
by the way I lease my land to hunters. you lose one and you don't get to come back. I shoot about 200 rounds a year with my 7mm mauser and between 500 and 600 with both my .308 and .223. And I'm not counting how many thousands od .22 LR rounds I shoot, so when I shoot i'm confident the shot will connect with the vitals. The last deer I shot was shot through both lungs and he fell where shot.

We don't need that kind of bad publicity.
 
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7mm-08 "Shot placement." The deer still walked. That's the heart btw and it fell out when I split the rib cage. I have taken regular lung shots with the H&H and they all dropped where they stood.

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Shot thru the neck by my friend with a 30-06 at 50 yards 30 min and then 1 hr wait and still had to finish it off with my 30-30 500yard drag back thru tangle. Tracking skills? I got 'em. Wasting time? You bet. If my friend's deer dropped on the spot we'd have been hunting again sooner. Admittedly he pulled his shot, that is a big deer and he got the jitters. If you don't get excited you should try something else. A bigger bullet knocks things down quicker that's all I'm saying over and over and over, get it? Ever punched some-one in the chest and see them drop? Big bullet big fist same same. As for bad publicity, #### wendy.
 
So if you think big calibres are the best way to go, and you have lost 2 deer hunting with a 7mm-08 then why the heck were you hunting with a 30-30??? Hoping to run into some rabbits?

The 30-30 has less knockdown energy than a 7mm-08 yet you obviously trust it to take down bambi
 
I parked the 7mm-08 in disgust, in tight bush that 30-30 is a proven performer. The finishing shot was at 50 yards on a deer that was mostly bled out but still trying to gain it's feet (tracking skills, we waited). My friend's 30-06 would have messed up too much meat so the lever got the nod. BTW Leverevolution bullets rock. Gosh! Hunt much?
 
If you're that disgusted with the 7mm-08 then you probably want it out of your sight. I would be happy to do you a service and take it off your hands if it is just going to sit around :)
 
I will be selling its parts soon, I built it for silhouette competition. The gun is very accurate for me off a bench or with a sling. Off-hand I wobble too much and am not competitive. 500 yard rams, you gotta see it to believe it.
 
There is no chance you hit boiler room on the two you lost. NONE.

Admit it.......You made a bad shot.....Two infact.....It happens, but there is no need to blame your rifle.There is no deer on the planet going out of a 100yd radius shot in the boiler room.NONE!

If I was a betting man, I would be inclined to bet they were either paunch hits, lower leg,or just grazed. In any of these hits a big gun whouldn't have done any better. Better shot placement would have though;).
 
Should be a different title to this thread.

"How I compensate for bad shooting" :p

Even an .50 will wound a deer if it is a poor shot!

Shot placement, bullet performance , THAT IS IT!!! No excuses.
 
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7mm-08 "Shot placement." The deer still walked. That's the heart btw and it fell out when I split the rib cage.

So.....you figure your .338 would have destroyed the heart even more? Animals drop and die from vital organs and bone structure being destroyed, not by foot pounds of energy. It looks to me like the 7-08 did its job with aplomb. Even a .50 BMG wouldn't have killed that deer any faster unless it managed to mangle the heart and vitals even more than what you see in the pic.

A neck shot is an iffy proposition. If the major circulatory system or spine aren't hit, a shot in the neck will not cause immediate death.
 
The .243 is a proven performer on deer. The 6.5x55 is a proven performer on Scandanavian moose.
I've shot deer with both. A hit produces a dead deer. It doesn't go far when hit in the boiler room.
This year I shot 5 deer. I used a 7mmWSM for 2 whitetail, a .280 for 2 mulies, and a 6.5-06 for my WT buck. Only one of those deer required more than one shot to kill it, and that was the smallest of all the deer. A whitetail doe was running, and I hit it too far back with the 7mm WSM. Caused major trauma, and I knew it couldn't go far. I followed it into the next coulee, found it hunkered down, and it started running again just as I was getting set to shoot. I took another running shot and it piled up right there. Good hits produce dead deer, that DON"T go far. Even with puny bullets that only have diameters of .284 inches.
Last year I also shot 5 deer. I used a 6.5x55, a 30-06, a .280 and the 7mmWSM.
None of them went more than 3 steps from where they were hit [unless you count rolling down a hill, which I don't].
Nobody who knows how to shoot needs an H&H to kill a deer. Anyone who loses 2 deer in one season needs some SERIOUS practice. Those deer that were lost I'm sure could have been dropped on the spot with a .243 if hit in the right place. Anything like blaming the rifle or the cartridge is just poor, poor, poor form.
Get practicing! Learn to shoot! Then you won't "need" an H&H to kill a deer. They die easy when hit right.
 
So.....you figure your .338 would have destroyed the heart even more? Animals drop and die from vital organs and bone structure being destroyed, not by foot pounds of energy. It looks to me like the 7-08 did its job with aplomb. Even a .50 BMG wouldn't have killed that deer any faster unless it managed to mangle the heart and vitals even more than what you see in the pic.

A neck shot is an iffy proposition. If the major circulatory system or spine aren't hit, a shot in the neck will not cause immediate death.
That deer still walked after his heart blew up. Deer I've hit in the lungs with the H&H never did. I shoot lots each year, it's not a question of practice, I'm quite confident in my ability. Deer react differently when shot some will do a 100yd dash, some lay down I even had one shot thru both lungs with my old jungle carbine continue feeding for a few seconds and then fall over. A few years back my son shot a nice mule buck as the first storm of winter came in, lung shot. if on flat ground its death run would have been perhaps 50 yds. We were on a steep slope in the Oldman river valley WMU 402. That beast bounded straight downslope and into the trees. The snow quickly obliterated the blood trail but 6 feet up a tree trunk a big red patch where its chest ricocheted off the tree, a few more steps and it was done. I'm not saying you can't kill with little bullets,fill your boots hell people killed Heffalumps with spears long before Bell hunted Africa. All I'm saying is bigger is better. Simple physics.
 
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