Hunting with persicion ?

Canadiankeeper

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Looking to try and squeeze a rifle into both categories. Largest in Southern ON is 270 able to hunt with. I will be shooting deer and paper, maybe some yotes. 223 is viable but might be messy with deer. Any other common cals im missing ?
 
IIRC there are a few spots in SW Ontario that have a caliber restriction, but the details escape me. Don't miss living there very much. But a .260 Rem, 6.5x55 Swede or 6.5x55 Lapua should all do the trick.
 
Min caliber to hunt deer in Ontario is 243. Look for a 260.

I believe the regs say centre-fire for deer. In south western ontario there are restrictions in some county's for hunting with a rifle the caliber can't be bigger then .275, Th 6.5 translates to .255 so your good to go in that regard.When it comes to deer there is no season for rifle hunting deer in some parts of southwestern Ontario, when the week long season comes along its shotgun only hunt, and that's followed by a muzzle loader/ archery season... I could be wrong just wondering where your getting your information...

http://files.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/fish-and-wildlife/239852.pdf

This link clears up the municipalities that the caliber restriction would affect.

http://files.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/fish-and-wildlife/239841.pdf

Page 6 clears up the "minimum" restrictions regarding which game your hunting
 
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Im fairly new into the hunting so im still trying to sift through the regs myself. Long time paper puncher. I know shotgun only for a while, but you can hunt varmet with center fire and the fam has some land up north "we" hunt on and it would be nice to be able to hit yotes, deer, and paper all in one.
 
Looking to try and squeeze a rifle into both categories. Largest in Southern ON is 270 able to hunt with. I will be shooting deer and paper, maybe some yotes. 223 is viable but might be messy with deer. Any other common cals im missing ?


.243 with light weight bullets. Like shooting a laser at paper and yotes.

When you go north for deer, step up to the heavier bullets.


But if you don't realistically plan to shoot yotes in SO, then go .308. Soooo many more choices in bullets, rifles, etc... Then when you go north, your deer gun can also be you moose/bear gun.

My $0.02.
 
Correction! There is no general caliber restriction in southern Ontario what so ever. OP and the others need to read a little deeper into the regs. The restriction is only when hunting small game. Hunting small game in Southern Ontario WMU's restricts you to a .277" projectile and less. Therefore the reason why everyone always assumes you can't shoot anything more then a 270 is because you can only shoot small game ie yotes with 270 or less. And the fact that southern Ontario has NO rifle deer season. All southern WMU have bow only seasons and some have shotgun season. OP you don't need to worry about deer calibers, because unless you go up north there is no rifle season. And if your up north you can hammer any caliber you like. As per general shooting. I live in WMU 80 which is southern Ontario edge. But I am under the .277 or less on small game rule. But on my land I shoot 338 Lapua no problem on targets. I just can't shoot a coyote with it. Hope that helps!
 
Correction! There is no general caliber restriction in southern Ontario what so ever. OP and the others need to read a little deeper into the regs. The restriction is only when hunting small game. Hunting small game in Southern Ontario WMU's restricts you to a .277" projectile and less. Therefore the reason why everyone always assumes you can't shoot anything more then a 270 is because you can only shoot small game ie yotes with 270 or less. And the fact that southern Ontario has NO rifle deer season. All southern WMU have bow only seasons and some have shotgun season. OP you don't need to worry about deer calibers, because unless you go up north there is no rifle season. And if your up north you can hammer any caliber you like. As per general shooting. I live in WMU 80 which is southern Ontario edge. But I am under the .277 or less on small game rule. But on my land I shoot 338 Lapua no problem on targets. I just can't shoot a coyote with it. Hope that helps!

I know it's only two thou, and it doesn't matter, but I'm curious where you get .277 from? I only ask as I've heard others on here quote than number too... Is there another paragraph somewhere I'm missing?

 
Yes that's correct .275 my apologies.

No fear yes that's on small game only. Re read above. You can hunt big game in southern ontario with any rifle caliber. BUT! There is no black bear or moose. And deer are shotgun season only.
 
I got the information from the MNR Hunting Season catalogue, stated below French River, the limit caliber is .277 or under.

What year is your catalogue from? Did the limit used to be .277, then change to .275 at some point? I know it's been .275 for at least 15 years, as I found an old summary while packing a while back.

You're certainly not the only one to use the .277 number, so it had to be that at some time...
 
No no. I'll tell you why everyone always says .277. Because a 270 Winchester actually shoots a bullet that's .277 diameter. And everyone knows the rule as 270 Winchester or less. This conversation just made me remember when I did my hunting license about 12 years ago. The instructor actually made a point of saying that technically a 270 Winchester is illegal as well. Again though no one really gets enforced on this law because we have no big game rifle season. And most varmint hunters are using 223 or 243. And quite honestly I don't think mnr really cares how you kill a coyote lmao.
 
No no. I'll tell you why everyone always says .277. Because a 270 Winchester actually shoots a bullet that's .277 diameter. And everyone knows the rule as 270 Winchester or less. This conversation just made me remember when I did my hunting license about 12 years ago. The instructor actually made a point of saying that technically a 270 Winchester is illegal as well. Again though no one really gets enforced on this law because we have no big game rifle season. And most varmint hunters are using 223 or 243. And quite honestly I don't think mnr really cares how you kill a coyote lmao.


Ahhhhh. There we go. See? I learn something new on here every day :)
 
223 is actually great for deer if....
the rifle has a 1:7 twist rate and the bullet is at least 69 grains. Sierra makes a 77 grain HPBTMK that is designed for AR15 magazine length load/repeater that also works real good on deer - again... if the rifle has a 1:7 twist rate.

You do not want to shoot a deer with a 223 with a solid type bullet that is not designed for fragmentation.
 
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