What is your “go to” weapon for deer hunting ?

You would be surprised how much of that meat will be ok if you quarter and leave on ice for several days. Draining water and adding ice as needed of course. Shoulder is gonna be ground anyway on mine, but my .280 Rem with a Sierra 140 grain Game King doesn’t tear up that much meat. I don’t need a screamer for the 150- yard shots where I hunt.
 
My smokeless muzzy is just devastating if you hit bone. Scapula shots are great because there is no tracking and recovery is ensured. On the other hand, you do lose a lot of meat. if I think I can visually follow the flight of a deer for about 50 yards, I now take broadside chest shots if possible. Thee is much less meat to lose on the chest wall than in the shoulder.
I couldn't agree more. I'm always hoping for a broadside shot to avoid damaging the front legs. In his book, Larry Benoit called it "One in the boiler works", which meant a double lung and heart shot. Even if it's just the lungs the deer can't go very far. In my case, these small Florida deer are no match for a double lung hit from a 12ga. Hornady SST slug. Not one of my deer in recent years has gone more than 40 or 50 FEET ( not yards ) and follow up shots are never needed.

Two years ago I took a nice 6 pointer. I made the shot, saw him jump to my left into the trees and I heard him jump two more times and stop, so I sat in the blind and lit a cigarette to calm down. I figured if I jumped out like a madman the noise would spook him and make him run, so I sat tight. It was 3 or 4 pulls on my smoke when I heard a loud thump. The deer had only made a few long leaps and stopped in his tracks ( maybe to figure out what the heck just happened ), and he bled out internally in seconds and fell dead right there. At that point I got out from the blind and went to check for a blood trail, only to find him lying there about 20 yards off the path.

I don't want to track my deer. Shoulder hits will ruin meat and can deflect a round enough to miss a fatal shot, which is never a good thing. What's more, while my neighbor on one side is a very good friend the guy on the other side is an total a-hole, so I can't enter his property to retrieve my deer if I need to. I look for, and work for overwhelming odds that the deer will drop right there or not go too far, and ( thankfully ) so far in the last 5 years on this property they've never made it over the property line after a shot is made. It all comes down to planning and good shot placement, but the 1/2"+ diameter of Hornady's 300 grain SST slug does it's job very well.
 
Folks, I like to think deer season is just around the corner, (but I really think it’s because it’s 96* outside and forecast is for 100*+ all next week:eek:) We need something to take our collective minds off the heat and drought so I thought it might be a good idea for everyone who wants to participate to tell us about your favorite deer hunting tool, whether bow, rifle, shotgun, or handgun. Post a pic if you have one handy.

I’ll go first ! This would be my custom .280 Remington on a Remington Model 700 action with a Bartlein barrel, Timney trigger, and HS Precision stock, the only custom rifle I’ve ever commissioned. It wears a Nikon 2.5x10 scope with the BDC retical. I figure an old guy should have at least one custom gun in his lifetime. :)View attachment 24106
My go to rifle all day long my trusted old 30-06, I asked the question a few days ago, what's the 411 on these new copper bullets, I'm a old school guy, being that said in know technology grows in leaps and bounds, but if my fire arms aren't used by our military no matter what era they gave service I won't touch them,
 
My go to rifle all day long my trusted old 30-06, I asked the question a few days ago, what's the 411 on these new copper bullets, I'm a old school guy, being that said in know technology grows in leaps and bounds, but if my fire arms aren't used by our military no matter what era they gave service I won't touch them,
Lots of guys love them and I can only give my experience with them. In my 2 guns I tried them in a ruger77 RSI in 250 savage and a custom Mauser 98 in 7x57. The accuracy was not as good as my cup and core handloads (I hand loaded the Barnes copper solids also). Not terrible but not as good. The deal breaker for me was the level of copper fouling left in the bore. After 30 rounds accuracy went right down the crapper and required extensive scrubbing of the bore to remove copper residue. Performance on game was good but again not any better than my old cup and core bullets. In addition to get maximum expansion with copper bullets you must drive them fast in comparison to lead. When they fall under about 2500 fps expansion suffered. Just one old hunters experience. Oh almost forgot. They are about twice as expensive as cup and core bullets.
 
Lots of guys love them and I can only give my experience with them. In my 2 guns I tried them in a ruger77 RSI in 250 savage and a custom Mauser 98 in 7x57. The accuracy was not as good as my cup and core handloads (I hand loaded the Barnes copper solids also). Not terrible but not as good. The deal breaker for me was the level of copper fouling left in the bore. After 30 rounds accuracy went right down the crapper and required extensive scrubbing of the bore to remove copper residue. Performance on game was good but again not any better than my old cup and core bullets. In addition to get maximum expansion with copper bullets you must drive them fast in comparison to lead. When they fall under about 2500 fps expansion suffered. Just one old hunters experience. Oh almost forgot. They are about twice as expensive as cup and core bullets.
Thank you for replying, that's what I had heard and understanding that it leaves a lot of copper residue or copper in the bore, I'm going to stay with good ole ball amuniton, thanks again again
 
That's funny, I have many different shots to use around my acerage I live on, mostly it's always my 30-06 I just believe in that cartridge, anywhere from 150yds to 400 yds, but this one morning there was 3 piglets, and 2 yearlings, plus big mama, I didn't have a rifle out, I knew it was going to be a short shot if I didn't spook them trying to get inside and get a rifle, I picked up my Marlin 30-30, haven't shot it in a good year or so, upon positioning my self 40 maybe 45 yds behind the hogs, I picked out one of the yearlings, and resting the rifle on a pine tree, aimed at the tip of the nose, squeezed off, hit the thing between the eyes,
 

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This year it is a T/C in a 260 caliber
Couldn’t tell by your screen name !😝. Craig Boddington said the .260 Remington was the perfect deer cartridge. Although I shoot it’s bigger sibling, a .280 Remington, I tend to agree. I could use it from now on and be happy, but my youngest son absconded with mine.
 
switching to a 400 legend this fall from a 12 gauge mossberg slugster. those remington expanders did a number on deer thats for sure but my shoulder dont care for the pounding of the shotgun!
 

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switching to a 400 legend this fall from a 12 gauge mossberg slugster. those remington expanders did a number on deer thats for sure but my shoulder dont care for the pounding of the shotgun!
I don’t mind shooting at game with them, but I dread sighting in off a bench.
 
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