best deer hunting rifle?

Question

will a 7mm 08 drop a whitetail deer. getting 1 4 x- mas. if not what would be the best deer hunting rifle?

Answer 1

A 7mm-08 is perfect for deer hunting! I am actually looking at one myself. Light recoil, very accurate, and super flat shooting make this a very desirable cartridge.

Answer 2

That will work well. The best deer hunting rifle would be one you are comfortable with, like my favorite is an old .303 lee-enfield from 1914. I got it for about 50$ but it is the best gun I have handled yet, the action is smooth as silk and it fits me well. You will get a bunch of posts saying try .243, 30-06 and .270 so you can tell those will be good calibres to use, although if you live in Ontario, you can't hunt deer with anything under a .270.

Answer 3

The 7mm-08 will kill deer just as efficiently as the .270, .280, .308, .30-06, and definitely has the edge over the .243 and (slightly less so) over the .25-06. It has a sufficiently flat trajectory to serve well for pronghorn, bighorn, & mountain goat, with enough punch for mule deer, black bear and the occasional elk or caribou inside 200 yards with precise shot placement, which means inside 100 yards when benchrest precision is not forthcoming - in other words, typical hunting conditions: tired, wet, frustrated, and usually obstructed.

Although I prefer the .308 all-round to a large extent because of the option of the 180gr. load, if you hand-load for the 7mm-08 you can take advantage of the excellent 160gr. bullets which offer more penetration on tougher stuff than deer, for which the standard 140gr. load is generally ideal.

Answer 4

A 7mm-08 is an excellent caliber for whitetail deer and most any other big game in the lower 48 for that matter.

An added advantage for that caliber is its lower recoil than many other calibers. Because it has less recoil you will be inclined to shoot it more and be more accurate with it than many others who have firearms with a heavier "kick". Not that those larger caliber firearms are not as accurate, the recoil and cost of ammunition for some of them is prohibitive to regular shooting.

I think you will not regret the 7mm-08 and it will give you good service for a very long time.

Answer 5

There isn't enough info to answer this question. How old are you, how big are you, where will you hunt, how far will you be shooting, what game are you after...

I personally started with a 30-30. Great gun for 100-150 yards. Great for deer, turkey or elk within 100 yards.

I killed my deer this year with a 30.06. I killed it at 100 yards, but I can shoot it out to 300. It's got a good kick for poeple who don't weigh 200 lbs.

We bought a .243 for our middle son this year and he is pretty skinny. This is a great deer gun with the right shells, but can also be used to hunt varmits without destroying the pelt providing you chang to a lighter bullet. You have to resight when you change loads.

Next year I will hunt with a primative .50 flintlock muzzle loader. I didn't this year because I was not comfortable enough with the gun to ensure a clean kill.

Answer 6

A 7mm 08 is just about the ideal all around deer gun.
Heavy enough bullet for brush, and enough velocity
for longer shots in the open.

Answer 7

The 7-08 is simply a necked down .308 and is very capable of taking deer. A very excellent round with good knockdown power with little recoil. Get several boxes of ammo and spend time at the bench finding what shots the best.

Answer 8

I don't know about "best"....to me the best deer rifle is the one in the hands of a competent hunter who bags a deer with it. Of all, probably the one rifle that has done that more than any other is the .30-30 Winchester lever action.

Answer 9

I prefer the 30-06, because you have a greater variety of bullet weights to choose from.* When you own a 30-06 you don't need any other rifle in North America for the game you want to harvest.*

Answer 10

i prefer the 30.06 cause of the ammo , you can purchase it anywhere and it drops a deer bear or any other large animal i hunt