Good rifle for deer hunting and just shooting around?

Question

What would be a good rifle to hunt deer with? Also, I want to be able to just go out and shoot with it too. My brother in law recommended a 30-06. But I'm just looking to get a second opinion. Thanks.

I'm 5'11, 165lbs. It will be white tail deer. I live in MS. Thanks.

Doc, I stay in Marion County.

Answer 1

a question with a million answers. Every body has a favorite rifle and caliber. For me, after 42 years of hunting and shooting, I prefer the .270 winchester for all north american game except the big bears. Although I have taken a lot of black bears with it, as well as elk, mule deer, wild boar, and antelope. But hunting calibers are expensive just to target shoot with. Your better off buying a .22 rifle or maybe an SKS and shooting surplus cheap ammo in it, and buying a good hunting rifle to use for harvesting animals. You'd need to tell us more about your stature, your experience with shooting firearms, what kind of deer, )whitetail or bigger mule deer) what kind of range you will be shooting etc in order to get a better answer.
Shoot safe

Answer 2

All the calibers so far are good choices for deer.

The real questions: How often are you going to shoot, how many rounds at a time, and are you on a budget??

The 30-06 is a good round but is more expensive than a 308 by 5 dollars around here. You start adding up 5 dollars and 5 dollars and in a few years you could spend a ton of extra money.

If you're on a budget, a 30-30 or 308 is what you should be looking for (unless you plan on shooting over 200 yards, then the 30-30 goes out the door). Perhaps a pistol caliber rifle is a good choice if you hunt woods.

Answer 3

It doesnt seam like many people are reading your question. You asked about deer and recreational shooting. Any rifle caliber that can generate about 1700 ft/lbs at the range you want to use it and is acurate and reliable will be good for deer. The second part of your question says recreation. There is no other answer than .308. It is a great hunting round and recreation round. Tons of good quality brass cased military ammo out there for general blasting. Also plenty of match grade and hunting ammo and everything in between. The 3006 is so popular because 30 to 100 years ago the same could be said about it. But the surlpus 3006 ammo has almost completley dried up. Once the Iraq war tapers off I expect 308 and 223 ammo to drop drastically in price. Now I am not claiming there arent a dozen all ready mentioned calibers that are as good as the 308 but none are really better so if you add in the much lower price ammo it is pretty much a no brainer.

Answer 4

A .308 is a more accurate and more efficient choice. The military abandoned the .30-06 when the .308 was invented.
I have 5 rifles that shoot.308 and like them all. I've killed a total of 19 deer so far with them here in Virginia. My favorite one is my Ruger model 77 with a stainless steel barrel and a synthetic stock. Put a scope on it that goes up to at least 9 power, but 12 or 18 power would be better. If you hunt in the rain you don't have to worry about rust. Get a reloading set and you can save a lot of money on bullets. You can get military brass cheap from some gun stores and online and load it. You can make your reloads more accurate and usually more powerful than factory ammo.

Answer 5

A .30-06 would be a good cartridge, as would a .308. Some people do like the .30-06 better, but the .308 has a wider variety of loads and bullet weights to choose from, and it's capable of higher accuracy than the .30-06. As soon as we pull our troops out of Iraq, there should be an abundance of .308 military surplus on the market from Lake City Cartridge, which would make a great round to just take out and shoot with.

A good rifle for either of those would be the Savage, a 110 or 111 for the .30-06, and a 10 or 11 for the .308(the extra 100 in the name denotes that it's a long action, and able to handle the longer cartridge). People say a lot of bad things about Savages because they paid more for their Remington, Tikka, or other premium bolt gun, but the truth of the matter is that there's nothing wrong with them. They have excellent ergonomics, the safety is in a great place, the new Accu-Trigger system is extremely useful for any type of shooting, and they're just plain accurate.

Answer 6

30-06 is a great caliber, but for shooting around and whitetail hunting, I don't agree. If most of your hunting is in wooded areas and your shots are gonna be 200 yards or less, you cant pass up the 30-30. It is mild on the shoulder, ammo is cheap compared to the other listings, and the lever guns are fun and fast. More whitetail have fallen to the 30-30 than any other cal. My first rifle was a Marlin 30-30 and over the years, I have amassed many other rifles, but the 30-30 still makes alot of appearances in the woods.

Answer 7

Nick,

That '06 will certainly put our skinny MS whitetails on the ground, but it is really more than strictly necessary in most cases. And for general plinking, it has enough recoil to get tiresome, not to mention expensive to shoot.

For a deer hunting and fun rifle, I don't think you can go wrong with a Rossi M-92 Saddle Ring Carbine in .44 RemMag, .45 Long Colt, or .357 Magnum.

If you handload, and you should, you can handload the .44 RemMag and .45 LC versions to approach .454 Casull power levels, and that will take anything in North America. Even the .357 Magnum can be hot rodded in the Model 92 to hit the lower levels of .30-30 WCF power. Even in factory trim, from companies like Buffalo Bore or Cor-Bon, a .357 Magnum will put our skinny Southern Whitetails in the freezer.

Another advantage to the pistol caliber leverguns is that you can use .44 Spl, or .38 Spl ammo for plinking and you won't have much more recoil than a .22 LR.

Where do you hang your hat in MS? I live up in the Delta, in Sunflower County.

Doc

Answer 8

30-06 is more than you need, but that's OK if that's what you want. My little brother has been killing Mississippi deer for forty years with one.
On the other end of the spectrum are 243 Win and 6mm Rem, both requiring that you be a little picky with your shots. In between are some great choices. 257 Bob and the slightly overbore 25-06 are OK, and 270 Win and 280 Rem will also do. The best-balanced cartridges for us in the Magnolia state (and most other places as well) are the 6.5 and 7mm non-magnums. Look at 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser, 260 Remington, 7mm08, and 7x57 Mauser for good ballistics balanced with efficiency and complete satisfaction in effectiveness on deer.

Answer 9

I really think you will be satisfied if you buy a 30-06, a .308 or a .270. They are all good for deer, and the ammunition is very common. What might a problem though is if the gun you want doesn't come in that calibre. For example, I hunt with a Lee-Enfield, the best gun (for me) I have used to date, but it only comes in .303 (except for the p17 and the like, but they look too much like a 1903 springfield for me) so I am more or less stuck shooting expensive .303 brit shells.

Answer 10

As others have said, a .270 is probably what you want. If your going to just shoot with it also, it will be a little softer on your shoulder than the .30-06. For the rifle itself, a Remington 700 (Bolt-Action) or a Remington 7600 (Pump-Rifle). If price is an issue look at a Savage 110 (Bolt-Action).