October 08, 2008 at 8:46am
first of all, drop all of this "dropped in their tracks" garbage. that has to do with BULLET PLACEMENT. NOT THE GUN YOU ARE SHOOTING! i can drop an elk in its tracks with a .22 loaded with sub-sonics if i hit it in the right place. same goes for any animal. too many people go to bigger guns to "drop them in their tracks" instead of learning how to shoot! do you know how many hogs i have "dropped in their tracks" and seen "dropped in their tracks" with a .17mach2? a lot, because the gun is a tack driver, has low recoil, and has a super light trigger making it easy to shoot very accurately. the idea of using any of the .30cal mags on whitetails and especially louisiana whitetails is absurd. those are made for elk, brown bear, and africa. not louisiana whitetails.
now that my rant is over i would like to answer nathan's question:
the best all around caliber is .284" or also know as 7mm. because of their length to weight ratio, 7mm bullets are much stronger than bullets of lesser diameter such as .277" found on the .270winchester. this makes a 7mm bullet less likely to break up and fail on impact. Also, there is a much wider rage of factory loaded bullet sizes and styles to choose from with a 7mm. every single bullet style made is offered in 7mm. from 110gr bullets all the way up to 180gr bullets, simply pick your poison for the size game you are after. you can't say that about a .270. also, the slimmer profile of the 7mm bullet causes the bullet to drift less in the wind than a .30cal which makes it a great choice for long range shots.
the three most popular 7mils are the .280 remington, the 7mm remington mag, and the 7mm08.
i shoot the .280 remingtion now for a few reasons. i wanted a gun to do it all also. i wanted a gun that was a flat shooter, had moderate recoil, and could be used to hunt deer, elk, caribou, and black bear. after much research and consulting from some very experienced hunters and gun nuts, my choices were narrowed down to the 7mag and .280remington. they nudged me to the .280 out of a remingtion model 700 mountain rifle because of the style hunting that they knew that i would mostly be doing. boy did they pick it right!
i can get 140 to 165gr factory loaded bullets for it, not so with the 7mm08. also, it achieves the magical 3000fps with 140gr loads. actually, hornady loads a 139 grain at 3110fps for the .280, no 7mm08 load can do that. it has less recoil than a 7mag while maintaining not that much difference ballistically. also, i found out that it is possible to hand load the .280 to achieve equal ballistics to the 7mag. the remingtion model 700 mountain rifle is light and compact, it is a great gun to tote through the woods while carrying a stand. it is super easy to maneuver while in tight situations on the ground, treestand, and box stand. it has a 22" barrel and points quickly to deer walking through the woods a 40 yds.
so far approximately 50 whitetails, 8 hogs, and two 300+pound caribou have fallen to my .280. i have not lost a single animal with it. the only ones that "dropped in their tracks" were the ones that i wanted to drop in their tracks because i shot them in the shoulder, head, or neck. i double lung all of my deer because my favorite meat for rice-n-gravy is the shoulder, and i have yet to have a deer go more than 100yds.
the caribou fell in their feet at 300yds after being struck through the shoulders with 165gr accubonds, complete passthroughs on both shots.
p.s. i don't recommend shooting the remington 140gr psp's for smaller deer say under 130 pounds. they are made more for muley's and larger whitetails. on more than one occasion my bullet didn't expand with a behind the shoulder shots on small does, leaving an entrance and exit hole the size of the bullet. still, the deer didn't go far but they didn't bleed. if i were in a thick area i might have lost them.
i also don't like the 140gr winchester ballistic silvertips(same bullet as the nosler ballistic tip) they sometimes fail to leave an exit wound on close range shots, less than 50yds. of course none of this matters if you neck shoot and shoulder shoot.
