I shot a doe broadside with a 416 Remington Magnum. It was a soft point and it punched a hole right through her lungs without releasing any energy. It was like I shot her with an arrow with a field point. If there's not enough mass there for a bullet to release it's energy and cause hydrostatic shock, it won't. She milled around for about a minute until she dropped from blood loss. That was the moment when I learned to match the size of the animal to the weight, speed and construction of the bullet. Bigger and slower doesn't mean better unless it's large game which I don't consider Texas deer to be.

IMO if there were some kind of mandated hunting competency test,
there'd be an awful lot of people that wouldn't be getting to hunt.
I think something like that is best self regulated by the hunting
community instead of non hunting desk jockeys

I guess if it came down to it and I hope it never will I would have to agree on the 243.

Well you don't have to look to far back in history to when we didn't regulate hunting and humans being what they are damn near wiped out the Nth American Whitetail along with a few other species. As the population grew so did their appetite and commercial hunting was wide spread. In 1890 we had the entire Nth American population down below a million some say a half million.

The real problem is piss poor boutique hunters, not the tools they use.

Oh good. A caliber debate.

What the heck is a "boutique hunter"?

I’m gonna assume one who starches their hunting clothes and sips a Starbucks while in pursuit ?

I get it, "keep this distance X or less". Yeah a whole lot of things will work.

Want the ability to shoot just a bit farther than that X, and the insurance of a little better cartridge is nice to have.

Very cool HWY.



That would be my honest answer as well. Son has taken a dozen or so in the last 7 years. 100 grain Core-lokts. Found them all.

Your damned skippy

As a kid I watched my mom kill 20+ with her 222 and never lost a single one of them. Most were dead within 30 yards of where she stuck the 55gr lead into em at.

Why is it so hard to understand for some it isn't about the caliber, it's about the shooter and the weapons accuracy.

Whenever this subject comes up on here it ends up in these same conversations.

I can tell you that I'd much rather be have my 22.250 in my hands that I know shoots well under 1" groups at 200 yards than a 375h&h that sprays 2" groups at 100 yards in my hands if the buck of a lifetime walks out at 200 yards!

Smallest Ive used was a .223 Rem.

Ive never lost a deer with a .223, the furthest theyve run might be 40 yards?

If your confident and you can put a bullet in heart/lung area, the deer will go down.

I also bow hunt so Ive put arrows into deer and hogs. Bow hunting usually requires a track of 0-100 yards depending on the deer/hog.

Yep and some states have pretty much ended the conversation by putting in caliber and ft-lbs restrictions.

Not my list but one I stole from another forum.

Alabama- centerfire
Alaska- centerfire
Alberta- .23 and up centerfire
Arizona- centerfire
Arkansas- .22 and up centerfire
California- centerfire
Colorado- .24 and up, 70grn or larger bullet/ minimum of 1000ft/lbs at 100 yards
Connecticut- .243 and up if legal in your area
Delaware- shotgun/muzzle loader
Florida- centerfire
Georgia- .22 and up centerfire
Hawaii- Any rifle with at least 1200 ft/lbs of ME. This would start at around .223 I think
Idaho- Centerfire (cannot weigh more than 16 lbs?)
Illinois- Shotgun/ML/Pistol only
Indiana- Rifles with pistol calibers/shotgun/ML/Pistols
Iowa- .24 or larger centerfire only for antlerless season in part of the state.
Kansas- .23 or larger centerfire (actually says larger than .23 so maybe .24 is the mininum)
kentucky- centerfire
Louisiana- .22 and up centerfire
Maine- .22 magnum rimfire and up!
Manitoba- Centerfire, but it says .23 and below not recommended. Does not say illegal though.
Maryland- ME of at least 1200 ft/lbs
Mass- Shotgun/ML
Michigan- centerfire in certain areas
Minnesota- .24 and up centerfire
Mississippi- No restrictions that I could find
Missouri- centerfire
Montana- No restrictions
Nebraska- Rifles with 900 ft/lbs or more at 100 yards
Nevada- .22 centerfire and up
New Hampshire- centerfire
New Jersey- shotgun only
New Mexico- centerfire
New York- centerfire
North Carolina- No restrictions
North Dakota- .22-.49 centerfire
Nova Scotia- .23 and up
Ohio- Shotgun/ML
Oklahoma- centerfire with 55 grn or heavier bullet
Ontario- centerfire
Oregon- .22 centerfire and up
Pennsylvania- centerfire
Quebec- 6mm/.243 and up
Rhode Island- shotgun/ML
Saskatchewan- .24 and up
South Carolina- centerfire
South Dakota- rifles with 1,000 ft/lbs or more ME
Tennessee- centerfire
Texas- centerfire
Utah- centerfire
vermont- No restriction
Virginia- .23 centerfire and up
Washington- .24 centerfire and up
West Virginia- .25 rimfire and up and all centerfire
Wisconsin- .22 centerfire and up
Wyoming- .23 centerfire and up

And a purse to hold extra ammo and "fixings" for the man bun.

Looks like West Virginia has ruled out the .243 as effective enough, proving my theory that it is a marginal choice. Everything below .243 is out, everything .243 and up is good to go. Debate over.

No that’s .25 rimfire and up. And ALL centerfire.

How bout a .32 acp

I try to stay out of these discussions cause there are too many variables and every person is different.
A big part of the consideration is just how bad do you want the deer to die.
I know some of you will say you never pull the trigger without wanting to kill 100% of the time. There are others that will send a bullet downrange without much thought for caliber, distance, shot placement, bullet construction etc.
I take my deer hunting extremely serious and spend enormous amounts of time and effort in the pursuit of the occasional exceptional buck, so when I pull the trigger I feel that bigger is better as long as I can shoot it accurately.
Shoot what you want but shoot to kill.

Talk about marginal. I'd take a .243 over any of those every time, but then I've only killed around 100 or so with a .243.

Very well said!

My deer hunting rifle (since I was 16 years old) has been the .243 bolt action rifle. My Dad purchased it for me and I still use it to this day and will do so till my last day (I am 53 years young now.) I hunt South Texas whitetails with it, shooting a 100 grain bullet. I've killed some BIG bodied South Texas bucks with this gun. The 100 grain bullet does a fine job, whether you are shooting behind the shoulder at 200 yards or a neck shot at 100, it does perform great. I have shot the .270 and the 3006 as well as the .3030 and .2506. I prefer to stay with the .243. I would say that it would be the minimum caliber for deer.

25-20 minimum for me.

I'll make this worse.

The best cartridges for whitetail are 7mm-08 and 7mm-08 A.I. loaded with a 162 or 168 gr. From the muzzle to past 500 yards. Man, woman, child.

Fight me!

JG, I wouldnt fight you at all on that and many more wouldnt either. But you said "best" and the OP asked about "minimum". I can only figure that its a slow day at the fire station.

Hunter Daddy, you bring up an interesting point. Im not picking a fight here but it seems odd that you shot 243 all your life including lots of big WT yet you consider it the minimum caliber for deer. To me "whatever" I consider minimum I would want a little cushion on my go to every day rifle and especially for big deer. Now if you shoot it cause its sentimental then I completely understand. Im just glad I inherited a 3006 instead of a 243.

Free Range, yes, it is sentimental. I have always thought of "up grading" my rifle. I have bigger calibers to choose from BUT my .243 just shoots so damn good. I killed my Chap buck last year with that gun. He was 165 big steps from my tripod when I dropped him on the spot with a shoulder shot. (Knock on Wood) I have yet to have a bad experience with my .243. I do feel that any other caliber that is smaller (less than a 100 grain bullet) would not be sufficient enough at decent ranges (100-200 yards.) I would say that most deer are shot within 100 yards. There are those that take shots out to 300 plus yards. I do not like to shoot that far. Having a bullet that preforms with most of its energy inside of the animal (blowing up the lungs/heart) is what is needed for a humane kill. A 100 grain will do that.