I'll start off by saying .300 Win Mag followed by 7MM Rem Mag., what say you??

x2

The .577 Tyrannosaur or .577 T-Rex (14.9×76mm) 750-grain (49 g) monolithic solid projectile which when fired moves at 2,460 ft/s (750 m/s) producing 10,180 foot-pounds force (13,800 J) of muzzle energy.

Have a friend that hunts with one rifle and has for as long as I've known him, he shoots an old Model 77 tang safety Ruger paddle tail in 338 Win Mag. Shoot's 180's for deer and 250's for anything bigger.

Usually the determining factor isn't it too much for deer but too much for the shooter. Some folks just can't shoot heavier recoiling rifles. Hell there was somebody on here put a brake on a 243 a few years ago.

That probably needs to be changed to " some folks just can't shoot "
I've seen people at public ranges that actually close their eyes as they
jerk the trigger, and the last time I went, some young men were shooting
ARs with lasers, and it looked to me as if kids had those dollar store
laser pointers and " drawing " a circle on their targets. They'd have done
way better bullseye-wise with a shotgun and buckshot

I did the same thing for many years with my Ruger .338 Win-mag.

It was a supremely accurate rifle and while I bought it to hunt elk with (250-300 gr. bullets) I would hand load 200 grain bullets (milder loads) and use it for deer.

More than necessary, yes, but it worked well for me.

Then I discovered the 7mm-08 about 25 yrs ago and find it to be a near perfect whitetail cartridge out to around 400 yds. Good for Mulies up to 300 yds or a bit more.

My best friend hunted whitetail with a 300 win mag that he affectionately named "Winnie the mag". All shots were less than 100 yards. I've given him Schitt for being over gunned for a while. I will say he's never lost a deer that he shot with that gun. Although he has lost a shoulder or two.

IMO anything bigger or with more horse power than a 30-06 is unnecessary for whitetail in Texas. But like everything else, use whatever you like and be good with what you use.

When I was a kid we hunted down on the Pecos outside of Pandale, rough country. Pop worked with all those guys out on the base and all damn good folks. I can't remember what all everybody was carrying, I had the 06 and off course Pop had the old 300 Weatherby. He caught a lot of chit from the other guys for carrying the Weatherby but by the third year there was 3 more men carrying Weatherby's, two 300's and a 257. You could always tell when Pop pulled the trigger, that Weatherby barking up a canyon had it's own distinct sound. That's where I shot my first 257 Weatherby, a man named Bob Ross bought it. There wasn't any blinds or feeding back then, you had to hump canyons all day and most of the shot's were long and most were running. Some of the hardest to country to hunt I've ever experienced but I loved it down there, the old Pecos run crystal clear through that area and we had about a two mile stretch of it. Most everybody was carrying 270's and 06's back then. Hell the 270 was joked about for being a ladies gun, Pop had one and we always called it Mom's gun although I think it originally was my Grand Dad's. Got me thinking. In all the years I hunted with POP and all the places and folks we hunted with the one caliber I never remember anybody hunting with was the 30-30. Off hand I only remember 3 times that I've seen a 30-30 in camp and the most recent was the one Pink used for the THF Ladies hunt and she put a nice 10 point down at 150-165 yards with that rifle. While I prefer Magnum calibers I have to admit Mrs. B sure didn't have any problems filling the freezer with her little 7mm08 She took 4 hog's, 6-7 Whitetail bucks, one Bull elk and two Javalina's with that rifle. The only one that didn't go straight down was the elk and it only went about 20 or so yards. She used a 243 before that but one shot with the 7mm08 and the 243 never came out of the closet again.

Can't get deader than dead.

I never load my .218 Bee to max pressure, it’s just too much recoil.

That's certainly true but do we want them dead 100 yards from where they were hit, a quarter mile from where they were hit? There's a ton of variables come into play especially when it comes to the limits of the hunter and the equipment used. A hard hitting flat shooting rifle with the right bullet helps eliminate some of those variables just by it's capabilities alone. This especially shows up when you start getting on the edge of the shooters capabilities.

So it doesn't really depend on the caliber, it depends on the shooter's decisions and abilities? I should have said There is no such thing as overkill, dead is dead.

And that's probably the least discussed topic. Back when the WSM craze was in full form I went hunting with some members here on the forum. The gentleman was shooting a 25 WSM on a nice rifle with good glass and shooting from a sand bagged rest. I watched as he did his best to try and shoot a sub 2 inch group at 100 yards, 4 - 3 round groups later he still hadn't accomplished it and decided that was as good as it was going to get and hunted with it. That was 15 plus years ago and his was about 2,000 to 2,500 set up. The unspoken truth is some folks just can't shoot no matter what equipment they're carrying and they'll deny it until the day they die. Instead of spending 1500 to 2000 dollars on the new wonder caliber they might invest that in a couple of Fire Man's classes and learn how to properly pull a trigger and block everything else out.

I can agree with that.

I love my .257 wby but after shooting 7 animals with it, I’ll have to admit it won’t kill anything any better than my .270.

The .270 win is one of the greatest cartridges ever created

I'm not going so far as saying it's the greatest but I'd put it in the top 2. As much as I like the Weatherby's I'd probably have to give the number one seat to the Rem 7-Mag that caliber carries a broad brush.

I have killed several deer with each, 223, 243, 7mm08, 270, 280, 30-06, 7mm wby, 300 wby, and a 54 cal smoke pole. I say shoot what you like, the 300 wby with a 200 + grain bullet didnt seem to do any more damage than I have seen a 270 etc. do.

I consider anything 7mm08 up probably more than you need, but they do the job fine if you do yours.

If you put it in the top two, that's pretty much "one of the greatest"

I shoot the 270 when I use a gun. My buddy uses a 7 mag. I can't say witch is better but I can tell you everything we've shot at in the last 3 MLD hunts were DRT. but I used a .243 and 30.06 on a few of the shots too just not as many.

He said one of the greatest, I said the greatest, Simply by where I placed it, it's obviously one of the greatest.

I won a .300wsm in a raffle when I was 21 and I have been using it ever since, I can't justify buying a smaller caliber rifle because it's too much for a WT.

Ford 6.7 diesel with a ranch hand grill

It's a fine caliber.