They are coming right up to the house, waiting on you. Have you practiced rapid re-knocking? (Or whatever you call it.) 'Need 23 off the place.

I counter that, with 7 mag is the perfect all around rifle and not overkill for anything with horn on its head.

If you want a flat shooter that beats the wind and you want common ammo on the shelf, 7 mag is it.

If 7 mag is too much, so is 30-06.

fredgus read my mind.

If you don't hit them DRT you will either have a hard time finding them in the thick stuff, or if you are hunting a smaller parcel of land you shoot, deer runs off, and 30 seconds later your hear your neighbor shoot it.

No Thank You.

I will never criticize a hunter that shoots a bigger than normal firearm at a deer unless he or she just flat out can't shoot it. Proficiency and shot placement should be the priority.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

I’ve killed deer with lots of calibers, from .243 Win to .300 Win Mag. I haven’t noticed any being deader or more alive than the others.

A .30-06 is a lot more than you need for whitetail, especially Texas whitetail.

A 7mm-08, .308, .270 is about perfect.

A .30-06 kicks too much for my taste to be a general Texas whitetail round. In areas where you can get mule deer, elk and bear all in the same area it makes sense, but you can get by with a lot less for Texas deer.

In all honesty as much as I hate to admit it, the 6.5 cm probably is as close to ideal as you can get for a Texas Deer caliber

Probably just the 50 BMG.

I like the 264 win mag it is flat shooting but it pops them open more than my 300

Although I haven’t rifle hunted in years, I love a 270.
My daddy gave me a rem BDL IN 1972. It was a great shooting gun.
It suddenly disappeared 2 years ago and I’ve been sick ever since.

A .264 is a great gun.

We walked into a gun shop about 15 years ago and there was a custom browning .264 on the shelf. I made my buddy plop down thr $1100 to buy it and he has been thankful ever since

Shooting a big gun does not mean DRT. I have shot several deer and hogs in the lungs with a 300 wby that ran just like they do from a 223 or 243 or 270 etc. You take any of those calibers and take out the central nervous system and they all fall DRT.

I hunted my first 10 years with a 270. I spent the last 2 years hunting with a 30-06. The difference between 30-06 and 270 is splitting hairs.

What grain bullet are you shooting with the .30-06? Recoil is stouter with either the 150 grain or 180 grain loading from a 06’

The .270 with a 130 grain load is pretty mild

I agree...one of the deer I hit through the shoulders with a 65 Grain .223 hit the ground just as fast as the one hit through the shoulders with a 180 Grain .300 Weatherby Magnum. The common theme was the high shoulder shot, shoulder/spine(as you mentioned CNS)/shoulder. I am not a fan of the lung shot.

There is no such thing as overkill calibers.
But there is definitely not enough caliber to be sure the deer is killed humanly and not suffer or worse run off to die or be wounded and a slow death.

IMO any .22 caliber is not enough to ensure a clean kill every time. I know there are many that will argue that but a big buck is a tough animal. Why risk it.

Trying to figure out exactly what overkill is. Overly destructive?

o·ver·kill (ō′vər-kĭl′)
n.
1. The destructive use of military force beyond the amount needed to destroy an enemy.
2. The excessive use of force in killing an individual or organism.
3. Elimination or drastic reduction of an animal population by hunting or killing.
4. An excess of what is necessary or appropriate for a particular end.

4.

So describe number four in a way that killing a deer is excessive. Too much meat damage? A 150 grain 300 Winchester mag through the ribs will do less meat damage than a 243 through the backstraps.

I have a 270 win sendero. My brother has a Rem 700 LR chambered in 3006 (nearly the same gun). I worked up the loads for both. The 270 is a 150 grain at 2725 fps, pretty mild loading. The load for the brothers is a 180 grain at 2700 FPS. Recoil between the two is negligible.

I have a cz chambered in 3006 that I hunted with the past couple years. I used a box of factory 180 grain core locks mostly because I'm short on '06 brass and they were given to me free. The 180 core locks are a pleasure to shoot... much due to the fact they only muzzle at about 2500 fps.

Likewise I hunted several years with 130 grain, 140, and 150 gain 270 loads, both hand loads and factory stuff. Never really noticed much difference at all.

Y’all have another good thread going. I have to agree with the poster that stated too much gun for the shooter is where it becomes a problem. I’ve killed the most deer with a 270 and a 130 cup and core bullet. It is about perfect. These days if I’m buck hunting I usually carry a 7RM shooting a 160, even though I’m not from Houston. It works just as well. I have a 300WM that I like. For me though, the 7RM is about the upper end of what is still really comfortable to practice with in a sporter weight, un braked rifle without getting a little twitchy after 30-40 practice rounds. That threshold is individual.
I used to hunt with a fellow that shot a 270. He wounded 2-3 deer/year with it, then would call and ask me if I would bring my dog. His solution was to buy a 300 WM. We still tracked 2-3 deer/year for him. He made a great blood dog out of my bird dog. After watching him zero that 300, he needed a 243 and a lot of practice.

Gotta say on this recoil question ... I never notice it ... at all ....

Short of a meteor strike then I would say a highballing truck or train. Two of three are human controlled. The first could kill BIG game however.

big bullets never bothered me, i always favored heavy for caliber no matter what caliber. i shoot 180 partitions thru my 3006 and its definitely more than needed....but a good quality bonded bullet doesn't rip anything up too bad.

last thing I am is a ballistic or gun expert other than I have been hunting all over the world for the last 40 years and 60 years for whitetail. My dad did not have a lot of money and when I was a teenager the only rifle we had was a 8 mm Mauser - So I got real use to handling a rifle that kicked.

fast forward to these days - I was lucky to hunt on a ranch for years with amazing whitetail that would go live weight 250 lb range - the last thing I wanted to do was wound a world class buck so I went with a Tikka 300 win mag with a Winchester XP3 180 grain load.

The other thing I did was try to never take a shot over 200 yards. Many times I would have a trophy buck at over 200 yards and I would climb out of the stand and stalk to 200 or under yards to take the shot (used a bipod). Funny how I never lost a trophy buck I took a shot at. Maybe I could have done the same with a lighter caliber and load but for me it never broke so I did not try to fix it.

So in a situation where you are taking a shot at a top end trophy buck I prefer overkill and if I ruin some meat so be it - my goal was to knock them on their butt - right or wrong it has always worked for me - my 2 cents

TLK, we hunt in similar fashion.