Soft shooting deer gun

[Fox]

There's nothing smallish about the holes they make in deer.

Well with a proper big game bullet you can expect an expansion of approximately 2x, so your 0.243 bullet would end up being about 0.486 on exit, if you did not hit a rib, blow out a bone, etc. The 30-30 is going to give you an exit about 0.616 on exit, tougher for fat to fill up the entrance and exit hole. This is one reason I was told, by a very experienced black bear guide, so use a 30 cal for bear, not that smaller would not kill the bear but a fatty bear in the fall would fill up the exit hole and you would have no blood trail. The same could be said for a fatty deer, not plugged, but less blood than a larger hole.

All those people who claim the bullet left a "hole you could put your fist in to" either had a catastrophic bullet failure, with explosive expansion, or you hit bone and blew out the bone, which is not something that can be considered as a normal occurrence.

[Fox]

In my unscientific experience 243 makes a big ol' hole on exit. I guess the key is if it exits.

I guess the upside of 44mag is it makes a nice neat hole that you can eat right up to clean through a deer in a lot of cases.

Could leave a big ol hole, but I expect that this bullet blew up.

Slow bullets are beautiful on edible animals, the 0.490 round ball was about perfect for me, between the ribs on entrance and exit, lost 2sq in on either side of the rib cage.

[ShawnL]

Yes I will definitely be putting a scope on it for him. It will be over open country shooting over food plots. Thanks for all the input. It’s greatly appreciated!!!

[natehunter]

While initially developed for the ar platform 6.5 grendel seems to have developed a pretty good following for low recoil shooting. There are some pretty good write ups on cgn about it. Was looking at it as an option for my little guys in the future. Just another option, good luck on your search!

[canadaman30]

Well with a proper big game bullet you can expect an expansion of approximately 2x, so your 0.243 bullet would end up being about 0.486 on exit, if you did not hit a rib, blow out a bone, etc. The 30-30 is going to give you an exit about 0.616 on exit, tougher for fat to fill up the entrance and exit hole. This is one reason I was told, by a very experienced black bear guide, so use a 30 cal for bear, not that smaller would not kill the bear but a fatty bear in the fall would fill up the exit hole and you would have no blood trail. The same could be said for a fatty deer, not plugged, but less blood than a larger hole.

All those people who claim the bullet left a "hole you could put your fist in to" either had a catastrophic bullet failure, with explosive expansion, or you hit bone and blew out the bone, which is not something that can be considered as a normal occurrence.

With exits holes one inch and larger on cross body (rib cage) shots, I'd consider the bullets performed excellent.

[Fox]

With exits holes one inch and larger on cross body (rib cage) shots, I'd consider the bullets performed excellent.

If that is the bullet material making that hole then your bullet is exploding.

[Fox]

Yes I will definitely be putting a scope on it for him. It will be over open country shooting over food plots. Thanks for all the input. It’s greatly appreciated!!!

Ya, then 243, 7mm-08, 6.5. The 7mm-08 would allow to be able to load up and hunt for something larger in the future but his limitations on recoil probably just stick with lighter deer specific bullets.

Glad you are getting him out

[canadaman30]

If that is the bullet material making that hole then your bullet is exploding.

Nope, performing as expected, not exploding bullets.

[DanE]

This is a pretty good topic overall and realistically its pretty much personal preference
I know shooting my 300WSM that has a carbon fiber stock I don't feel a thing when there's a moose standing in front of it but sighting it in was pure evil.
I guess the biggest factor is your son is comfortable pulling the trigger and hasn't gotten a flinch from suspected recoil. saying all that only he will be able to judge what is right for him.
I do however look forward to reading the report of how his hunt goes and my fingers are crossed he is successful with a clean harvest

[ShawnL]

We did get down to New York for a hunt this year. On the way down my son was saying he’s gone wait for something with antlers. If it’s small he will let it go. Which was fine with me it’s his choice. So the plan was set waiting for horns. First deer that walked into the food plot Friday night was a button buck….needless to say he couldn’t get to the gun fast enough….after a little hyper ventilating on his part we calmed him down and watched the button buck for half hour with no shot. Good news was it was only 4pm. Lots of time left. At 4:30 we had the biggest spike buck I have ever seen come in from our left at 20 yards. But there was no way we could get him into a could shooting position with the buck off to the left. Trust me we tried. After a few attempts the buck had seen enough and threw up his tail and took off. My son Braden was very disappointed but we got him calmed down again and waited to the last ten minutes of legal light before a nice 6 pt came out from our right at 40 yards we were able to get him into position. The gun out the window and get him on the deer….the buck is feeding straight for us so now we just need the deer to turn broadside!!! The buck freezes and staring towards us…did we move too much, make too much noise, did he wind us….all those thoughts going through our minds. But it was none of that….it was cat…a friggin house cat walking the edge of field and now sitting right in front of our whack shack. That buck stood there for the last 10 minutes of legal light because of the cat. So no shot!!! Day 2 started with a wrong wind so we changed spots only problem was now we are sitting on the edge of hayfield which wasn’t ideal as long shots aren’t going to be good for him. But no deer show up that morning and with a warm temps it wasn’t looking promising for the evening. We wanted to go back to the small food plot that we had hunted the night before but the wind was wrong. But that small food plot was our best chance at getting him his deer. So we went in at noon and put a ground blind in off to the east side for the evening sit. With almost 20C temps deer movement was VERY slow. But 15 min before last light that button buck made his return. Braden was easily able to get on the deer with his tripod now just waiting for the broadside again. Finally it happened…the buck turned broadside and Braden made a great shot with the .260!! Down goes the buck and the tears start pouring!!! He was so proud of himself and I was was so proud of him. I want to give a huge shout out to Steve and to Doug for setting this up and for making this possible. With out them this would have happened and for that we are very grateful.