Which rifle for this hunt

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bdill
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Which rifle for this hunt

Post by bdill »

I'm in a little situation. I'm going hunting with a friend tomorrow morning in north east ga and we put our stands out today. I'll be hunting a section where I can see 150 yards in front of me, 200 yards to my left, and probably about 75 yards to my right. I took a small spike earlier this year just bc I haven't shot a deer in 12 years and needed to break my dry spell. He was 30 yards away and shot him with the 110 gr vortex. The round didn't pass through but dropped him right there and it has me scared that my 300 blk won't do the job adequately to kill the deer here at that range. I'm wanting to take my blkout but I'm kinda leaning towards my 30.06 for this hunt. What do y'all think I should do. I'll be shooting through some brush on my left side but it's pretty much clear everywhere else. I'm scared to take a long shot like that and the 300 blk not be up to the challenge bc there are some pretty big deer here. My 5 point I killed 12 years ago weighed 150 lbs after he was gutted if that puts it into perspective. I need some advice here.
jwb47
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by jwb47 »

that may be heavy in georgia like it would be here in missouri but right across the river in illinois thats a light weight . I wouldnt hesitate one minute to take a 200 yd shot with a barnes 110 vortex .
bdill
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by bdill »

I need to make a trip to Illinois then lol. My biggest concern is no pass through and no blood trail for tracking. I was gonna switch to 125 gr nosler bt but I stuck a case in my die and have to wait on a new one so like I said I'm scared of no blood trail since I'm stuck with the vortex.
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rebel
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by rebel »

bdill, I just reported on my deer shot with a SST home roll. The shot was 85 yards.I didn't have a blood trail, but didn't need one as he only ran 30 yards. The angle was such that I chose base of the neck, in front of the shoulder to angle back through the lungs. I trashed the offside shoulder with the bullet just under the hide. If the deer had been perfectly broadside and I shot it through the ribs, I probably would have had blood everywhere. Last year I shot a buck with 50 cal, 295 gr. power belt at 25 yards. Behind the shoulder but a bit high. This dude ran 100 yards with no blood until 10 yards from where I found him. It took a while for him to "fill up". The 300 BLK is deadly and I was pleased with it's performance. The lack of a trail was result of my choice of shot placement and the fact this guy was dead in 2 seconds. You will be well served with either rifle, but will lose less meat with the BLK.
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bdill
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by bdill »

I did notice the one I shot with the blk seemed to destroy the chest cavity. The chest was nothing but jello. I need to do more load development with 125 gr bullets but I trashed my die. Thanks everyone. I didn't see anything there by the way so I'm sorry to say I have no kill pics this time.
tallburnedmidget
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by tallburnedmidget »

I understand your dilema. That is why I was so eager to try the 110gr Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos bullet for hunting this year but it didn't happen.

I can say that over the past 2 years and 9 deer later, my tracking skills are far superior to what they used to be lol.

Why not take both rifles and in the morning hunt with the 300BLK and in the evening the 30-06.

From my experiences the deer will run anywhere from 30-80yds with a good lung/heart vital shot with the 300BLK.

No matter what caliber you use just be sure that before you pull the trigger (if you have time) or right after, you identify the point where the deer was shot and then follow the deer keeping in memory any and all land marks that it passes behind and infront of as well as the last thing you saw before it went out of sight. Go over it over and over and over until you have it memorized as best you can.

Then after some time you go to the point where the deer was shot and start tracking blood and foot prints from that point going in the direction the deer ran. Try as best as you can to identify the land marks and items the deer ran infront of and behind until the last point you lost track. Get good at this and life gets better with recovery :)
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doubleshot00
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by doubleshot00 »

I would take the 30-06. I always take my .308 with any shot over 100yds. Most of my spots don't have a shot over 50yds so I take the blackout (as my stands are set up as bow stands).
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tXr
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by tXr »

I have taken deer out to 187 yards with the 110gr blacktip. One thing you need to take into account and plan for is the rainbow trajectory, a range finder is as required as decent optics with holdovers(I use Nikon BDC scopes and Spot-on software).
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randyrucker
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by randyrucker »

Take the one you have the confidence will do the job. Each person has a little different feeling in that area.
bdill
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Re: Which rifle for this hunt

Post by bdill »

Thanks y'all. I couldn't post earlier because of the changes the forum was going through. I took my 30.06 just to be on the safe side but I think I will gain more confidence in the 300 once I take more game with it. Guys around here are using them for coyotes and dropping them at 200 yards but there is a big difference between a song dog and a deer. Plus they are hand loading for bolt guns and are loading them longer than I can in my ar. It's just hard to wrap my head around this little cartridge doing much damage at 2300 fps. I'm gonna try some 125 BT's and 125 TNT's next and see how they do. I hope I can get 2200 fps out of the TNT and hope I can get 2100 out of the BT's but I doubt I can get them that high. Now just waiting for the chrono to come in the mail. I was eyeballing the velocity on the 7.62x40wt and like what I saw but I'm not gonna get into a wildcat cartridge just to gain velocity.

I need to get a rangefinder also....
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