30/06 165s

[Larryjk]

dakotah, I will give you a few facts about myself.
(1) I have never hunted from a tree stand, but I would like the experience.
(2) I have never hunted deer in S. Dakota but I am moderately familiar with that state. I grew up in Nebraska and hunted the sand hills, the eastern edge of the hills, and some of the hills of Stanton County.
(3) I lived in Colorado for 10 years and hunted all over the western half of that state. Now I live in Wyoming (35 years) and have a fair amount of hunting experience in that state.
I think I have enough experience to say I can handle anything North America has to offer. I have also hunted in Texas and Oregon and spent time in Alaska. I don't consider myself the great white hunter, but I can hold my own with pistol, rifle or shotgun. I have never shot a deer in the shoulder, but through the heart and through the lungs. I have also shot a large number in the head but not sport hunting. I don't know how many because I have kind of quit hunting deer. One winter I had the experience of control shooting about 75 head and it kind of ruined deer hunting for me. I have hunted moose, elk, whitetail and mule deer, antelope and one fallow deer, and taken them all, most more than once.
I don't know what you are so darn worked up about. Let's just leave it at that.

[scalerman]

I use Sierra 140 Grain Boat Tail hollow Points in my 270- every last one of the animals that I have shot with that bullet has been dead as dead can be. I find that my rifle loves those bullets and that the game does not. I'm not sure was all the fuss is about. Use what ever bullet works for you- why on earth are you telling someone else what they should and shouldn't use. If you don't like Sierras then by all means use something else- the other bullet makers deserve to eat too. Making your comments about how bullets haver performed for you is one thing- but calling another's abilities and judgement into question is quite another. Grow up.

[dakotah]

It is not meant

The point I am trying to make and evidently is not and was not clear is this.

Hunting is not the same every where even though the game might be 'deer'.

Shooting from a blind or tree stand at game, game that does not know you are there is way/far different than still hunting in the mountains or the prairie where the deer or game may see you when you are still a mile away -- where the hunter has to walk to the game rather than the other way around. If a bullet, load is awsome from a tree stand that does not make it a perfect deer round.

One of my favorite handloading wirters and I think one of the top experts in handloading makes recommendations on handloads for deer hunting. The loads he recommends would likely work very well from a tree stand or hunting close range. I don't think he has ever hunted the same areas as Elmer Keith though. Or if he did his recommendations do not seem to reflect it.

I know a guy who hunts with a 30-378 and uses heavy Sierra match-king bullets and he does well with it. He normally shoots his deer at a longer range than most people would even consider.
I suspect that the bullet might be traveling at less than 2,000 ft per second when it arrives. Is that a good deer load??? For him yes. Is it a good deer load to be recommended to others, IMO - no!

I think it is the same with many other deer loads, bullets, calibers etc. They might be great for one area or one type of hunting but to recommend that load as a good deer load often should be qualified, IMO.

I read an article on Elk hunting where the author said that using a 30-06 would be excellent in this one area for elk. In another area he recommended at least a 300 mag. Finally, he said in another area he felt a 338 Win Mag to be minimum. I have hunted elk in all the areas he talked about. I had the same feelings about those areas. In one area I carried a very light 308 Winchester, which some would say was way too light and they might have been right but the elk were much easier to shoot even though it was a ***** getting to where the elk were. In Colorado I have used a 350 Mag in the dog-hair pine and a 338 Win in the more open areas. I suspect that a 358 Win would have worked as well in the dog hair but I would not have wanted anything lighter than the 338 where I was hunting in the open. A friend however, hunts in the southern rockies of Colorado along the continental divide. He uses a 300 Weatherby mag and has averaged more than one elk for every year he has hunted.

I believe and strongly believe that deer hunting and elk hunting is similar in this one aspect. It aint the same everywhere!

I am not an 'expert' in hunting though and I have hunted for over 50 years. There are hunters that are better at hunting the areas that I hunt than me even my home town area.

[Rocky Raab]

The point that hunting situations vary is perfectly valid, of course. But the flip side of that is equally valid: just because one bullet doesn't fit a given situation doesn't make it a bad bullet.

I think we've explored this one sufficiently.

Thread closed.