md7
Member
I agree with that.
Shot placement and velocity necessary to open the bullet and drive deep are the things I look at over energy as well.
Hunting rifle and cartridge for west Texas deer
- Thread starter Charlie98
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Shot placement and velocity necessary to open the bullet and drive deep are the things I look at over energy as well.
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Charlie98
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I think some of you are mistaking what I've said... and that's probably my fault... about the location. My brother's friend... where he plans to hunt... has his spread in between Austin and San Antonio, or thereabouts... what I consider Texas hill country. MY friend lives out in Lubbock; he has a deer lease, but all we do out there is bash steel with levers and single-shots. The terrain is quite different, that was the point I was trying to make.
When I was driving OTR, as soon as I had the hood pointed west of Fort Worth, I considered it west Texas... but I always thought west of US183 was 'west' Texas, and that section between 183 and I-35 to be 'hill country.' I'm splitting hairs, of course.
I told him to plan on spending at least as much on the scope as the basic rifle, or thereabouts.
When I was driving OTR, as soon as I had the hood pointed west of Fort Worth, I considered it west Texas... but I always thought west of US183 was 'west' Texas, and that section between 183 and I-35 to be 'hill country.' I'm splitting hairs, of course.
I told him to plan on spending at least as much on the scope as the basic rifle, or thereabouts.
doubleh
Member
I went with 30-06 because I found a rifle in that caliber I really, really liked and ammo was to be found anywhere ammo was sold. I was reloading shotgun shells but hadn't moved into rifle ammo and frankly speaking, couldn't afford to during that period of my life.
I'm Texas born but Lone Star beer is only beat out in the nasty department by Schlitz. If those were the only two available I would never touch beer.
I will concede to Roby being the beginning or West Texas but no farther east. My dad, born in Sulphur Springs, grew up at Roby and upon finishing school moved to Lamesa. There wasn't much to either place in those days and not a lot today.
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Charlie98
Member
I would tend to agree with you. I've tried to like it... but you can't make me.
As another aside, when I was driving OTR, I delivered a truckload of empty 16oz LoneStar beer cans to the plant. Back then I believe it was owned by Heileman. I scored a couple of the cans as a souvenir... I don't know if I still have them or not.
Further asiding... my brother, the one we are talking about, just bought a townhome about 2 blocks away from the Pearl Brewery building, which has been resurrected as a shopping and dining mecca. I ate breakfast at one of the restaurants there last Saturday.
Riomouse911
Member
My great greats came to the territory with the early settler groups, emigrating from Tennessee. They fought with Houston’s army against Santa Anna (Grass fight, Siege of Bexar, Concepcion, etc.). One was wounded at San Jacinto but lived a long and colorful Texas life (Sheriff of Guadalupe County, State Assemblyman, raised a Company of Texas Rangers and fought Comanches, etc.)
Tom, John Files
The Handbook of Texas is your number one authoritative source for Texas history. Read this entry and thousands more like it on our site.
www.tshaonline.org
My Grandfather was a Pearl Beer guy, when he drank beer. (His usual nightcap was three fingers of bourbon over ice.)
I’m not a Lone Star man either, but Lone Star is the one beer most associated with Texas. (As are the standard cased quarter-bores; the .25-06, .257 Roberts and .250-3000
)Stay safe.
d2wing
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Lately I have been reading books about Texas Rangers, early settlement and the Indian wars. I found it very interesting.My great greats came to the territory with the early settler groups, emigrating from Tennessee. They fought with Houston’s army against Santa Anna (Grass fight, Siege of Bexar, Concepcion, etc.). One was wounded at San Jacinto but lived a long and colorful Texas life (Sheriff of Guadalupe County, State Assemblyman, raised a Company of Texas Rangers and fought Comanches, etc.)
Tom, John Files
The Handbook of Texas is your number one authoritative source for Texas history. Read this entry and thousands more like it on our site.
My Grandfather was a Pearl Beer guy, when he drank beer. (His usual nightcap was three fingers of bourbon over ice.)
I’m not a Lone Star man either, but Lone Star is the one beer most associated with Texas. (As are the standard cased quarter-bores; the .25-06, .257 Roberts and .250-3000
Stay safe.
35 Whelen
Member
This was my evening hunt. About 40 yards out with my handloads and an ~80 year old rifle. So much more fun (IMHO) than shooting at a deer one can barely see.
35W
35W
I think a Tikka in 6.5 Creedmoore, or 270 Winchester would be two great choices. I would top it with Leupold Backcountry ring/mounts, and a Swarovski Z3. Nice 1.25" nylon sling, Good pair of shooting sticks.I was visiting my brother this past weekend. Neither of us have ever hunted, but he has some friends of his that are huge into it... and now he's talking about going with them to hunt deer. Both of us were talking about appropriate cartridges, and what might work. He would be hunting deer in the Texas hill country, west of Austin, I believe. His buddy sent him a picture of a deer he dropped at nearly 1000yds... which I find extraordinary. My BS meter would normally peg on a boast like that, but this guy dumps money into his gear, and spends the range time to dial it in, so at this point I would have to take the man at his word. The problem is... my brother doesn't have the pocketbook to drop $5000 or more into a hunting rifle.
Normally, I would suggest something in the .308 family, but he's concerned about making longer shots given the terrain. His friend reeled off some potential cartridges... some of which I've never heard of. I was thinking if distance was an issue, moving to the .30-06 would be a reasonable choice, or even something overkill like the 7mm Magnum... but, admitting ignorance here, I don't really know. A cartridge I would recommend for 1000yd shooting, is not the same as a 1000yd cartridge for hunting, if you see what I mean.
As far as a rifle, my normal fallback to a budget hunting rifle would be a Savage of some sort, but once you get into the long-action chamberings, the Savage is in good company with other rifles as well.
I figure a few of you would have an opinion on the matter at hand...
What would be 2 or 3 cartridges to look at for this purpose? Either he or I would be handloading for this rifle, so we would not necessarily be dependent on factory ammos... but, I don't want to have to form brass for some crazy wildcat. Keep it simple/stupid.
What would a reasonable rifle be to look at, at a sub-$1000 price (not including glass) be? Savage, Winchester, Tikka, Sako, Christensen, even Ruger... are all rifles we talked about, but in today's market, I'm sure I'm missing something.
Thanks!
I hunt some prwtty big midwestern examples of deer. I use (and love) a Synthetic Stainless Ruger Hawkeye 270 Winchester with a Leupold VX2 Long Range Duplex and a Remington 700 Classic 25-06, Timney trigger with a Leupold VX2 LRD. These are older examples, the Ruger being from the early mid 2000's and the Rem being from the early 90's. The 25-06 (and many other 25-06's) LOVEs Hornady American Whitetail 117 gr. Often beats my handloads and works great. The Ruger 270can group at an inch with my handloads, but also likes Federal Fusion 130 gr. .
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doubleh
Member
I could tell a story about my first encounter with Lone Star beer. How four of us got a cab driver to buy a case that we smuggled into our hotel room while attending the Texas FFA convention in San Antonio and how we disposed of the empties. It's kind of fun but it involved no firearms so I will desist.
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Charlie98
Member
Ahhh, a .270 is all that is needed. A 7mmRM is not over kill.
I always thought this to be West Texas as per Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org
I always thought this to be West Texas as per Wikipedia:
West Texas - Wikipedia
doubleh
Member
My thread, no rules...
West Texas deer and Lone Star Beer... what's not off topic?
The moderators might disagree.
That would be 99.9% of ALL TX Whitetails not on a game ranch or escaped from one.
doubleh
Member
Quite a few years ago I was sight seeing at the state park close to Possum Kingdom Lake and we drove up a large heard of does. I slipped out of the pickup to take a picture. I got a close up as they came right up to me as if I was going to feed them. One of the larger ones came to within 3 feet of me. Being used to much larger NM mulies I was surprised just how small they were. I worked with a guy from down in central Texas and he called them suitcase deer. Just pick one up and carry it like a suitcase after shooting it.
35 Whelen
Member
Depends on where you are in Texas. My buck pictured above dressed at exactly 140 lbs. I killed a buck two years ago, also here at the house, and dressed out, he quite soundly bottomed out a set of 165 lb. cotton scales. Some of the bucks that come off the Red River are very large also.
35W
EIB0879
Member
I have seen some booners come out of places in north and east Texas.
EIB0879
Member
I used to bowhunt Hagerman when drawn and saw a few come off of there.
I left the .01% for anomalies..congrats on the meat though.
This is where we wade into personal experience. I’ve owned dogs larger than 140#, just sayin.
35 Whelen
Member
Larger deer in Texas aren't anomalies at all, some areas have larger deer just like some lakes have larger bass.
It's really pretty simple; the more dense the deer population, the smaller the deer are apt to be. That's why in central Texas where there are lots of deer, they are smaller. Conversely, in north and west Texas where populations are less dense and the deer are larger.
35W
Riomouse911
Member
And if a mule deer tag is in his hands, those can get pretty hefty. The four bucks that ran through my Dads yard in Northern Nevada the day before Thanksgiving looked allllmost as big as a tule elk. (Well not quite, but they were biiig deer! )
The native whitetails that our ranch had were not big at all. We saw Fallow deer on a neighboring ranch that were big critters. (Cool antlers, to me they look a bit like a caribou antler.)
Stay safe.
)The native whitetails that our ranch had were not big at all. We saw Fallow deer on a neighboring ranch that were big critters. (Cool antlers, to me they look a bit like a caribou antler.)
Stay safe.
EIB0879
Member
There are other things that you might see in the Hill country that are bigger than WT like Axis deer. I shot an Axis buck with a 30-30 a few years back and he only went about thirty yards. Auodad can get big too. You don't need a canon for them.
Dr T
Member
Native whitetails on the western edge of the Edward's Plateau are small by most standards. My brother's 6 point had a hang weight of 60 pounds and mine was smaller. Both were pretty young. I have killed a few that were over 100lbs, but they were few and far between (and tough).. I think that if you use the 'you have to hit a plate' paradigm for hunting accuracy, the plate should be a small dessert plate, not a big Mexican food platter.
The are a number of big game ranch operations that breed their deer for size. They also tend to segregate their herds from the native population with high fences. Others will provide special food to encourage antler growth. Occasionally one of the genetic wonders will escape and the specially fed deer will jump the fences.
We will cull interior deer. About 40 years ago I identified a genetic defect in our native herd that led to malformed horns. In general this has worked, but one was taken yesterday that only had one 3 point antler. The 315 yard shot was one of these deer.
After the day's hunting is done and the guns are put away, I will occasionally enjoy a beer. However, if it is brewed in Texas it is most likely to be a Shiner. Usually, though, it comes from Mexico. I always felt that Lone Star was for tourists and Rexall Rangers, but I am sure some enjoy it (and the Buckhorn Saloon was short of neat-- and the beer was free)
The are a number of big game ranch operations that breed their deer for size. They also tend to segregate their herds from the native population with high fences. Others will provide special food to encourage antler growth. Occasionally one of the genetic wonders will escape and the specially fed deer will jump the fences.
We will cull interior deer. About 40 years ago I identified a genetic defect in our native herd that led to malformed horns. In general this has worked, but one was taken yesterday that only had one 3 point antler. The 315 yard shot was one of these deer.
After the day's hunting is done and the guns are put away, I will occasionally enjoy a beer. However, if it is brewed in Texas it is most likely to be a Shiner. Usually, though, it comes from Mexico. I always felt that Lone Star was for tourists and Rexall Rangers, but I am sure some enjoy it (and the Buckhorn Saloon was short of neat-- and the beer was free)
Riomouse911
Member
Every region has their associated beer. I think some are good, Sam Adams in Boston, the now-shuttered Anchor Steam in San Francisco for example, others not so much. Lone Star is meh, but it is famous.
The Red Top Ranch was next to part of ours, as was the HEB family ranch. (We could see the silvery roof of the HEB ranch main house across the valley from the higher points of our place.) Those spreads had high fences and Red Top brought in lots of exotics that could wriggle through a fence to escape. Before our place was sold we had a free running herd of at least 30-40 Mouflon sheep and about eight or nine Blackbuck antelope running loose in our pastures. (My Grandfather let them be, we never hunted them.)
Stay safe.
Dang thats a nice deer!This was my evening hunt. About 40 yards out with my handloads and an ~80 year old rifle. So much more fun (IMHO) than shooting at a deer one can barely see.
35W
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