Thanks for that. I was thinking the same thing but since I did not travel extensively in that area I thought I may be missing something. From the size deer, I would lean toward a lighter fast quality bullet.
Sounds like a good avenue!
I think it's gonna depend on the load, I've used seen the .243 (first not only example) work fine with drt performance below 2200fps, and forget the 1500 ftlbs period, modern loads deal death effectively well below that threshold, I shan't shock folks into an early grave with the tales and pictures that show otherwise, but the .223 and .22-250 make for effective deer killers just fine, oddly a 40 gr vmax with 1500ftlbs makes a worse job than a 62 gr scirocco at 850 ftlbs.
I'd vote Savage too but worry most about fit and something he WANTS to shoot, wanting=more practice. My favorite guns aren't favored equally amongst my offspring, of the 3 shooting centerfire, each has a different of MY favorites in their mind when we all go out, good side though, no bickering over taking turns
That clears it up. He will be hunting in Hill Country but your friend shoots West of Lubbock. Completely different terrain. I didn't know the Panhandle area was West Texas. But that would be part of a long of things I don't know. But it is flat and lots of open country. So he doesn't need a long-range rifle for Hill country. A 7-08 or ,243 would fit the bill for me. Or any cartridge in that range. Like a 6.5 anything. I wouldn't bother with a long action like the .270 but that's up to you, or him I guess. I would be looking at a Tikka over some of those others but they are all good rifles. Just about any modern cartridge in just about any modern bolt action would be fine. It doesn't take a Magnum to kill Texas deer. Like any deer it takes shot placement.
barf, 7mm-08(little harder to find.) .308Win, .270Win, .30-06, 7 Rem Mag
I've shot quite a few WT deer with both 223 and the 22-250 doing permited pest control. I'm sad to say the only ones that made it in the back of the P/U truck where shot in the head.
No bad choices there, Ive been quite happy with all three options.
I'm not shocked, going smaller in caliber, one has to be pickier about loads, that said, I'd rather take a 50 gr mono-62 gr bonded-75 gr a lot of things out of a fast .22 centerfire over a fast .277 90 gr or .308 110 (fast being 3000+ mv), stipulated speed cuz I know of a few fellas with a .30 carbine that know how to put deer in the freezer (also well below mythical 2200/1500 ftlbs). If you wanna play with varmint loads on deer (even the dog sizes down south) it's risky. But somehow our adult upper plains deer (mules mostly, a couple whitetail) and pronghorn, have fallen repeatedly to such loads as I've listed that I say either wrong bullet or wrong shot, and we've put that 62 squarely through the front end at a measly 800ish ftlbs and have yet to track anything, which is good since I'm color blind.... actually, I've only ever tracked 1 deer after shooting him, was a bit far and the .30-30 acted like a hard cast, no follow-up shot needed, just took an extra minute to die. Funny how the deer killed with .300 Sav, .30-30, .30-40, and MULTIPLE handguns never read the statistics on how much it's SUPPOSED to take to kill them.... iirc a fellow uses a .44 special quite often, seen a few killed with a .327, and I've even heard rumors of folks killin deer with silly lil bows and arrows....I reckon they probably didn't use the average small game field points though, more than likely they stepped up to magnum bows with extra long steel shafts and 2" wide broadheads to make sure though
.... and all the bullet proof hogs that fall to all these ar type rounds (including a .223 (62ttsx seems popular)) must not read either....
I work for a state agency(almost 25 years) that takes me all over the state. In my opinion and experience, west Texas is ROUGHLY west of I-35. I can tell you in all certainty that the further west of I-35 one goes, the more down to earth the people become, especially in the rural areas.
Never hunted before? Well now...we shoot best with what kicks us least. Usual range for deer-sized game is 100-300 yds. 1,000 yds? Sure, but it takes much better $$ equipment/training/skills than general plain vanilla hunting to be more than lucky.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-35 runs through what I consider middle Texas and I have spent little time there. Too many people for one thing and the worst traffic jam I have even been in was one time on Christmas eve in Austin. Residents of the south plains and panhandle are very friendly and helpful. I may have already told the story of pulling into a McDonald's on eighty-second street in Lubbock to get breakfast after a very early doctor's appointment. My tire monitor system failed to tell me I had an almost flat tire and an employee ran out the door to tell me and I was immediately surrounded by three customers offering help when another vehicle stopped behind and the driver got out with a 12 volt air pump in hand to pump up my tire so I could get to the nearest tire shop only a block away. This attitude extends quite a way into southern NM.
I have also shot very large deer with a .223. Heart shots work great. You cannot use varmint bullets or FMJ on deer. You must use soft point expanding bullets that hold together, not fragmenting bullets.
I’ve heard the 1500 foot lbs of energy threshold used for elk and other large game, but most foot lbs of energy thresholds I’ve heard about on medium size game like deer is usually around 1,000 foot lbs of energy.
