takem

isn't that the reason we hunt deer is for the meat?

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JagMagMan

Any caliber that would be suitable for deer will damage meat. The key is shot placement, if you want to minimize damage, the lung shot is your best bet.

James B

The caliber is not near as important as the bullet you use. As explained above, fragil bullets at high velocity will either fail and not penetrate or blow up a lot of meat. I like the middle bullet weights in the middle caliber and control meat damage with shot placement. If I am up close I will take a head or neck shot. If its important to drop the deer in its tracks, I like a high shoulder shot. I mean right at the top just over the main shoulder blade. This will miss the loin but damage the spine area enough to usually plant them right there. This will also disable the shoulder and generally tip them over right away. In a big magnum rifle I would use the heavier bullets. At least 180 grain if not 200 in the 30 calibers and something like the 160 grain in the sevens. They won't open quite as quick and do less meat damage as a rule. Back when I had magunietes I shot quite a few deer with the 300 Win Mag with 180 grain bullets. They do however NOT kill a deer any faster than my 260 or 257 Roberts. I don't like to waste any meat as the meat is top priority to me. I would never need anything bigger than the 257 Roberts or 25-06 and 260. In these I use 100 grain bullets in the 25's and 120 grain in the 260 and 280. I think the Nosler partition is the best bullet for sure kills and minimal meat damage. I would never need any Magnum rifle for deer unless I was in the positiopn where I had to shoot very lony distances. Even then on deer size game the 25-06 will do the same job.

8mm/06

This may help some folks


http://home.mn.rr.com/deerfever/Anatomy.html

bambikiller6

what size of hole are we looking for the size of you fist or your head?

Mountain Cur

In reply to takem, yes the meat is one of the main reasons I hunt. But I was merely talking about the fact that there is not much in the shoulder except hamburger or the occasional roast, and I always have hamburger running out my ears anyway, If there is gonna be some damage anyway I don't feel like I've lost much when I lose a little hamburger. Besides, as I stated above with the bullets that I use I gaurantee you a soft point or ballistic tip in any caliber shot behind the shoulder will do as much damage as I will, a lot of time from blood shot alone.

Clint.

Get yourself a big bore rifle that shoots solids, like a 45-70....and eat right up to the hole.

Clint

Tazman

As already mentioned, shot placement is key, I like corloks myself, little hole in, big hole out, putting it through the ribs waste very little meat and the shock blows there lungs to bits.

bobo21

It's all about the choice of lead and the shot placement. My .270 with 130 grain nosler ballistic tips has a huge exit wound avarage at about 3 to 4 inches opposed to my .30-06 with 180 grain Core Lockt Boat Tails at about 2.5. Also it depends on what you hit on the entrance. If you hit a good strong rib the exit will be bigger oopsed to maybe going between ribs on the entrance.

I had a little ole 100 grain from a .243 that hit a rib going in and the insides of the deer looked like a bloody massacre. The .243 destroyed everything tenderloins, back strap lungs heart, stomach, liver. Everything was a mess.

I think all bullets even if they are the same will perform different on every animal. There is no way to control the bullet fragments, only in a perfect utopia but this world is a far cry from it.

I use to have shot placements where the cross hair would be right behing the muscle on a front shoulder. I always ended up with a bruised shoulder on the opposite side. I decided to move my shots three inches behind the shoulder and now I have more meat to show for it. The only draw back is that I went from hitting the heart to now double lung. Mabe just a fluke that I'm know only getting lung shots and no heart as previous to lungs and heart. A lot of variables may have changed the outcome of my shots this year. I changed to the custom loaded Nosler Ballisics at three high instead of 0 at 100 yards. Which has caused higher placement shots on the deer at close ranges. Also most of my shots have been free arm opposed to having a rest. So a lot comes into play as to what the outcome of the shot will be.

I say if your gun is shooting paricularly well with a certain lead and load use it and change your shot placement to keep clear of the front shoulders.