Boddington's Top Deer Cartridges and Rifles

 At our Timber Trails deer camp in southeast Kansas, our hunters arrive after lunch the day before the hunt. I’ll have a bench set up in the pasture, so the first order of business is to check rifles. I’m as serious a gun guy as a hunter, so I’m curious to see what our deer hunters bring.

Our hunters come from all over. I’m sure they expect flat country with big, open fields they might need to reach across. That’s not our Kansas. Instead, rolling ridges and thick oak forest. More like the Ozarks, which aren’t far away. Of two dozen deer stands, we have one that might possibly offer a 300-yard shot. The majority are solidly in .30-30 territory.

I’ve punched several Kansas tags with .30-30s, but no guest has ever brought one. Provided it wore optics, I’d grin from ear to ear. I assign the stands, so I’d know which ones to avoid. Similarly, I’ve taken several deer with my AR in 5.56mm, but no one has ever brought a .22 centerfire. If someone did, I’d be polite but I wouldn’t smile. So far, we’ve seen no 6mms as primary rifles, only as spares or for harvesting does. Only a handful of .25s. They don’t make me smile, either, but in cool hands they work, and have worked.

This doesn’t mean we advocate cannons, though. Good choices are situational in every deer camp. In ours, aside from short to medium shooting distances, there are other factors. Gant bucks are rare in our neighborhood, but we have big deer, and although we encourage taking does for meat, our hunters are primarily buck hunters. They want the best buck we can show them, and they want to do it right. I want them to do it right, too, because tracking is difficult in our thick woods, especially when deer are taken at last light.

Mostly, the rifles and cartridges we see are practical. Good, solid choices for large deer that might need to be taken through small windows in the trees. As its popularity continues to grow, we see a couple of 6.5 Creedmoors every season. I’m okay with the mild 6.5mms, but exercise caution. I’ve seen Creedmoor (and similar) drop big bucks in their tracks. It has also given us some tough tracking jobs, despite seemingly good shot placement.

I’m a bit of a traditionalist, and it’s my camp, so some hunters bring older cartridges. That’s the only way I can explain why we see more 7x57s than 7mm-08s, one or two of each, every season. Either way, that’s when I really smile. On paper, the 7mm-08, 7x57, and 6.5 Creedmoor should be similar; all three use a 140-grain bullet at about the same velocity. In effect on game, I see a significant difference, can only theorize the 7mm’s larger diameter strikes a heavier blow.

Every season, we see multiple .270s and .308s, and the occasional .30-06. Still smiling. The milder 7mms, .270 and .308 are near perfect for our conditions. The .30-06 gets the job done but is needlessly powerful. We also see an array of fast magnums, several each season. Sometimes they’re favorite go-to rifles, other times brought by hunters new to us, unable to believe Kansas has thick woods. These have been mostly 7mm Rem Mag, .300 WSM, and .300 Win Mag. A couple of 6.5 PRCs and a couple of .280 Ackley Improved rifles. Remember my comment on older cartridges? In 2024, when the .300 H&H celebrated its 100th anniversary, we had three .300 H&H rifles in camp. Fast magnums do the job just fine—no frowns from me—but they aren’t necessary.

Innumerable cartridges work for this task, so let’s briefly talk rifles. With crunchy oak leaf litter, we hunt from stands. While hunting at this short a range, we don’t need the extra velocity from long barrels. The shorter the rifle, the handier it is, both in box blinds and tree stands. For actions, bolt-guns dominate. We’ve seen a number of single-shots and a few semi-autos. Most lever-actions have been mine, and I don’t recall ever seeing slide-action in camp.

Big scopes aren’t essential. Brightness is more important; light comes late in our woods and leaves early, so the first and last half-hours of shooting light are critical. I’ve used red dots, which are fine, but iron sights pose a challenge. If hunters prefer to use them, also fine. I’ll be careful about stand assignments, and some opportunities will likely be lost. Tim Baugh brought his late father’s iron-sighted Mannlicher in 6.5x54. For this, he’d need to be close and patient. I had a tree stand in the woods that was red-hot. The wind stayed favorable, so I kept him there. He saw bucks that he couldn’t see well enough to shoot, but harvested a good buck on his fourth morning.

Ralph Livingston always brings unusual rifles. In 2023, he brought a gorgeous 1874 Sharps in .40-70… with a target aperture sight. I would not call this a practical choice, but you know how gun guys are. I put him in a Redneck blind where shots should be close. On the second morning when I came to get him he was standing over a wonderful buck, grinning like a Cheshire cat. I have no idea how he got that rifle and its 30-inch barrel out the window or gathered enough light through the tiny aperture.

Situations vary, and one solution doesn’t fit all. I’m sort of a provisional member of Dos Fuegos deer camp in the Texas Hill Country. Average shots there are farther. However, there’s lots of mesquite, so no opportunities for genuine long shots. The biggest difference though, is Hill Country whitetails are smaller-bodied than our Kansas deer, by at least a third. Friends Doug Mangham and John Stucker have hunted this ranch for decades. On a long shelf in the camp kitchen is a dizzying row of empty cases, representing every cartridge ever used there. I wish I’d thought of that!

The lineup is extra-long because the area also has hogs; cartridges used for deer are fewer. John usually uses his .280 Remington. Great cartridge; big gun on small deer. John admits he got it mostly because he wanted something different. Like so many Texas deer hunters, Doug has mostly been a .25-06 guy. Great choice for smaller deer in bigger country. Doug and John have sons and nephews, all who have preferred rifles. The .243 has probably accounted for more Dos Fuegos deer than everything else combined. There are also .270s in their families, and I love to carry my .257 Roberts there. Obviously, all of my Kansas favorites and the 6.5s would work fine. Use what you want (so long as it’s enough gun for the job), though there’s no need for magnums.

The third whitetail camp that I hunt frequently is my friend Zack Aultman’s Aultman Forest in south Georgia. A different deal. Back when there weren’t any deer, Zack’s father brought in some big Wisconsin whitetails. 50 years later, they’re big for southern whitetails, about the same size as my Kansas deer.

The biggest difference is the country, fairly flat pine plantation. Deer stands look down endless narrow cutlines in the pines. Or down equally endless food plots between stands of pines. Then there’s Power Line, a classic southern power line right-of-way that bisects the property and stretches for miles. It’s a place where you can shoot as far as your skill, confidence, and conscience allows.

I’ve often written that a magnum isn’t essential for any deer hunting. However, over the 20-plus years I’ve been fortunate to hunt Aultman Forest, I’ve always brought fast cartridges. .264 Win Mag, fast .30s. For the last few years, all three of the PRCs: First, a Springfield 6.5 PRC, then a Bergara .300 PRC, and last fall my new 7mm PRC from Flat Creek Precision. Excellent bucks with all three. Mr. Zack himself is kind of a rifle nut. He has ‘em all, and he’s hunted the family forest since before there were deer. Maybe not a bad idea to follow his lead. He’s liking all the PRCs, but we all have pets. Recently, he often throws a .270 Wby Mag in the truck, and he has a .30-06 Ackley Improved he’s fond of. You get the idea: hope for the best opportunity, prepare for the worst.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never needed to test my range limits there. Donna took an awesome 10-pointer on Power Line with her .270, always her go-to. I’d be happy with a .270 or .280, but I was buck-hunting, it’s not country where I’d carry a mild 6.5 or 7mm, nor a .308. The area has big bucks and you never know when or where one might step out. The potential to need reach is there. And, in second-growth clearcuts, tracking is far worse than my Kansas woods. Best be ready and anchor your buck if you can. So, there are lots of whitetail cartridges that make me smile. Just make sure your choice matches your country and the size of your deer.

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