Gents - for someone new getting into hunting, I need some opinions on the following:

1. Best round for whitetail deer and/or
2. Best entry level rifle - make and model

Heres the scenario - You have been shooting long guns your entire life. You're not an expert, but you can find your way around a long gun. You want to keep budget in mind - $500 or less for rifle. You want a caliber that is easy to find in stores and plentiful. You will be pairing the rifle with a run of the mill 3-9x40.

Thanks gents.

-DP

I am, by far, no expert.

But foot in the door firearm and round:

American Ruger 30-06.

Leopold 3x9 40 scope.

It is what I use.

Best point of cost/value/quality.

ymmv.

A .308 will fill your needs

Either of the 2 .30 loads mentioned earlier would work. I would like to add .270 Win. on to that. 130 gr offerings from Federal, Winchester, and Barnes are super fast and work great on any decent size game. Ruger and Savage are my favorites for bolt guns. I stay away from newer Remingtons due to some of the qualitybissues they, and I have had. If you can find an older one, saybpre '05, then you might have a gem on your hands.  Leopold is pretty much the most popular, or maybe a Trijicon scope for something different.

Realistically whatever they have at walmart will put meat in the freezer...

The deer isn't going to tell the difference between a .243, .270, .-06, .308, 30-30, etc.

If you can't find those on the shelf, something is awry.

Any of the low end remington, savage, etc guns on the rack is basically guaranteed to hit less than minute of deer with any number of loads off the shelf. The scopes they come with should work fine for <300yd deer hunting in half decent conditions.

Heck if you really wanted to maximize the amount of meat you could harvest on that $500 budget, you could get an inline muzzleloader combo for around or under $250, and with the remaining $250, stock enough powder/pellets, sabots and bullets to last you a VERY long time...

If new, I'd look for a TC (I think its the Venture model) or a Ruger American in anything from .243 to 30-06.

Used, grab a Marlin 30-30 (it'll likely have a scope on it good enough to hunt).

Shop around a bit. find a good used Remington, Winchester, Ruger, etc.

Caliber is like ice cream flavors, everyone has a favorite.  I like 30-06, but also have 30-30, 308, 6.8 they all kill deer.

As a new hunter don't go crazy spending cash on everything you think you need.   Use what you already have.

Important things are Boots, Coat, Pants.

Everything else is fluff.   Don't watch hunting shows and think you need all the extra stuff.  The only thing you NEED is to be in the woods.

Great advice above and I really can’t add much to it. Like was said, any of the name brand bolt guns that Wal Mart sells will probably do just fine. Lots are package guns with a scope already attached. As always, check zero and don’t expect it to be zero’d from the factory.

Anything in 270, 308 or 30/06 would do you just fine.

Good luck to you.

Ruger American
Savage Axis
TC Venture
Mossberg Patriot
Remington 700

Tons of rifles out there that can shoot around 1 MOA out of the box for under $500, many with lower end name brand scopes...Vortex crossfires seem popular for budget 3-9 power scopes around here.
Caliber?  I'd say .270 for your first rifle.  After that it's all about personal preference.

There is no Best Round for Whitetail.

There are several excellent choices.  My suggestions are 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm-08, 308, 270 and 3006.  Any of those are readily available, common and relatively inecpensive.

As for an inexpensive rifle, try a Ruger American.

What specific model and caliber depends on your geography.  Out west?  A longer barrelled rifle in 3006 or 270 makes sense, as it doubles for elk.  East of the Mississippi?  Typical new england woods?  A short carbine in 6.5 or 7mm08 is ideal....

Do you have any restrictions for caliber in MD? If MD is anything like WV you won’t get more than a 100-150 yard shot unless you deliberately try.

I’ve killed a slew of deer with a 30-30, many more than my dad and he hunts with “better” calibers.

308, available lots of places, allows for a short action, mil surp ammo available for relatively cheap, the only practical range limit is your skill, evil black rifle approved.

This but could also use a Nikon scope and any range of .243, .308, or .270 in addition to .30-06

TC compass in any caliber. They can be found with a vortex 3*9 scope for way less than 500. Buy the gun and 15 or 20 boxes of ammo and you should be good on ammo for like a decade.

Thuddy thuddy

Attached File

True they're a Fudd Favorite, but you can't knock their effectiveness at PA woods distances.

That said, I only take mine out for a stalk maybe once every other year or so. I stick to other rifles 99% of the time.

.270
30-06
.308
.243

All good rounds that you will find in ANY hunting store, Walmart, or almost anywhere ammo is sold

You can get into a Savage for really cheap and they shoot really well.  Throw a redfield revolution, or a Leupold Vx-2, Vortex viper, or something in that price range, and you will have a great setup for shooting deer.

There are plenty of other cartridges that will work (6.5CM being another really good choice) but will be more scarce on ammo selection. With the advent of the internet and shipping to almost anywhere, the argument of finding ammo anywhere is almost laughable.   Just because you find .270 ammo everywhere doesn't mean it will shoot well (MOA) out of your rifle, so just pack a box in two different bags and you won't have to go to dave's bait and tackle to find more if you forget or lose a bag.

UPDATE:

I recently picked up at Ruger American standard in 243 Win. I've read good things about 243 as a whitetail caliber. It was not my first choice, or even my second, but I found them on sale online for $279. With a $20 coupon I got it shipped for $269. I couldn't pass that up.

Now I just need to find a 3-9x to put on top.

I'll back up everyone recommending Ruger American. I have a Ruger American Go Wild edition 6.5CM which I'll be taking for elk and deer this year. I did a half ass zero on it and went out yesterday just to see how close it was and to really try for a group Attached File


Flier was my 5th shot and happened right when it really started to storm. So either me rushing it, or an inconsistent load from Hornady (Precision Hunter 143 gr) but I'm pretty damn impressed

And as far as scopes, I'm really impressed with the recent offerings from Burris. Fantastic warranty, great glass, and a decent price. Rifle I mentioned above is wearing a Fullfield E1 4.5-14x42 in Vortex Pro Series rings. All in all, I have less than 1k in it

https://www.burrisoptics.com/scopes/fullfield-e1-riflescopes-series/fullfield-e1-riflescope-4.5-14x42mm

ETA: Burris also cut a custom elevation turret for me based on the round

.243 is in that range where there are these light, super fast bullets that like to come apart upon impact....they also don't like bones.  I've been on more than a few VERY long tracks with 243 wounds.  One was a very solid, what should have been a double lung, hit on a 3.5 year old Wisconsin buck, we eventually found him with a dog.  The bullet fragmented almost immediately upon entering with a direct hit to a rib.  Nothing made it to the off side lung.  Made an absolute mess out of the on side lung though.  I don't remember the bullet weight, but this was a factory Hornady SST round.  Shot was broadside at about 70 yards.  Remington 700.

Guy is a good hunter and a good shot, I shoot with him often and he said the shot felt very good so we were comfortable tracking after a half hour considering he didn't see the deer fall.  300ish yards later we jumped the first time, no shot.  Another 300ish over a ridge we jumped him the second time, again no shot.  Quite confused at that point we convinced ourselves that he didn't hit the deer well and we backed out till morning(assumed single lung/liver/gut shot even though the trail didn't look like liver/gut at all).  Rained overnight, so we called a friend with a dog.  Deer circled back to it's first bed area and died in it's bed but was still warm in the arm pits.  So it lived a while after we backed out.

I've now been on/heard of probably 8-10 long tracks of deer shot with .243 in the last several years.  If they find them, it's usually that story bullet fragmented upon impact and doesn't penetrate far enough to put the deer down quickly.

Basically, moral of the story is, make sure you use the correct bullet with enough weight and construction to penetrate effectively.  Especially on close shots.