[Id0ntlikeyou]

Hey yall I am starting my first hunting season here on Nov. 1. I live in South Texas, near San Antonio.

My buddy has conviced me to go hunting b/c I am already a firearms enthusiast and Ive always wanted to give hunting a shot.

Now for my question. I'm going to be hunting over in West Texas, Odessa area, which im told has small to decent sized White Tail Deer, but no superfreak mammoth deer or anything.

Anyway, my question is this. I have a few choices of Rifles to use:

1. A Colt AR-15 .223 (5.56mm if you prefer)
2. A M44 Mosin-Nagant 7.62x54r
3. A SKS 7.62x39
4. Or I can borrow my friends Remington 700 30-06

What do you think? And also what ammo should I buy? Im worried that the .223 wont be able to put the deer down without some soft tip ammo, and conversley that the mosin with blast the deer apart. Thanks for your input!

 

[BruceBruce1959]

Out of those 4 choices, #4 is your best choice if you can handle the .30-06
good luck to you.

 

[Gator]

Bruce is right I myself love to hunt with those black rifles which is a subject we really dont want to touch on for a while:boxing:If you want to see what I mean just go back and read some past posts.Although the 30-06 would be my first choice that M44 would do the job.I have an m44 its my least expensive gun but one of the most fun to shoot,its a tack driver out to 100yds I was so impressed with it I bought an M38 a 91/30 and a 91/30 I sporterized and none of them shoot half as good as the M44.I think I might have got lucky and bought a rare Mosin, an M44 that shoots good. Im gonna sneek this one in, if you do decide to use an AR style use an AR 10 for deer I prefer a .308 load I refer to it as a mini 06.

 

[Id0ntlikeyou]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I'll go ahead an ask my buddy to borrow his 30-06. I was going to go with the M44 by my other friend said that it would do too much damage to the deer. I love to shoot my m44 though. Best $85 I ever spent. lol. I love the AR-15 though mostly because I'm so used to the weapon with the Army using the M4 and M16. I knew it wasnt going to work with hunting though. Ive heard its even illegal to hunt deer with .223 in some places.

 

[LAHunter]

If you're hunting Hill Country deer, the .223 would be ok, provided you have good shot placement.

However, the 30-06 gives you a lot more room for error. I have one myself and love it.

 

[joel the signman]

30-06.by the way whats with the screen name? kinda rude dont ya think?

 

[Hunting Man]

30-06 gets my vote.

 

[Id0ntlikeyou]

30-06.by the way whats with the screen name? kinda rude dont ya think?

Yeah it is kinda mean. Its just been my Screen name forever. First used it back on my old Age of Empires II video game, and Ive just used it since.

 

[hoodlum38261]

I would borrow the 30.06 because in my opinon the AR-15 style rifles were designed for security not hunting.

 

[warrejt]

.30-06 gets my vote as well.....

 

[Id0ntlikeyou]

Wow. A completley unanimous vote. Didnt see that coming. Lol

 

[joel the signman]

well you know the old saying"great minds think alike":biggrin:

 

[timberghost]

Hey me too......30-06

 

[d2wing]

I vote for the '06, it's my favorite too, especially in a Remington 700. But the M44 isn't too far off the '06 if you can find good soft point ammo and you can hit with it. I shot my first deer with a .223 this year, but I'd still vote for the '06.

 

[Lithiumokc]

06 here. i have a remi 700, great gun and round. you can really reach out and touch something with it. but at $20 A BOX it gets kinda of hard to shoot like i want to shoot... as much as i can. but i just got a 300 winmag i guess i will never get away from at least 20 a box.

 

[Id0ntlikeyou]

Alright then let me change the stakes a little bit. My friends 30-06 is more than likely going to be being used by him when I need to go hunting so unfortunatley its probably not going to be used.

The SKS is going into the gunsmith and will be there for quite a while, Im not sure why exactly, its my fathers and hes having something done to it.

SO, the ones that are at the moment on hand are the AR-15 and the Mosin Nagant M44. Which of those two???

Or should I just take em both? Lol

 

[joel the signman]

whichever gun you are more confident with

 

[Hunting Man]

Hopefully, you are thinking about saving for a deer rifle for yourself. When that time comes, I'm sure you will find many opinions here on what you should purchase. For now, like Joel said use what is available making sure you go to a range and shoot it first.

 

[Id0ntlikeyou]

See thats why I was asking in the first place. Because I'm most confident with the AR-15. I was worried about the .223 not being able to do the job cleanly. I mean, Im a DARN good shot but I know that Im probably going to be jittery the first time i get a deer in the sights an I dont want to cause undue suffering to the animal, and I was sceptical of the .223's ability to put the animal down.

I've spoken to many fellow soldiers who were in OIF1 and they complained of needing to use 2-3 rounds to put down the bad guys. OF course they were using FMJ's, but humans are considerably less resiliant than deer.

On the other hand the M44 is a DARN arm cannon that I know would most likely drop the deer on the spot and probably mangle alot of the meat in the process, but its no where close to the AR in terms of accuracy, but its still decent at about 100 meters or so. 2-3 inch groups and such.

BUT the big thing is that I've only put about 100 rounds through my mosin and 1000's through the AR.

I know I'm kind of a broken record here, and I apologize. Im just pumped for my first hunting season and I want to make sure I do it right. I dont want to wound an animal and have it suffer for 2 or 3 days because I used too small a caliber to put it down.

 

[BruceBruce1959]

I dont want to wound an animal and have it suffer for 2 or 3 days because I used too small a caliber to put it down.

Well the .223 is the absolute Smallest Caliber to be using for Whitetail Deer,
So if you're really concerned about wounding a Deer causing it to suffer for 2 or 3 days (maybe longer)
than I sure wouldn't risk using the .223