Top five guns for deer hunting.

[Music] [Music] I'm right on the range today so please bear with gunfire here in the background here in the United States deer hunting season is coming up pretty soon so a lot of people have contacted me asking me to do a presentation on my recommendations for best calibers to hunt deer well we can't really do that for a few reasons one of those is deer are hunted in a lot of different environments with a lot of different methods and in a lot of different jurisdictions where the rules will vary sometimes greatly on what types of firearms and ammunition you're allowed to use so a generic list of recommendations might not be all that useful to a lot of people there's also the problem that any time I've ever seen a top ten list of best calibers to hunt deer it brings out of the woodwork a lot of people that feel really slighted that their particular favorite obscure caliber like 257 Roberts or 7.65 Argentine Mauser didn't make the list by the way both of those can be good rounds to a deer with but there's people that get downright hostile over the fact that 25 35 or 9.3 by 7 4 are didn't make somebody's top 10 list but I'll tell you what I can do I can show you not necessarily my top calibers but what are my favorite guns for hunting deer and keep in mind these are in no way recommendations these are just the guns that work best for me now to start with I want to show you some of the conditions under which I'm typically going to be hunting deer what you're seeing right now is very typical of the environments in which I will hunt deer fairly affect underbrush a lot of trees in an environment like this I will typically take shots that are 30 or 40 yards and about 60 yards would be the farthest I would ever expect to shoot this environment is also very typical of where I would hunt deer you see the trees are a lot farther apart and vegetation is a lot shorter so shots of 150 yards or even 200 yards are possible in an environment like the heavy brush I showed you quite often the shot I take is going to need to be fast and my go-to gun for that is this Marlin model 1894 in caliber 44 Magnum it's got a 20-inch barrel and a ten plus one capacity and open sights in that kind of environment I can acquire a target and fire especially a moving target much better with open sights than I can with a scope and in those types of shots it's typically a five-point process I'll see or hear some movement key in on it confirm that it's a deer confirm that the shot is legal and safe to take aim and then fire and that process quite often needs to be done fast now behind me at some distance 25 30 35 yards I don't know how far are some number of soda jugs I don't know how many I don't know this because the camera crew set them up while I wasn't looking but I do know their various colors and then among them is one red one so when I get a signal from the camera crew I'm going to turn and hopefully shoot the red one so let's see how this goes okay ready alright not bad now let's try that again so now we've got another red soda jug set up I still don't know where and let's try that drill again not bad and like I say sometimes that shot needs to be fast a delay of even a couple of seconds can mean not being able to take the shot however not being able to fire the shot is always preferable to shooting something it didn't want to shoot now this 44 Magnum at close ranges can be very effective for deer but it is a short-range cartridge and that we all know people who claim to have made 400-yard shots with their pea shooter or whatever but for me I feel really good out to about a hundred maybe a hundred and twenty five yards with this rifle so what about the more open environments where I might take a shot that's a hundred or even 200 yards well let me show you my go-to rifle for that now this is my main go-to hunting rifle it's a marlin model for 44 s in calibre for 44 Marlin and there's some peculiarities specific to this rifle first when you buy for 44 Marlin ammunition it's typically a 240 grain bullet that'll come out of a rifle like this at about 2,200 feet per second for deer hunting I use my hand loads which are a 240 grain hollow-point but I'm getting about 2,400 ft/s so it gives me just a little more range you'll also notice this rifle has a scope on it well anybody that knows me knows that I do not like scopes on hunting rifles they don't help me shoot any better the reason this rifle has a scope is because the previous owner took off the open sights and put a scope on so I left it that way you'll also see this as a sling that's a big plus on hunting rifles and some of you may recognize that this looks like an m60 machine gun sling no it is now the real benefit I get out of the 440 for Marlin is that it can be devastatingly effective on deer we've already done a presentation where I shot the meet target with this rifle so I'm not gonna repeat that here today but the thing is when you're hunting on small plots of private land you need to get that deer disabled down on the ground before he can run over onto the next guy's private land that always turns into a hassle and the deer I shoot with this rifle very typically fall over right in their tracks but that comes with a downside when you're propelling a bullet of this weight at this velocity out of a rifle in this design there's a lot of recoil let me show you what I mean that's a lot of recoil and it's right about now that I'm really happy this jacket has a padded shoulder so a lot of recoil yes but also a lot of effect just for fun let me go back ways and shoot some of these soda jugs on those few occasions when they expect a genuinely long shot this is my go-to rifle it's a Ruger m77 in caliber 338 Winchester Magnum and it's got a couple of features like this nice thumbhole stock which is very comfortable for target shooting but for rapid target acquisition it's a little tough to get the safety off and then get my thumb through that hole it's got an adjustable three to nine power scope and this really cool muzzle break and the reason I have features like this on this rifle is really because that's the way it came when I bought it so let's shoot this at 300 yards and see how I do now when hunting deer I probably won't have access to a nice shooting bench but under the right conditions I will be able to make a prone shot so that's how I'm gonna shoot at this 300 yard target and there's our results now you know I normally like to show the impacts as they occur but today we had a problem in that when we set the camera went back to 300 the camera quit working but here's our results from 300 yards you can see a little bit of the group opening up from left to right that has partially to do with me and partially because it's kind of a breezy day today and that's blowing these bullets a little bit off-center but we can see for elevation I'm pretty good and with this rifle as long as I can get some kind of like prone or kneeling position I feel really good shooting deer out to about 350 yards now is where I want to make honorable mention two shotguns in general and the one I haves this Mossberg model 500 it's 12-gauge with the 3-inch chamber and its capacity when loaded with 3-inch shells is six plus one now that brings up the question about magazine restrictions while hunting with a shotgun well rules will change from state to state but in the state that I live in we have a rule that says when you're hunting with a shotgun it can only hold three rounds however that only applies to hunting game birds if you're hunting none game birds like rock doves you know those pigeons that live under the overpass or in your barn and they're constantly carpet-bombing here with their little pigeon bombs for things like that your shotgun can hold as many rounds as you want and because it only applies to gain Birds when you're hunting deer with a shotgun there is no magazine restriction now that brings up the question of what about an autoloader okay again in the state that I live in there is no magazine restriction when it comes to your rifle and deer hunting as long as it's a non auto loader you saw the 44 Magnum rifle I showed you earlier has a capacity of ten plus one for Auto loading rifles you're limited to a magazine capacity of five but that only applies to while you're hunting game animals like deer or elk or bear if you're hunting non game animals like Jackrabbits or coyotes you can put your thirty shot magazine in your AR and off you go and because it only applies to auto loading rifles again while hunting deer with an Auto loading shotgun there is no restriction on your magazine so all that having been said when hunting deer with a shotgun it can really limit your range and sometimes that's the point and sometimes it's a really good idea but you can extend that range by using slugs now I've got this shotgun loaded with Remington 12-gauge two and three-quarter inch one ounce rifled slugs and I'll go back 50 yards and I'll shoot our deer target here let's see what kind of group I can hold well this one shots pretty low but that's still touching what they consider the vital ring that would probably be a deadly hit the other four certainly so and remember that's offhand at 50 yards with a smoothbore gun with no sight just a bead if you had the aftermarket barrel that's rifled and has sights on it you could hold groups like this at well over a hundred yards now when I'm using shotgun for deer hunting it's usually because I'm on an agricultural hunt and the agricultural hunt I typically go on and that I'll be going on this fall because it's close to town it prohibits the use of centerfire rifles so you're allowed to use a shotgun or archery equipment or handgun or muzzleloading firearms now this is my Pedras ollie kodiak rifle in 72 caliber and in the state I live in when you go on an official black-powder hunt there's various rules that apply as far as what kind of guns you can use and one of those rules is it can only have one shot so I don't get to use my double barreled rifle and yes this is a rifle but for the agricultural hunt it's okay now let me give you the abbreviated version of loading this I've already put the powder in so next I'll use a spit lubed patch and the one thing I do want to say about when you're loading a double barreled rifle when it comes to putting the powder in you've got to remember which barrel you put the powder in now next I'll use my high-tech ball starter and get our patch for our other barrel yes these patches do taste bad but I've developed a taste for see how it bounces that's what tells you it's completely seated and then you'll apply to percussion caps now there's a school of thought that you shouldn't put the cap on until you see the game I don't really agree with that you've got to put the cap on before you actually see the deer however don't put the cap on until you're in a place where it's okay if the gun goes off because when you let these hammers down and you have to seat those caps there's a slight chance that the gun will go off then put it on half [ __ ] for safety now that's the short version of loading guns like this we do have a very long presentation on black-powder guns and you watch that for more detail but for right now let's just shoot the thing right now I've got this rifle loaded with my hunting load which is a seven one five diameter round ball that weighs about 525 grains backed up by a hundred and ten grains A to F black powder so by muzzleloading rifle standards it's pretty powerful one of the tricks of a double barreled rifle is the very time consuming tedious process of regulating these barrels so that both hit in the same place off one set of sites rather than going through that process the people at pedra sauly gave us two rear sights one sighted in for the right barrel one is sited in to the left barrel and a big challenge in shooting these is remembering which site goes with with barrel so let's give it a try yeah by black-powder standards pretty powerful this gun is also quite accurate I have won several black-powder rendezvous shooting competitions with this gun but rather than demonstrate the accuracy I thought demonstrating the power would be more fun well we've got the shot holes pasted up in our 300 yard target and I want to show you one more gun this is the magnum research pfr revolver it's a single action revolver with a five shot cylinder and a ten and a half inch barrel this one's chambered in caliber 444 Marlin I got it in this caliber to match the rifle now when you open the loading gate on this revolver at three wheels two cylinder but unlike a lot of single axles this cylinder freewheels in both directions and that can make it a lot easier to reload so I load in my 440 for ammunition now these revolvers also come in calibers like 45 74 50 Marlin 3030 and the list goes on and the thing about this revolver is despite its comic book ish appearance once I get it in the holster it's actually not as obtrusive as it would seem it's really pretty easy to carry around and when I'm in camp carrying my revolver and a few extra rounds on my belt in case a deer happens to wander by camp which does happen occasionally I've got a gun with me the other thing this does is on the agricultural hunt where centerfire rifles are prohibited this is not prohibited that's the rules so I'll go back 50 yards shoot our target let's see what kind of group I can hold and here's our fifty-yard group I've got one that's a little off but that's a flyer that's just me but altogether not a bad group I think the farthest distance at which I've actually killed that deer with this revolver was right at 120 yards now I was shooting from the kneeling when I shot this target and that's my preferred shooting position for this gun even though it is a very high quality single action revolver it has a surprisingly long trigger pull but once I was able to get accustomed to it fairly good groups are not too hard to get so let's recap and remember these are just my favorites they're in no way recommendations so in thick brush the marlin model 1894 s and caliber 44 Magnum when I need a longer end or a more powerful shot the Marlin model for 4 4s in caliber 444 Marland when I need a really long shot the Ruger M 77 in caliber 330 a twin mag now some people take exception to me hunting deer with a rifle like this and they'll get bent out of shape and asked why would you hunt deer with a 338 wind mag well the answer is pretty simple because that's the rifle that I own would you believe that that is the only bolt-action rifle that I own and the only reason I have that one is because the previous owner decided to upgrade to an autoloading 330 a twin mag so sold me that one for a really good price but to get back on task there's also the muzzleloading double-barreled pedras ollie kodiak rifle in 72 caliber honorable mention to the shotgun and rounding out the top 5 the magnum research VFR now this revolver has a very long trigger pull for a single action revolver and it's got so much recoil that it sometimes knocks the sights out of alignment but other than that I cannot say enough good things about this revolver its well-designed its rugged it's well put together it's accurate I can't say enough good things about this revolt so there's my top 5 list if yours is different and I presume it is I'd love to hear about it and as always don't try this at home on what you call a professional and thanks for watching the top 5 guns for deer hunting video [Music]

Channel: Paul Harrell

Views: 1,129,457

Rating: 4.8677688 out of 5

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Id: 5rFe8FTEU_E

Length: 18min 31sec (1111 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2017