What is your favorite cartridge for the white-tail woods?

[dcobra]

With hunting season right around the corner I wanted to ask the community what their favorite rifle cartridges are for the Indiana firearms deer season! I’ll go first and say my favorite rifle cartridge for Indiana white-tail deer is the 30-30. I love to carry my grandfather’s Marlin 336 lever action fout into the woods to harvest some food for my family!
I appreciate everyone’s feedback and look forward to hearing about what your favorite cartridges are.

 

[BigRed]

30-30
308
30-06


Hand loaded 44 mag



I do NOT miss slug guns at all.

 

[DadSmith]

6.5 Grendel in AR platform is my favorite hunting round at this time. I'll use it to fill my 1st permit, then I'm going to switch to 7.62x39mm AR I built for the 2nd permit.
3rd permit will be my Taurus Model 44mag.
That's this years plan anyway.

 

[Mgderf]

With hunting season right around the corner I wanted to ask the community what their favorite rifle cartridges are for the Indiana firearms deer season! I’ll go first and say my favorite rifle cartridge for Indiana white-tail deer is the 30-30. I love to carry my grandfather’s Marlin 336 lever action fout into the woods to harvest some food for my family!
I appreciate everyone’s feedback and look forward to hearing about what your favorite cartridges are.

I haven't found my "favorite" yet.
I seem to like most every one I've tried.
To date, I've taken Indiana whitetail with the following cartridges,
.357mag
.44mag and special
.454 Casull
.243
.30-30
.35Rem
.30-06
6.5 Creedmoor

This year I hope to add 6.5 Grendel and 10mm to that list, maybe more.
So many choices

 

[model1994]

my only experience taking deer is with 12ga, but often used .50cal muzzleloader for the extra weeks in the woods.

my wishlist after obsessively reading on this topic is:
30-30
.270
.444

just waiting for the right ones.

 

[Skullglide]

My Marlin Trapper in 45/70. Very effective and handy.

 

[Hookeye]

.35 rem in an old 760.
Low recoil, mild report, trim rifle of quick reload....dang near a magic wand in the deer woods.

 

[gregkl]

In Michigan woods where I used to hunt, I utilized a Marlin in .35 Rem. Worked well.

Good "brush buster".

 

[cg21]

With hunting season right around the corner I wanted to ask the community what their favorite rifle cartridges are for the Indiana firearms deer season! I’ll go first and say my favorite rifle cartridge for Indiana white-tail deer is the 30-30. I love to carry my grandfather’s Marlin 336 lever action fout into the woods to harvest some food for my family!
I appreciate everyone’s feedback and look forward to hearing about what your favorite cartridges are.

My caliber favorite so far has been…… 44 mag I suppose mainly because it is a lever gun and I really like them.
I think caliber matters far less in this equation when you get the privilege to carry your grandfathers gun out into the woods. Wish I had an heirloom like that.

In lieu of having something like that… this year I am trying to use traditional equipment to hunt as people did before me. Hoping it is as fun as I envision and as fun as it is researching and collecting. So I am using a .50 cal hawken this year.

 

[snapping turtle]

For years Indiana was a slug gun and handgun state. Thus we were a 100 yard state and we made semi custom slug guns for people. (Shoulder still hurts) Finally the rules opened up. Here are the rounds I have found worked well in the past and what I have used and use now. I had been know when young to carry a shotgun and a contender to hunt.

35 rem 14 inch pistol and 16 inch rifle and lever action rifle.
Hits far above what the ballistic tables would say. A 30/30 on steroids. If I have a couple hours to hunt I grab a contender in 35 rem. This is my stand gun.

44 mag in pistol and rifle. Works wonderful as long as the shots are not long distance. My only complaint is I need to move my normal heart shot placement to a bit higher cause I am not getting a huge blood trail and the running dead deer does go a bit before expiration. Higher shots seem to pump out more blood. Lower shots the blood seems to pool in chest cavity. If I am still hunting thick stuff I grab a marlin 44 mag.

7-30 waters (and I will lump in the 357 max). These are great rounds in 14 inch contender pistols. Hand-loading required. These work great since I do not have a longer contender barrel than pistol length these have not been used much since PCR rifles were legalized. I will grab one and throw it in the truck if I am cutting firewood. Great truck pistol.

7.62 x 39 yes I took a deer with the AK first legal year on private land and AK good enough. I did get a few weird looks in camp.

243 win (308 lumped in) if the weather nasty or windy (308) and I will be hunting from a small field shed (old hog barn) I grab the rem 700 in either caliber. I have one blind where the shots can be long and if I know I will be there I grab a 700.

Those I use or have used in the past and have deer harvested with all above.
First weekend of season I am normally on the stand and the contender 36 rem will most likely be the one. After opening day the marlin 44 mag with a scout scope and still hunting gets the nod.

 

[ISP 5353]

.308
45-70
30-30
.44Mag
Variety is the spice of life!

 

[edwea]

Another vote for 6.5 grendel. This time next year, mine will be suppressed!

 

[Hawkeye7br]

For woods only, I enjoy carrying a 300 Blackout in a Ruger compact rifle with 3-9x. 130 grain supersonic loads. Low recoil, looking forward to putting the can on and reducing noise a bit.

 

[spencer rifle]

.308 168 grain BTHP hand loads. All so far dead in 30 seconds.
Thinking about 10mm though. Maybe a Glock 20 or M&P, maybe with an MCK.

 

[Purdue1991]

6.5 Grendel in AR platform is my favorite hunting round at this time. I'll use it to fill my 1st permit, then I'm going to switch to 7.62x39mm AR I built for the 2nd permit.
3rd permit will be my Taurus Model 44mag.
That's this years plan anyway.

6.5 Grendel is a dream cartridge for deer hunting.

1). Allows you to use a very light and modular AR15 platform
2). Has very little recoil so accuracy is higher when shooting free hand.
3). Is accurate out to 400-500 yards. I don't hunt any further than about 300 yards, so it's perfect for that.
4). If you hand load, you have a large variety of 6.5 bullets and load data.

I've shot at least 4 deer with the Grendel using Sierra GameKing 120gn SP bullets. One was past 200 yards and dropped where it stood. One was 100 yards and dropped where it stood. Two were within 50 yards and neither ran further than 20 yards. I'm not sure you could ask for a better whitetail cartridge.

 

[jerrob]

My only rifle cartridge successfully used was a 45-70 in a Contender, a few with 44mag in a Ruger Blackhawk, the rest have all came with 12 gauge, Federal 2-3/4" rifled slugs.
Now a resident of Tennessee, If I could choose just one, it'd be my long time dream gun, a 30-30 in a Marlin 336.

 

[ACC]

My deer rifle is a suppressed 300 BLK shooting supersonic Winchester XP Deer Season. I am comfortable taking shots up to 150 yards with this but most of my kills have been within 50 yards.

 

[nonobaddog]

I like my 30-30 Winchester '94 just like my Dad carried. But Minnesota is weird, you can use rifles in part of the state and shotguns only in other parts of the state depending on how wooded the area is.

 

[Hookeye]

In Michigan woods where I used to hunt, I utilized a Marlin in .35 Rem. Worked well.

Good "brush buster".

Dunno if it is or not, never subscribed to the idea of hitting things between me and my target.
Have a .30-06 thats never been blooded......I always grab the .35 rem for around here LOL

 

[Michigan Slim]

Shot a lot with my .50 TC Renegade prior to rifles being allowed.
My Michigan rifle, a Ruger M77 Mk II in .270 is usually my go-to rifle.
I shot my best buck with my dad's 1894 .30-30.
I've got a Marlin in .45-70 that needs blooded yet.
Bought a Ruger No. 1 in .243 that should be a killer.
Which is my favorite? The .30-30. It was my Pas rifle.