Best straight wall caliber for deer?

[rp672]

Straight wall cartridges are now legal for deer hunting in IL. I've hunted with a 20 gauge shotgun all my life, but I'm considering picking up a rifle such as a 350 Legend. Anyone have experience hunting with straight wall calibers? Pros/cons vs. shotgun hunting? Thanks!

 

[SBR Sarge]

I’ll weigh in on this. I’ve killed more whitetail deer than I can recall with straights, and lots with a 12 ga slug gun.

I used a .375 Win chambered Winchester Big Bore Model 94 to great effect for years up in northern Michigan.

In Southern Michigan I have used the 350 Legend with stellar success for 5 or 6 years now. I have a GSL Technologies can that stays on my Legend full time. Before this was legal, I used a 12 ga with Rem copper solid slugs.

If you go 350 Legend, get the faster twist barrels in case you want to hurl some subsonics. Even if just for some fun plinking, subs are a hoot.

Bear Creek Ballistics loads some great 140gr Legend ammo.


Pros/Cons……… I think I get less meat damage with my Legend as compared to the 12 ga copper slugs I used to use, and the critters seem to die just as fast. In the end, just pick the gun that you like and shoot the best, get good ammo, and go with it.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I can only tell you that from my experience, it’s not .45-70 or .50-70. We have some cool old rifles I’ve used during center fire cartridge season. While they are fun to carry if you want to feel like an old timer, I think they kick too hard and have too high a trajectory to be anything more than a gimmick. With that said, they are probably both more in keeping with the spirit of muzzleloader/primitive weapons seasons than my modern muzzleloader.

A Winchester 1886 in .45-70. I killed a nice buck with it, but it shoots about a six inch group at 150 yards.

An 1863 Sharps converted to .50-70 Government after the Civil War (center one). This was a rifle I coveted as a kid and spent about two years worth of savings on when I was 10 or 11. But I shot it once and decided I hated the recoil, so my Dad bought it off me. I used it to kill a doe about 30 years ago.

It really bothers me that this is legal for muzzleloader/primitive weapons hunting in Virginia, but the other two aren’t.

If Virginia opened up a straight wall season, I’d immediately get a Tikka in .350 Legend with a 16” barrel.

 

[HandgunHTR]

I would say it depends on what platform you want to shoot them out of.

If you want to use a gas gun (AR) or a bolt gun, then the obvious choice is 350 Legend mainly due to availability of firearms and ammo. You will get better performance (IMHO) than the .450 and as far as I know the .450 is only available in gas guns and single shots.

If you plan to go with a single shot (break open or rolling block), then your choices go up quite a bit. I am a fan of the .357 Max if you plan to use a break open single shot (Contender/Encore/Scout). With that cartridge you will get performance on par with the 350L, but have the ability to use .38 Special or .357 Mag ammo for plinking, small game, or short range big game. Using a single shot also opens up more of the "vintage" cartridges that fall into the "straight wall" category, such as the 38-55, the 375 Win, and the 32-40.

Of course you always use the .300 BO. It does a great job on deer in both the super and sub-sonic offerings, provided you keep the shots in the window of acceptable bullet performance.