Deer Hunting, what is your minimum cartridge?

Some of the recent threads about using specific pistol cartridges for deer hunting got me thinking. Rather than pollute those threads I am going to start a new one. I suspect this will be contentious but lets keeps it friendly.

Assuming its legal in your hunting area what is the minimum cartridge you will/have hunted with? Be as specific as you can/like.

I have hunted most of my life in Ohio. I hunted white-tail deer for several years with a 410 slug gun. I have a Winchester 9410 and it's about the most fun shotgun I have ever owned. I didn't buy it to hunt deer with but it shot slugs so well I had to give it a try. I had good success with it when I was willing to hunt within its very limited range. I have taken two decent bucks with my Win 9410. The first with 2.5 inch Remington Sluggers (96gr foster slug at 1830fps) and the second one with a modified Brenneke Silver Slug (cut down to fit in the 2.5 inch chamber, 115gr hard cast Brenneke style slug going 2040fps) out of my Wincehster 9410.

I also took two nice Tennessee White-tail does with a S&W 610. Handloaded 200gr XTP going about 1250fps from a 6.5-inch barrel.

This coming season I will likely be hunting with suppressed 300 AAC Blackout Sub-sonic (proably with the new Hornady load if I can find some), though I still have some work to do to make that a reality and I am still waiting on Uncle Sam.

So what is the minimum cartridge/gun you have taken a deer with?

Thanks guys, I am glad I am not the only one that like the challenge of using minimal cartridge/firearms for deer hunting.

Rogue909 said:

My general rule for deer is 1000ftlbf.

That ends up excluding pistols, .22, and limits .223 to shorter ranges. Gives the .243 a range of 400-450 yds.

Some people use pistols, some use .22s, some use the 1997 Buick. To each their own. But if I was being asked to recommend a round it would be following the 1000ftlbf rule.

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I have read the 1000 ft-lb number on the internet many times but I have never found a good logical construct behind that number. Do you have a reference for where that number of 1000 ft-lbs comes from? It reads sort of like the old myth going around that you need to drink 8-glasses of water a day. I think its a fine number but its does not seem to have much solid scientific or historic support other than being repeated often. So far I have gone as low as 700 ft-lbs but if I end up using 300 BO sub-sonic it will be even lower (=< 500 ft-lbs).

FL-NC said:

My last 4 were taken with single shots with 223- 75 grain Hornady BTHP match. I recently got my permission slip from Uncle Sam, and have been experimenting with RAR ranch in 300 B-O. So far with Hornady Black subs, its doing 1" groups at 50 yards, and its "movie quiet" with my silencerco omega. I got lucky and found 2 boxes of the new sub-x at bass pro, but I haven't done any testing with them yet. I intend to test them for accuracy, and take down a possum or 2, possibly a coyote, to get an idea of the damage before I try it on deer.

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Waiting on the stamp for my AAC 7.62-SDN-6, it should be here before deer season. I will be running it on a Frankenstein 16-inch 300 BO AR I built two years ago. I am very interested in the new Hornady Sub-X 190gr sub-sonics. If those don't work for me I will probably try to look to hand-load the Lehigh Defense bullet. I am almost looking forward to silently popping the noisy squirrels from my deer stand as I am shooting a deer with it.



Next season rifle if everything comes together. Imagine the KAK Flash-Can removed and a AAC 51 tooth suppressor mount and SDN-6 mounted.