What is the smallest caliber you've ever used on big game?

[Rick Teal]

6mm Remington.

 

[USMC-Mustang]

My first deer with a Western Field 222, 200 yrd shot in West Tx. I also shot an Aoudad last summer with a 22-250 right behind the ear.

 

[Surely]

doe

This year I finished off my hunting buddies whitetail doe with 9 grain pellet to the back of its head, traveling at about 900 fps it did the trick, the deer went limp instantly, fear the pelletgun!

 

[smokemaker]

I have shot all manner of critters with a very hotly loaded .38 (+P+ and a bit more), to include a smallish blacktail. Hornady 110 grain XTP and a heap of HS-7 (can't in good conscience print the load). Gun is a Dan Wesson 709 VH-6, and the load came from a few months of very careful testing. The brass still falls out of the gun without the ejecter rod being stroked, primers aren't flattened, and primer pockets are in good shape. I only used a special lot of brass with blue stained headstamps, so it doesn't blow up a J frame S&W by accident.
Go ahead and give me the face...
The deer, by the way, went about 35-40 yards and piled up. Found the bullet in the far ribcage, perfectly expanded.

 

[critter]

.223 with milsurp fmj ammo. I waited nearly TWO HOURS to get a PERFECT double shoulder shot on a 200 lb boar hog, FINALLY at about 50 yds. At the shot, he took off like he was not touched but fell dead after about 60 yds.

Would NOT do that again! Lotta luck involved!

 

[Smoke]

I....uhmmmm....have seen many white tails taken with a standard .22lr at various distances.

Smoke

 

[nygunguy]

.30-30 Winchester

I've taken three good sized deer and two little ones with the .30-30. Four of them went straight down. One of the little ones ran about 300 yards before piling in - I was amazed that it ran that far especially given the blood trail.

Years ago there was a guy in PA who took a black bear almost every year with a .222. If it were legal I'd love to try using my .22WMR because it's the most accurate rifle I currently own at inside 100 yards and HP ammo does a pretty fair job on the backside of a pumpkin. I guess my philosophy is that an accurate gun is better than a big gun any day if the operator does it right.

All of the rest of my gun deer were taken with a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun or my .50 caliber inline ML. I'm trying real hard to get one with my .44MAG. I bought the inline to extensd my season but have all but dropped the shotguns because of the meat damage/loss.

Personally, I'd rather take deer or any other big game with a bow. I've only bow hunted for deer and like that I don't blow big holes in them.

 

[Joe Demko]

.22lr drops whitetail where they stand when properly applied. The trick is that proper application is easiest using methods of which the PA Game Commission disapproves.

 

[BIGR]

30.06 I've carried the 7MM08 a few times but never got to try it out on big game.

 

[rust collector]

6mm Rem when it was the latest, greatest whiz-bang killing machine in the late 60s, early 70s. Seemed to put them down just fine, but the gun writers stopped touting the cartridge so I figured it must be obsolete.

Since then I've graduated to 6.5 x 55 and 7 x 57.

 

[mrvickery]

When I was a kid me and a friend used 22lr on deer when we hunted the long lease. Head shots mostly, out to about 50yds. Never lost any.