.308 Norma
Member
Yep. See my post (#24) in this thread. When I got my first deer rifle, I got a .308 Winchester (Model 100 Winchester semi-auto) because I'd been told by a few of my elders that a .30-30 (like the Model 94 Winchester I really wanted) wouldn't reliably "knock a deer down," but a .308 Winchester would.
The very next day after I got my rifle, I shot a doe mule deer right behind her front shoulder at about 40 yards. Much to my surprise, she jumped and ran UPHILL for about another 100 yards before stopping and standing there with her knees locked and her legs spread out.
I was too inexperienced to know I'd hit that deer hard with my first shot, and all I had to do was wait for her to collapse. So I kept shooting. I put 4 more bullets into a spot on her left ribs that I could have covered with one hand. While I was shoving a fresh magazine into my Model 100, the deer collapsed in her tracks - probably because she ran out of blood. There wasn't much left of the other side of her rib cage.
Many years later, I got myself a Model 94 .30-30, and I shot a doe mule deer in the ribs with it at about 40 yards - the same as first deer I ever shot. And she jumped and ran (downhill that time) for about 100 yards before collapsing. The difference was, I was experienced enough by that time to know I hit that deer hard with the first shot, so I didn't keep pumping bullets into her. All I did was mark the spot in my mind where she fell.
None of the above is meant to say that I've never seen a deer appear to be "knocked down" when struck by a bullet. I've seen that happen plenty of times with everything from a .243 Winchester to a .338 Winchester Magnum. But I learned a long, long time ago, when I was 15, that no hand-held firearm is going to actually "knock a deer down" no matter what older hunters claim.
BTW, I'm a 73 year-old hunter myself now. Therefore, I haven't believed in "knock down power" in 58 (73-15 = 58) years, but I sure enough did at one time.
