Deer are the most popular game animal in North America. They live all over the continent in one species or another, from the deserts of Arizona to the rainforests of north west British Columbia. With such a wide variety of environments it can be difficult to pick a single cartridge. Today, we crunch the numbers to determine which cartridges are best to drop deer.
Criteria
The perfect deer cartridge needs to do several things well. First of all, it needs to be powerful enough to ethically kill deer. Next, it should have a good trajectory to extend effective ranges. Finally, it needs to do this without creating too much recoil that might cause a flinch. In my article on the Best Hunting Cartridge we cover how we can measure all of these attributes mathematically.
However, because we are specifically targeting deer, there is one additional requirement. Deer are fairly thin-skinned critters. As such, using a huge cartridge like the 375 H&H might kill a deer quickly, but such large cartridges are hard to shoot and cause excessive meat damage. To avoid this we need to make sure we are not overgunned.
Picking the Right Strength Cartridge
In order to pick the right strength cartridge, we will look at the Killing Power Scores of a variety of cartridges. A good guideline is a that a cartridge should have a KPS of at least 12.5 to be ethical for deer. On the other hand, as a rule of thumb a cartridge should have a KPS of at least 40 to be ideal for moose and elk sized game. We will use this as our maximum power for an ideal deer round.
Comparing Cartridges
Using the processes outlined in our Best Hunting Cartridge article we will compute the all around score for each of the fifty popular cartridges we evaluated. Next we will filter out the cartridges that have a KPS less than 12.5 or greater than 40. This will leave us with our ideal cartridges ranked on how easy they are to shoot and how powerful they are.
Results
Number 3: 6mm Creedmoor
Taking home the bronze medal is the lesser known of the Creedmoor cartridges. A relatively new cartridge, the 6mm Creedmoor was born in 2009 when Hornady necked down a 6.5 Creedmoor to 6mm. The 6mm Creedmoor is currently a very popular cartridge for PRS style competitions shooting due to its great ballistics and soft recoil.
The cartridge is ballistically very similar to the much older 243 Winchester. Where the 6mm edges the Winchester is in its efficiency. The Creedmoor has a sharper shoulder and a faster twist rate, letting it throw heavier bullets with slightly less recoil.
A very soft shooting cartridge, the 6mm Creedmoor only hits the shooter with around 10 ft-lbs of recoil energy. For comparison this is less than half of a stout load from a 30-06. Despite the mild recoil, the 6mm Creedmoor still carries 1000 ft-lbs of energy out past 500 yards, easily far enough for most ethical shots on deer. One notable detractor is while the cartridge itself is excellent, finding hunting ammo is more difficult than with some other cartridges.
Number 2: 7mm-08 Remington
Coming in in second place is an older cartridge. First imagined in 1958 as a wildcat, the 7mm-08 entered factory production in 1980. The 7mm-08 was created by necking down the 308 Winchester to take the more streamlined 0.284 caliber bullets. The most powerful of our top three deer cartridges, the 7mm-08 can throw a 150 gr bullet just shy of 2800 fps. Noteably, this is the only cartridge on our list that I would consider for hunting elk or smaller moose with careful bullet selection.
Conveniently, 7mm-08 does all this generating around 15 ft-lbs of recoil energy in a typical hunting rifle. Truly ahead of its time, the 7mm has manageable recoil, excellent power, and fantastic ballistics. Because the 7mm-08 fits in a short action, it is typically chambered in lighter weight rifles.
Number 1: 6.5 Creedmoor
No cartridge has been as polarizing as the 6.5 Creedmoor. Love it or hate it, there is no denying that the cartridge is phenomenal on deer. Introduced in 2007 as a target shooting cartridge, the 6.5 Creedmoor quickly crossed over into the hunting world. The cartridge’s sharp shoulder, fast twist rates let it throw heavy 0.264 caliber bullets with minimal recoil.
Most famous for its 143gr Hornady ELD-X loading, the Creedmoor will push these bullets at 2700 fps. This generates only 12.5 ft-lbs of recoil in most rifle set-ups, making the cartridge manageable for almost any shooter. Incredibly, despite being soft-shooting the Creedmoor carries 1000 ft-lbs of energy out past 700 yards. Evidently, this is well beyond what most hunters can ethically shoot. Therefore, the 6.5 Creedmoor will hit hard enough to drop deer at all practical ranges without being hard on the shoulder.
Closing Thoughts
In conclusion, there are many other cartridges out there that can and have harvested deer without issue. Also, many people select cartridges that allow them to hunt moose and elk with the same rifle if they feel so inclined. However, the 6 Creedmoor, 7mm-08 Remington, and the 6.5 Creedmoor are ideal for the largest array of deer hunts. A quality rifle in any of these cartridges is an excellent choice and will be sure to bring home the venison.