This is a hugely important question. The consequences of your choice is absolutely going to determine the success of your hunt.
When I was a boy, the 30-30 was it. Back then, people thought it could kill a deer. The naivete of people back the was stunning.
But shortly we learned that the 30-06 was the only real way to go. For years people mistakenly believed that the 30-06 was the go-to deer round.
Thankfully, Jack O'Conner came on the scene and it was settled once and for all*: The 270 Winchester was the ultimate deer round.
I remember the day I brought my Winchester Model 70 in .270 home from the pawn shop. I knew I had the only deer rifle I'd ever need. I was 16.
And so it was. The 270 remained the ultimate deer round.
Until my older brother came home with a 7MM Remington Magnum.
I was suddenly horribly undergunned for mule deer with my anemic 270.
I scraped and scraped money together and got my hands on a BAR in 7MM Remington Magnum.
Not only was it a 7MM, it was Semiautomatic, making it impossible for a buck to escape. I could pull the trigger 4 times in almost no time.
I remember the 308 going through a popularity boom, but I knew it was a fad and that the 308 would never be a good mule deer caliber, so I stayed pat. The 7MM remained king.
Until one day I read about the absolutely magical 7MM-08.
There was no way I could hunt with that old outdated 7MM Mag. Using such an inefficient caliber on deer was suddenly downright unethical according to all of the magazine articles.
Finally we had arrived at the perfect efficient deer caliber. The universe was in balance.
And it remained in balance.
That universal balance lasted about 2 years, when I learned about and researched the 6.5 Creedmoor.
We all know that Mule deer live in open country, and the 6.5 Creedmoor was designed and purpose built to shoot those super high BC 6.5 bullets that kill deer just by zinging by.
What could I do?
I immediately began growing out my hair and buying scrunchies for my man bun, sacked up, and started shooting my 6.5 Creedmoor while looking down on other people.
Good times.
I knew I'd finally settled on the Creedmoor for good.
And it was for good, until the 6.5 PRC came along.
3,200 fps from a short action? Are you kidding me?!?!?!?
Do you have any idea how cumbersome a long action rifle is? There's practically no way you can wield one of those things on a deer hunt.
The physics don't lie. The 6.5 PRC is THE perfect mule deer round.
Unless you consider the 28 Nosler.
Sorry, but the 6.5 PRC just can't compete with the case size of the mighty Nosler. Efficiency is a metric used by the weak.
That's the kind of power that is required to cleanly kill a Mule Deer!
So, the only right answer is the 280 Nosler.
* Some perfect calibers were omitted, due to space limitations.
* In truth, I've shot the 7MM Remington Magnum at deer for the last 45 years.
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