One of the most important decisions for you to make in your hunting career is what is the best deer hunting rifle you should purchase. The keys to achieving your deer hunting goals come in the form of the best firearm for you.  When you go to pick out a firearm, you want the one with the best style, action, sighting, size, and ballistics for  your hunting area and physical capabilities. Your final success is dependent on having a deer hunting rifle that matches all these criteria.

Where Will You Be Hunting?

The two main types of deer hunting environments are the deep woods/dense brush and open range country. Some areas contain a mixture of both environments. Every hunting environment has different styles of shooting and require rifles with different characteristics.

Deep Woods/Dense Brush Best Deer Hunting Rifles

The best deer hunting rifles to use  in the woods are rifles made for medium or short range shooting. The average distance you will be shooting in this environment  runs from twenty-five to two hundred yards. It is to your advantage that your deep woods deer hunting rifle be relatively light (less than nine pounds with the scope), and be relatively short in length with a barrel length of twenty two inches or shorter. It’s important to be able to move quickly and easily through densely wooded areas. The best deer hunting rifle is one that offers fast reload -  automatics or lever action would be best; you might have to do a quick follow shot when you’re deer hunting in rough terrain. I would recommend using heavy bullet cartridges, .270 caliber or greater, with at least a 120 grain bullet, in order to penetrate any brush that might be in the way of your intended target.   Calibers/cartridges that travel at over 2200 feet per second are not recommended to minimize bullet deflection by the brush. If your hunting terrain only allows shots to be taken within 50 yards or less of the intended target, you may want to consider using an open sight.  If not, I would recommend a scope with four power, or a variable scope that can get down to 3X. If you want to find out if open site shooting works for you, test it out at the range.

Open Range Deer Hunting Rifles

The best deer Hunting Rifles that work well in open areas are optimized for longer range shooting, up to three hundred yards (or farther!). Rifle portability is not as important as accuracy and velocity in long shot situations and the rifles will be heavier and with longer barrel lengths than deep woods rifles. The best calibers and cartridges for open range deer hunting, are flat shooting, and high velocity. Calibers in the 6MM (.243) range or higher will be satisfactory and bullets from 100 grain up will perform well. When shooting larger caliber rifles, heavier bullets are generally best for accurate shooting. Typically, you’ll need at least a 6×9 variable power scope in order to shoot accurately.

Find What You Want

When choosing a deer hunting rifle, follow the recommendations above as they best suit your hunting situation and consider your degree of comfort in using high caliber or magnum powered rifles. How willing are you to lug around ten to twelve pounds long rifle across your hunting terrain.

Visit a nearby hunting rifle dealer and test out various models, kinds, and sizes from different makers of deer hunting rifles to see what feels good. Whenever you can ask a successful hunters what type of rifle they use and why. See if friends will let you handle their rifles, so that you can get a feel for what kind of weapon you are comfortable hunting with.

If you want to know about what deer hunting rifle to use, and what deer hunting tips can help you, check out www.Deer-HuntingTips.com/DeerHuntingRifle.

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