OUTDOORS: WHAT'S THE BEST DEER RIFLE? MOST WILL SERVE

When it comes to deer rifles, the caliber of the cartridge probably isn't as critical as the caliber of the shooter.

With deer hunting by firearm bearing down on sportsmen, this is a time of considerable preparation -- and also one of endless debate over which is the ideal whitetail rifle. It makes for interesting conversation among sportsmen, but the question probably isn't as major a consideration as arguments seem to imply.

In truth, there is a wide variety of cartridges that will suffice handily on whitetails. Likewise, there are numerous types of rifles that will do the job efficiently.

In middle America, where whitetail hunting usually takes place in farm and woodlot country, the typical shot at a deer is taken from relatively short range from a tree stand-positioned hunter. The range is often no more than 50 yards and frequently far less.

Contrasted with open plains and hunting in the mountains of the American West, there is seldom the need for far-horizon shooting hereabouts. The prime exceptions are those opportunities that do arise around large harvested grain fields where occasional 300-yard shots are possible.

For the most part, however, the requirements of a rifle are moderate to short range, plus the power to ground a whitetail with an on-the-hoof weight of usually less than 250 pounds.

The clear leader among heartland deer hunters is the .30/06 cartridge. This omnipresent caliber is one that packs more than plenty of punch -- adequate for true big game such as elk or moose -- but isn't excessive for whitetails. Likewise, it has flat enough trajectory to make a long-range shooter if situations demand it, especially with the lighter 150- or 165-grain bullets.

Probably second in popularity in this geographic region is the time-tested .30/30 cartridge. This century-old round isn't the best possible choice based on ballistics, lacking both the pure whomp and the flat trajectory of the .30/06, but it is at least minimally adequate. Untold thousands of deceased deer, the toll of .30/30s from the late 1800s to the present, would attest to that.

The continued popularity of the .30/30 probably comes from the fact that it is a standard chambering for lever-action rifles that can be had notably more economically than the bolt action and semi-automatic rifles that commonly come in stouter calibers.

Comparing the numbers, a 170-grain bullet from a .30/30 moves along at about 2,200 feet per second at the muzzle. A 150-grain slug from a .30/06 is still moving faster than that past 200 yards. Given the limitation (based on small powder capacity), the .30/30 still is an effective whitetail round out to about 150 yards, maybe a mite farther, and the .30/06 is easily a 250-yard-plus rifle.

Other favorites nowadays range from the small-but-swift .243 Winchester to the stout, flat-shooting middleweight .270 Winchester, to the lightning bolt 7mm Remington Magnum.

All are flat enough in trajectory to handle deer at long range as well as up close. The 7mm magnum is a mite heavy on recoil and is a bit more than necessary on killing power, but nothing out of reason for the person who's comfortable shooting it.

There are dozens of other calibers chambered in a variety of rifles in assorted actions that will do the job. Underrated in all this is that the hunter who's operating the rifle be able to do it with efficiently.

Extra power and ultra-flat trajectory don't mean diddly if the hunter can't put his bullet into the vitals. A guy who is precise with bullet placement from a minimally powered rifle is far more likely to bring home the bacon -- venison, actually -- than a fellow who packs a super-duper, custom nuclear magnum but who couldn't hit the side of a tobacco barn with it.

Hitting a deer in the heart/lung area with 1,200 foot pounds of energy is far more advantageous to the hunter than hitting it in the left front foreleg or though the tip of the right ear with a bullet that bears 2,000 foot-pounds of energy.

A deer is not impressed with ballistic tables, nor is it affected by bullets packing tremendous energy and velocity if those bullets mrerely whistle around him.

What's vitally important is the first shot, one squeezed off with cool-handed control and practice-developed skill. Follow-up shots mean little, either, because if a shooter can't put the first bullet at an unalarmed deer in the right spot, there's precious little chance he'll hit with a second , third of fourth round after a whitetail has been spooked and sent into wild panicky flight. Most casual shooters couldn't hit anything much smaller than a school bus if it were in high-speed retreat. An adequate rifle fired with precision beats an exceptional rifle wielded incompetently any day.

Steve Vantreese is outdoors editor at The Paducah Sun.