What Old/Odd Chamberings Have You Actually Used To Kill Big Game Animals ?

[ignorethefringes]

C'mon @BrentD bring the good stuff.

I have nothing of value to add lol.

 

[grizzly63]

7.5 x 55 Swiss Schmidt-Rubin Straight pull. Handloaded 180 SST over Imr 4350.

 

[BrentD]

C'mon @BrentD bring the good stuff.
A "common sense" proposal that will piss off both sides
I have nothing of value to add lol.

ajrcktts, thanks for the call out. I confess, I love to hunt with old guns or at least old cartridges, properly loaded even more than I like to prattle on about them endlessly.

I don't use too many really odd chamberings. .45-70s are simply hard to beat, though plenty old. Ditto .38-55s. If you have one of each, you don't NEED another rifle, but that has never stopped me.

There was an 18 bore muzzleloading double rifle that I used to kill deer after my Ontario moose hunting set up dried up, but that's not a "chambering" per se. A 25-20 SS that I have shot squirrels with, but that's not "big game" to anyone except me. When I used to be able to get tickets to hunt Wyoming, I used to use a .38-72 a good bunch. Shot a few mule deer and antelope with that. Never got a shot at a bull elk with it, when I took it elking.

I guess my favorite caliber was .45-100, which I used to take for elk, antelope, and Africa. But it is just plain overkill for most things. The gun is a Shiloh #3 Sporter Sharps - a Farmer, if that means anything to you - rebarreled. Killed my first elk with it, and first antelope too. Those were back in the days when I had hair - so a long time ago. The elk never got a decent photo. Been a long time since I've shot that particular rifle. I should fix that. If I could only draw a tag.

All of my big game rifles use paper patched bullets over blackpowder. Sorta defeats the purpose to use a .45-70 and then load it with copper and smokeless. If you want to shoot historic calibers for nostalgic reasons, load'em with black and plumbum, prefereably dressed in white dinner jackets.

These are all .45-100 (aka 45-2.6") hunts.

 

[Ben Lamb]

The TLDR of Brent's post is that he's pretty basic in the cartridge end, but fine as hell on the gun side

Also, I forgot a few deer with the 35 Whelen.

 

[Wildabeest]

I took my WY antelope last year with my son’s 65 Creedmoor. Not old, but many on here would consider it “odd”.

 

[mtmuley]

Killed some deer with a .303 British. Not an odd chambeting but killed a couple elk with a 12 gauge. mtmuley

 

[Ben Lamb]

I took my WY antelope last year with my son’s 65 Creedmoor. Not old, but many on here would consider it “odd”.

A 65 Creedmoor?

I'd say a 2.5" gun counts as an odd cartridge.

 

[Southern Elk]

I’ve killed several deer with a Marlin lever action .444 and a H&R Buffalo Classic single shot 45-70.

 

[Southern Elk]

I’ve killed several deer with a Marlin lever action .444 and a H&R Buffalo Classic single shot 45-70.

One of the 45-70 bucks. Public land in Mississippi.

 

[220yotekiller]

41 Rem Mag pistol on a mountain lion.

 

[3855WIN]

A while back, Mississippi went to single shot, old fashioned cartridges for primitive season. I ended up with an H&R Target Classic in .38-55 WIN. Shoots great and I’ve killed a lot of whitetails with it.

 

[BAKPAKR]

I’ve killed whitetail deer that were being run by hounds with 12 gauge buckshot. I feel like not too many people can say that anymore.

I have used 00 buck on deer twice. It is very effective.

I shot a small buck with the bolt action 32-20 my dad shot his first buck with. It was also within a couple hundred yards of where he shot his first buck, but about 50 years later. A couple years later, I shot a doe in the same spot with his Winchester 94 Trapper in 45 Long Colt.

 

[.270Rem]

A spike fell to my .375 Win and I filled a WV tag with the .350 Rem mag. Need to get one with the 38-55 sometime or one of my .41 mag Rugers.

 

[Caseknife]

Nothing too out of the ordinary, but killed a spike bull 20 some years ago with a Ruger Super Redhawk 44 Mag, 300 gr Hornady XTP at 1300 fps.

 

[MarvB]

Deer-
.300 Savage
30-06
30-30
6.5x55 Swede
.257 Roberts
.300 WMag
.50 Cal ML

Elk
30-06
.300 WMag
.350 Rem Mag

Antelope
.257 Roberts
30-06
6.5x55 Swede

Pig/Bear
30-06
30-30
.44 Mag (Pistol)

 

[shrapnel]

Sharps 1877 45-70
Winchester 1895 38-72
Bullard 40-65
Winchester deluxe 1886 45-70
Winchester 1876 45-60
Winchester 1894 32-40 takedown
Browning 1886 Montana Centennial 45-60

 

[kiwi hunter]

Took my first red deer with the old British 303
Next was a 257 Roberts
Then a huge amount of game with the 222
Lots of pigs with a sawn off shotgun to pistol size, they sure kick with solids, opened my hand up a few times
A 204 case opened to 6.5, even killed a wapiti cross with this one using 125 gr partition, and also a good number of tahr.
And in between a 32/20

 

[buffybr]

When I wrote my earlier post I forgot the time that I went pheasant hunting with my Son and one of his friends and I killed a little 2x2 muley buck with my 12 gauge shotgun and a 3 dram load of 1 1/8 ounces of #7 1/2 shot.

When we got to our pheasant hunting area I discovered that I had forgot to bring any shells. But I had been shooting a lot of Trap that year and I found a box of Handicap shells behind my seat. They work fine for pheasants.

As we were walking through some thick brush this little buck jumped up, ran a couple of steps and fell back down. We were a week into the general deer season, and apparantly this guy had been shot, breaking his back leg, and had gotten away.

So I switched my O/U shotgun to the top full choke barrel, slowly walked to about 10' from him and put aload of #7 1/2 shot in his forehead just above his eyes which instantly killed him.

I hadn't punched my deer tag yet that year, so I used it on him and ended my deer hunting that year on a pheasant hunt.

 

[EastTNHunter]

If they fit the criteria then I have killed most of my rifle deer with a 30-06 or 270, and an elk with a 30-06

 

[Durango Mike]

For many years, decades actually, I hunted with both the 35 Whelen and the 6.5 x 55 Swede. I took many deer with the Swede and with the 35 Whelen took deer, elk and large wild boar.

When I got got my 280AI in a Kimber Hunter that replaced both of them. I have since sold the Whelen, and all magnums but kept the Swede and plan on using it for deer season next fall.

It's history offers something of value.

A friend of mine now hunts with a single shot Ruger in 30-40 Krag.

I am always attracted to wildcats and off beat stuff, bought some terrific rifles at auctions that others turned their noses up at. My favorites are a 350 Griffin & Howe (375 H&H necked down) that came in a 30 Remington express and a Turkish walnut stock, dies and some original Fred Barnes hand made bullets. A 350 Ackley on a 30 Rem followed. A 416 Hoffman that took an african trip (losing my ammo for a day until the luggage came was an issue- only took rifles that could be fed local ammo after that). 280AI, 7mauser AI, 257 Roberts AI accounted for many deer and a few elk. A 505 Gibbs on a magnum Mauser action and a 458 Lott on a pre 64 model 70 made many trips to Africa. Many prarie dogs and coyotes have fallen to a 556 Ackley and a 6mm PPC. All the rifles in the safe have accounted for at least 1 game animal and most several.