Which caliber Sendero for long range deer
- Thread starter Bullfrog
- Start date
Deer don't take too much bullet to kill them. The accuracy is probably more important. The only advantage of "magnum" rifles is a slightly flatter ballistic curve but that isn't too important to a shooter that knows the ballistics of his load and rifle.
Shooters are more likely to practise and shoot more with affordable ammo that doesn't produce disagreeable recoil. Flat shooting magnum rifles won't kill a lot of deer at long range unless the shooter can hit them and my experience has been that many shooters are hard pressed for accuracy at 200 yards, are severely challenged to hit at 300 yards and are out of their depth at 400 yards.
Out of the calibers listed, I'd choose the .300 Win Mag. I'd prefer a 30.06 or .308. Maybe a .270.
By the way, most folks have no idea of the distances they shoot at and tend to vastly overestimate.
Shooters are more likely to practise and shoot more with affordable ammo that doesn't produce disagreeable recoil. Flat shooting magnum rifles won't kill a lot of deer at long range unless the shooter can hit them and my experience has been that many shooters are hard pressed for accuracy at 200 yards, are severely challenged to hit at 300 yards and are out of their depth at 400 yards.
Out of the calibers listed, I'd choose the .300 Win Mag. I'd prefer a 30.06 or .308. Maybe a .270.
By the way, most folks have no idea of the distances they shoot at and tend to vastly overestimate.
BusGunner007
New member
I have a BDL in 7mm Rem.Mag.
It produces enjoyable recoil.
The cartridge would suit your needs.
In a Sendero, it would be equally enjoyable.
A friend of mine has a Sendero in .300 Ultra and is extremely happy with it.
I also have a 700 Police in .308, which would do fine for your scenario, and the 'PSS' ( 700 Police ) is also avalable in 7mm Rem.Mag.
That would give you a heavier rifle to absorb recoil, making the experience even more enjoyable!
Good Luck and Have Fun.
It produces enjoyable recoil.
The cartridge would suit your needs.
In a Sendero, it would be equally enjoyable.
A friend of mine has a Sendero in .300 Ultra and is extremely happy with it.
I also have a 700 Police in .308, which would do fine for your scenario, and the 'PSS' ( 700 Police ) is also avalable in 7mm Rem.Mag.
That would give you a heavier rifle to absorb recoil, making the experience even more enjoyable!
Good Luck and Have Fun.
Well, if I was looking for longer range rifles, I'd want to go with the .300 Magnum mainly because it's a popular round, easy to come by and a lot of good match loads already exist for it both in factory offerings or home loaded ammunition. However, my buck I got last year was lased at 668 yards with the Lecia 1200 range finder. All I used was a .308 Winchester out of my Remington 700VS and had no problems with dropping him with one round. The catch is a LOT of practice on the range during the off season, keep up a good dope book and then go back and practice some more. I'd say stay with calibers that are going to be more affordable to shoot, ones that you can shoot all day without discomfort and calibers that don't errode your barrel any more than you must.
Hmmm...
Since you have specified long range for Deer, have you thought about a .25-06? I'm not running down the other choices, but if you are sticking to deer sized game, I would choose .25-06 or .270 before one of the bigger .284 or .30 caliber magnums, because I'm a big sissy.
Then again, in Eastern Washington, I have used a 7mm Rem Mag for deer, but only because I used the same gun for Elk, so I would never tell anyone not to get a Magnum. Especially, since now that I look, I see the Sendera isn't available in anything smaller than 7mm Rem Mag.
greg
Since you have specified long range for Deer, have you thought about a .25-06? I'm not running down the other choices, but if you are sticking to deer sized game, I would choose .25-06 or .270 before one of the bigger .284 or .30 caliber magnums, because I'm a big sissy.
Then again, in Eastern Washington, I have used a 7mm Rem Mag for deer, but only because I used the same gun for Elk, so I would never tell anyone not to get a Magnum. Especially, since now that I look, I see the Sendera isn't available in anything smaller than 7mm Rem Mag.
greg
When the Sendero first came out in about 1995 or '96, I was doing my deer hunting on a place in N. TX that was about 4 sections (4 square miles), one of which was a winter wheat field. The rest of it was brushy, but a couple of years before a geologic survey had been done, and the place was criss-crossed with miles-long, 12-foot wide cuts made by a D-9 'dozer. Well before the rifle came out, we had been calling the cuts "Senderos," which is the Spanish word for "Long Path." This, by the way, is where I came up with my handle here on TFL.
It was not at all unusual to see a good deer 300 to 500 yards away, calmly standing there browsing. On one occasion, I took a nice buck in the plowed wheat field with a .257 Roberts and a 100 gr bullet, and had to stalk and belly crawl in the open field for a distance to manage a 300 yard shot on the buck. (He ran out of the field, but I did get him with a single shot.) I felt that I needed (Really WANTED, inother words) a long range rifle, and when Remington brought out the "Sendero," I knew that I must have it. A poor college student working nights as a calltaker for a help desk, I took a second job as a waiter at IHOP to earn the money to buy my Sendero. I sprung for the extra $100 to get it in stainless fluted. A friend sold me some old dies, which came with a coupla dozen of his old reloads.
The whole time that I was dreaming of buying this rifle, there was only one caliber for me: .300 Winchester Magnum. At the time, it was only offered in .25.06, .270, 7mm Magnum, and .300 Win Mag. My thinking was, if I was buying a rifle for its long range ability, why not get the one that would reach the furthest? Also, I figured I could make it serve double duty as an elk rifle. (I did in fact carry that heavy beast up and down the San Juan mountain range two elk seasons running.)
But now it's offered in the new calibers. I must confess that the Ultramag offerings give some exciting velocities. As I'm a reloader (My Sendero, with ~800 to 1000 rounds through it, has NEVER fired a round of factory through it), I suppose that I would probably go for .300 Ultramag loading these days.
Folks, the issue isn't so much what it takes to kill a deer-- we all know that a .300 Win Mag is overkill for deer of any variety. The issue is what it takes to flatten out your shot over a LONNNNG shot, and buck the wind. And, once it's gotten downrange, it is nice to still have enough power to give you a little margin for error.
After all that planning, and setting up my Sendero with a 180g boat tail SP at 3100 fps (Note: HOT!) that gives .75 M.O.A. groups all day long. . . I've not shot a deer at over 120 yards with it! Our host on the big ranch we used to hunt on lost rights to hunt there, and I never got to shoot a deer out there.
It was not at all unusual to see a good deer 300 to 500 yards away, calmly standing there browsing. On one occasion, I took a nice buck in the plowed wheat field with a .257 Roberts and a 100 gr bullet, and had to stalk and belly crawl in the open field for a distance to manage a 300 yard shot on the buck. (He ran out of the field, but I did get him with a single shot.) I felt that I needed (Really WANTED, inother words) a long range rifle, and when Remington brought out the "Sendero," I knew that I must have it. A poor college student working nights as a calltaker for a help desk, I took a second job as a waiter at IHOP to earn the money to buy my Sendero. I sprung for the extra $100 to get it in stainless fluted. A friend sold me some old dies, which came with a coupla dozen of his old reloads.
The whole time that I was dreaming of buying this rifle, there was only one caliber for me: .300 Winchester Magnum. At the time, it was only offered in .25.06, .270, 7mm Magnum, and .300 Win Mag. My thinking was, if I was buying a rifle for its long range ability, why not get the one that would reach the furthest? Also, I figured I could make it serve double duty as an elk rifle. (I did in fact carry that heavy beast up and down the San Juan mountain range two elk seasons running.)
But now it's offered in the new calibers. I must confess that the Ultramag offerings give some exciting velocities. As I'm a reloader (My Sendero, with ~800 to 1000 rounds through it, has NEVER fired a round of factory through it), I suppose that I would probably go for .300 Ultramag loading these days.
Folks, the issue isn't so much what it takes to kill a deer-- we all know that a .300 Win Mag is overkill for deer of any variety. The issue is what it takes to flatten out your shot over a LONNNNG shot, and buck the wind. And, once it's gotten downrange, it is nice to still have enough power to give you a little margin for error.
After all that planning, and setting up my Sendero with a 180g boat tail SP at 3100 fps (Note: HOT!) that gives .75 M.O.A. groups all day long. . . I've not shot a deer at over 120 yards with it!
Our host on the big ranch we used to hunt on lost rights to hunt there, and I never got to shoot a deer out there. riddleofsteel
New member
I bought my 25-06 Sendero back when they first came out. I was struggling with the decision of rebarreling my 700ADL in 30-06. I was all ready to take it to my gunsmith for a McGowen super match grade chrome moly barrel in 6.5-06 Improved. I was at a local gun store when a couple of guys were telling how they were getting 3/4 inch groups with Hornady factory ammo form thier box stock 25-06 Senderos. Recoil was said to be non existent in this 11 lb. rifle and scope combo. Needless to say I whipped out the plastic and took one home. I installed a Leupold 3.5 X 10 Vari X III 50mm scope and hit the range with several boxes of Hornady Custom factory ammo. After applying the proper torque to the bedding screws I was getting .5 MOA 10 round groups at up to 300+ yards. With carefull hand loading I developed a load that regulary produces .25 MOA with 119 grain Hornady SPBT Interlocks. At the bench and in the field it is like shooting a heavy .22 as far as recoil goes. My longest kill to date was a white tail buck that took a 119 grain pill in the lungs at 395 yards measured distance. He jumped when hit, ran about 35 yards and piled up. To date no game animal hit with this rifle has been lost at distances of 5 to 395 yards.
the key to long range shooting is, in fact, long range shooting practice. with that said, i'd opt for 308 win due to cost alone.
deer are not that hard to kill, but at times difficult to stop. at 300 yards your going to have a tougher time finding the exact spot the animal was standing when hit which causes a more difficult tracking job.
deer are not that hard to kill, but at times difficult to stop. at 300 yards your going to have a tougher time finding the exact spot the animal was standing when hit which causes a more difficult tracking job.
Patrick Graham
Moderator
Sendero is a very accurate rifle..but like the guy said.. you gotta put in a lot of rounds through it to be good.
A friend of mine whacked a PDog at 850 yards with his 25-06 Sendero and a 20x scope. Of course he'd been PDoggen with it for 3 years and put about 1500 rounds through it.
A friend of mine whacked a PDog at 850 yards with his 25-06 Sendero and a 20x scope. Of course he'd been PDoggen with it for 3 years and put about 1500 rounds through it.
Funny story-- I ran across a guy at an office building I used to work at in Dallas, who bought a Sendero in .270 (because "they shoot flatter'n any of the other calibers offered in it," he told me. He had an interesting diatribe about how the .270 was far more powerful than the .30-06...), and then proceded to pay to have iron sights put on it. You see, he didn't trust a scope.
Well, I suppose that the 26" barrel did give him a longer sight radius. Problem was, he got open sights, he said, with the rear sight mounted on the barrel. (lost him about 9" of sight radius, minumum.)
Well, I suppose that the 26" barrel did give him a longer sight radius.
Problem was, he got open sights, he said, with the rear sight mounted on the barrel. (lost him about 9" of sight radius, minumum.)FirstFreedom
Moderator
was gonna say, .25-06 would be plenty for most deer. Can you get those rems in .270 WSM - that's a round with very interesting ballistics (to me).
Well, since your already into reloading, I would opt for the 30/06, since you can get a little extra oomph out of it...then you might consider purchasing a chamber adapter, to convert it to 308.
You will loose some acuracy with this set up, but you can then shoot some cheap military ammo, then switch over to custom 06 for hunting, etc.
A broken shell extractor will allow you to pull the chamber adapter, I marked mine, so I can install it the same way each time.
You will loose some acuracy with this set up, but you can then shoot some cheap military ammo, then switch over to custom 06 for hunting, etc.
A broken shell extractor will allow you to pull the chamber adapter, I marked mine, so I can install it the same way each time.