My brother has always been the hunter in the family. I am the target shooter but I have always kept at least one deer hunting rifle in the safe. Currently it is a Parker Hale small ring Mauser .243. I haven’t actually gone deer hunting since the beginning of the 21st century, but there is a guided service available half hour from where I live offering Sika and Fallow deer.

For a number of reasons I am going through my rifles rationalising each one and selling off tnose I can not justify keeping. It has come down to either my Parker Hale .243 or my Henry Big Bore .357 Magnum.

Personally I would prefer to keep the Henry, fit it with a scope base and sight it in for 100 meters (the longest range I have available to me and the longest realistic hunting distance in my area). But the question I have is will this take a deer humanly?

Or should I keep the Parker Hale “just in case”?

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View from down under