Every widthways

In the second of his new series on how to become a deerstalker, Charles Smith-Jones helps you figure out the alternatives when it comes to choosing the right rifle calibre for your needs

- Charles Smith-Jones

It is often said that if you want to start a good argument, ask a group of deerstalkers what the best calibre is. Internet chat room threads on the subject regularly seem to run on forever, and if you raise the question around a pub table the protagonists will probably still be going at closing time.

To add to the confusion, it is equally likely that all of the opposing sides will be right. The fact is, every experienced stalker will have a calibre that they have grown confident with over the years and have decided is the one to stick with.

This is, of course, no help to the newcomer who is looking at purchasing their own rifle, as they first must apply for a firearm certificate. Part of obtaining the certificate is specifying which calibre is wanted.

Let’s start with the law, which lays down minimum calibres and associated ballistics for shooting deer. There are slightly different rules for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. For the shooting of healthy deer under normal circumstances, the current minimum requirements are shown in the following table overleaf.

Despite the wording of the various pieces of legislation, they tend to boil down to much the same thing. Of the commercially available firearm calibres, the .243 Winchester with an appropriate weight of bullet is probably the most practical minimum choice for shooting all species of deer in the UK.