Quote Originally Posted by basil View Post
Actually, I killed my first deer with a .244 Remington with open sights. It was probably 35 yards. I've also killed deer with a .222, .270, and a .30-06, the latter of which is my personal gun. All of these had scopes on them. I grew up hunting in San Saba Co., which is not far from you. There is a lot of brush hunting and some people there swear by a .30-30 with open sights. There are also a lot of long-range conditions and my dad once made a shot, standing, no rest, that dropped his target at over 400 yards with the .270 mentioned above. It wasn't a fluke - he was consistently one of the better marksmen and shotgunners I've ever met.

The .30-06 was a gift from him and he justified it with the thinking that it is versatile - one of the only guns that can be used anywhere on this continent. That's probably pretty accurate. It's too heavy for central Texas whitetail unless it's a clean neck shot which is what I try for. A scope simplifies this at longer distances.
I would imagine a scope is very useful in Texas. There seems to be a lot of open terrain down there (at least that's what I get from the looks of the hunting shows made in Texas that I watch) so having a scope makes sense. Here in NC we usually hunt from a tree stand or on the ground in the middle of a wooded area where the deer is no more than 60 to 80 yards away. So an open sight Mosin could do the job.

What more can be said about the .30-06. It is one of the best calibers ever created. It helped save the world in WWII (with a little help from a rifle called Garand).