by Dave Hurteau

VOTE FOR DIVISION II AND SEE THE RESULTS OF DIVISION 1 HERE

Basketball? What basketball? All I know is that March means the Sweet Sixteen of Deer Guns and Ammo. Two years ago, the .30-06 won the title of Whitetail Cartridge Champ. Last year, the venerable Marlin 336 won the title of Whitetail Brush Rifle Champ. This year, it’s the all-arounders. That is, whitetail rifles that are light enough for the mountain, quick enough for the woods, tough enough for the swamp, accurate enough for the prairie, and not too hard on the wallet.

It’s a tough category because there are so many good general-purpose rifles today. So as usual, to cover my butt and get in on the fun of complaining about the rankings, I let someone else choose them. This year, F&S Contributing Editor Lawrence Pyne picked our players, with instructions from me to go with: [1] the latest version of any still-produced model, [2] only widely available discontinued models, and [3] non-custom, affordable models (read under $2,000).

And so, with those caveats, below are his seeded selections (which I encourage you to take issue with).

by Dave Hurteau

About a month ago, we started with The Sweet Sixteen of Whitetail Brush Rifles—a March Madness-style tourney to decide the top deer gun in the thick woods. In four rounds of head-to-head matchups, you voted the great Savage 99 out in the Elite Eight and sent the North Woods staple Remington 7600 packing in the Final Four. So it came down to the top seeds: Winchester 94 vs. Marlin 336.

And now, with more than 800 votes cast in the final matchup, it is all over—and it wasn’t even that close. While I admit I was rooting for the 94, my sentimental choice, I’m not surprised the 336 came out on top. I am mildly shocked, however, that it trounced the venerable 94, which got only about 40 percent of the vote.

by Dave Hurteau

Well things are getting interesting now, aren’t they? Not to mention a little upsetting as one of the stars in my cabinet, the venerable 99, goes down in flames. (Oh well, I’ve got two more still in the running.) Meanwhile, who’d have guessed that a bolt—even one so popular as the Model Seven—would get this deep into the tourney? But it has, and we now have our final four matchups.

First is the aforementioned Seven vs. the most popular deer rifle ever made. I think we can at least pencil that one in. But second is a far more interesting matchup: the 336 vs. the 7600. A few years back, I traded a 760 in .35 Rem. for a 336 in .35 Rem.—and am still not sure who got the better gun in the deal. I know this: At the Adirondack camps I where I’ve hunted, there are more of the two-seed 7600 than the one-seed 336.

by Dave Hurteau

With nearly 800 votes cast, I have no choice but to call the winners for the first round of Division 1 matchups, and I have to tell you I’m sorely disappointed. This round should have been rife with upsets. What is this persistent fascination with the utterly outdated Model 94, a barrel-light pipsqueak chambered in cowboy-action rounds unsuited for deer by today’s standards? By the way, the Savage 99, always touted as a great brush gun, is in truth a thick-wristed, long-barreled slow-cycler that’s too clunky to the shoulder for thick-woods hunting, although I’ll admit those are mute points when you can’t find ammo for most of the chamberings. And I suppose you’ll go chalk with the 336 in Division II as well. Am I right? That overweight second cousin to the obsolete 94....

Okay enough of that. Check the date. Seriously, I own one of each. So the perfectly reasonable winners are the Winchester Model 94, Savage 99, Remington Model Seven (in upset fashion), and Marlin Model 308MXLR.

Now to Division II. Here are the rankings: