THE DEERSLAYERS

Before you even claim a bunk, you need to eyeball the hardware your buddies have brought. In the process, you’ll see that the guns at deer camp are changing. What was walnut and blued steel may now be Kevlar and carbon fiber. The 10 rifles featured here aren’t your father’s deer guns. They’re today’s new camp classics

- JOHN B. SNOW

Boiled down to the essentials, a proper deer camp requires only a few things: a source of fire for cooking and warmth; coffee in the morning and sipping liquor in the evening to enjoy around said fire; and a gun rack—the centerpiece of camp. ¶ A deer rifle is a magnificent thing—a tool perfected to work with the human form to fulfill a timeless purpose. Sitting at the crossroads of design, function, aesthetics, and tradition, it’s no wonder these implements are revered by hunters. ¶ Compared to the old classics, this collection of current-production rifles is diverse, reflecting a variety of shapes, colors, sizes, and most importantly, niche configurations that would have bewildered our forefathers. Purposebuilt rifles for applications like mountain hunting or long-range shooting look quite different than the deer guns of a generation ago. ¶ Still, if you grabbed any rifle shown here, worked the action, and brought it up to your shoulder, you’d recognize immediately why it deserves a place in today’s pantheon of modern classics.

NEW RELIABLES

Any bolt action that has stood the test of time, is pleasing to the eye, and functions exactly as it should can be a classic. If it has useful upgrades and remains relevant to today’s hunters, it’s a new classic. Like these two.

1. Tikka T3x Lite Roughtech

The T3 was unveiled in 2003, and it turned a lot of heads for its performance and value. With the arrival of the T3x action in 2016, the rifle also added a replaceable grip, a metal bolt shroud, and an enlarged loading port.