Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Nilgai, How much gun is enough?

I'm with Roger and mudhen and JB on this. The one nilgai cow I've killed was double-lunged with a 140 gr AB out of a 270 WSM. She ran 120 yards and fell down and couldn't get up again. I had to give her a finishing shot, but if I'd just let her lie there for another 10 minutes I expect she'd have been dead. Her lungs were totally shredded.

Nilgai is not some magical mystery species that requires uber-powerful rifles. They fall to good shot placement with decent bullets from ant reasonable "elk caliber".

One day i would like to hunt these.
The rifle i will use is one i made up for elk hunting,the 3 5 Whelen,shooting the first Barnes x-bullet 200 grains at 2800 fps.

It should do the trick out to 300 yards if i do my job right.
The back up will be my 7x57 with a 160 grain round nose to the same yardage.
I have shot both a lot so i feel good about my limits.
it should be fun.

I would respectfully point out that you have your facts completely backward on this point. Scientific collecting, or culling, usually has to be completed in a short time, often in only day or two. This means that many animals must be killed cleanly and necropsied in a short time. That's why most of the culling that I saw in Namibia was done with either AR-15s or bolt rifles with ten-shot magazines chambered in .308 Winchester.

On the King Ranch, we usually had parts of two days to collect anywhere from a dozen to as many as 20 nilgai, while being selective about sampling different age groups in both sexes. Whitetail culling operations are usually even more hectic. One that I remember in south Texas involved taking and posting over 300 animals in five days.

It took me a lot of the same exact as above to kill one, 13 rounds I think, but he had been hit and wounded prior to me taking him on...

They are not small, so think about that. But I routinely kill 200 -300 pound pigs with subsonic 22 to the head.

Since its not a leisure hunt usually, I'd think more along the lines of elk rounds. Whatever floats your boat. THey have a tougher hide by far than elk, so a top line bullet IMHO.

I'd not hesitate with a 243, but have to pick my shots.

Flip side is I know some folks that swear the big guns are flat hammers on them. 458 and 460s.

I did shoot one once per the guide, pelvic joint with a 300 mag, 180 partition( that I only recently found out was not nearly as toughly built as the 200 partitions) and it did not make it past the end of the girdle. ANd the lung shot following, seemed to mostly start running out of steam as it exited...

I still say to this day, pick your shot, and if you'd be comfortable shooting a 500 pound whatever with your round, would be more than good enough for me.

I"ve seen a couple flop wiht 308s in the neck...

rost495, no arguement, here with anything you posted. Big guns and tough Bullets give more margin of error in my experience

Though I've never hunter them, I've talked to many people who have and, like many have said, usually a big gun is recommended. I once ran into a gunsmith at a local range who was test firing .338 Utra Mags he had built for nilgai-hunting customers. And I've heard of guides who won't allow anything less than a 300 mag.

I suspect if shots were taken thru the shoulder instead of behind it, the gun recommendations wouldn't be so large. However, remember that the people making these recommendations have seen more nilgai shot than most people have seen nilgai.
My advice would be to trust those who have BTDT.

Thanks for that correction. I've been on the King and neighboring ranches, never was involved with a culling operation.

I appreciate the experience of posters; dead critters are good evidence something is working right.

My info and opinions are based on ideas and advice from guides. One guide's favorite Nilgai guns are .340 Wby and .375 H&H. So, I went with the flow. My hunting bud took his .338 Win Mag. Those do work...

DF

Well, since I live here and have shot a bunch, I guess I can weigh in. I have killed big bulls with a 7x57 using 160 A-frames and 140 Trophy Bonded bullets from a .280. We generally recommend a 30-06 and ALWAYS recommend premium bullets like Partitions, A-frames, or Trophy Bonded no matter what cartridge.

A friend of mine lives in Brooks county. I killed two Nilgai on his land back in the early 90's with 130 grain Corelokts out of a .270. Both were male. I was satisfied with the cartridge performance. Back then I didn't have the world wild web to tell me what I did was bad juju.

Exactly. I've shot kudu, Zebra and Eland with the 270 Winchester and 140gr TBBCs.

Anyone who tells you that they are almost bullet-proof or that you must use a 338 Win Mag or 375 H&H to hunt with them either has no practical experience and/or is a poor marksman. Sure, bigger is better (to a point) if you can shoot it, but I'd not ever hesitate to hunt anything up to Eland with a quality bullet out of a 270 Winchester on up.

It's all about shot placement and quality bullets.

I loaded some Barnes 120gr X boattails for a friend's 270 years ago and he found them to be great for this purpose.

I wouldn't say no practical experience or poor marksmanship, rather I'd state it as a difference of opinion. The guys mentioned that liked the big guns were very experienced and I wouldn't call them poor shots, at least not to their faces...

Point taken, otherwise. There seems to be a fairly good consensus on premium bullets.

I would have taken my .300 Win Mag with 200 gr. NPT's and felt well equipped. When I hire a guide, I go with his suggestions. Barnes or Swift bullets in the Win Mag would have done the job. I'm sure premium bullets in my 7RM would have killed those animals. When in Rome...

DF

Some of the tough to kill issues are brought forward often by this damned, to me anyway, desire for bang flops being a must...

Large never hurts. The smaller you go the more picky you have to be about shot selection/placement....

Of course in the end no matter what you shoot, like any animal, you better be good at it. And premium bullets with any big animal never hurts.

Of course my noted pistol kill was 30-30 and 170 corelokts... although the things were coming apart and often only making it to one lung or barely to the other. Never found an exit wound. Nilgai was very dead. LIkely would have been after the first shots too had we just left him alone.... not something the guide wanted...

Good points.

I guess I'm not a minimalist, seeing what's the least powerful round I can use for a task. I'm more on the other end of the spectrum, but still somewhere South of Elmer Keith...

Next Nilgai hunt, I may consider my .300 Win Mag/200 gr. NPT. I still like my .375 H&H/250 TTSX load.

Boom/plop is nice, but a big gun won't guarantee such. I've seen'em run, well hit by a big bullet.

DF

Pretty ridiculous.

Come to think of it, those guides were Texicans...

DF

LOL DF, to the OP, I'd happily use my 9.3-62 on that Nilgai hunt, a 286 gr Partition would do it all, although I use 320 gr Woodleighs in mine.

Good luck on your hunt, I gotta slate one of those too someday soon.

Thanks for the replies. I understand that Nilgai are tough but have a hard time believing there is much difference between them and the larger African antelope which are killed all the time by lesser cartridges than a 338 or 375 Mag. Some guides would have you believe Nilgai are Cape buffalo.

I would think a premium 200/210 grain .338 bullet at 2600 fps would be up to the task with proper bullet placement but I'm not going to argue with the guide. I have a 350 Rem Mag and 9.3x62 I can bring. Surely I won't be told that a 250 grain bullet at 2500-2600 fps isn't not enough.

I"d have no issues at all with a 338 federal.

Just might limit distance a bit and probably no severely angled shots, but thats no big deal really.

Might even extend the hunt more.

I just can't picture you down there with light ordinance...

You're for sure not a minimalist...

DF