Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Perfect Dall Sheep Caliber?

There is not just one perfekt cartridge for Dall...

In my opinion everything between a .260 Remington and a .300 Weatherby is perfectly adequate, with the 6.5-06, .270 Winchester and 280 Remington class of cartridges being my favourites.

BBerg

People are funny sometimes...

Thanks for all the advise!! Its pretty much a consensus that anything between .260 and .300 will be great. Is there any calibers that are exceptionally superb in fast and flat shooting compared to the rest?

And how would you guys set up a sheep rifle if you had to? scope, barrel, and all the other possible add ons??

Ditto

Ditto, for the long range non-magnum it's been famous for being for a lot longer than most men live.

Perfect Dall Sheep Caliber?

Caliber .284 in a 280 Improved cartridge would do the job nicely.

Thank you, Sir.

Was beginning think I was the only one...

Ive been doing some reading on the 6.5-284,Anyone familiar with that? The only downfall with that chambering is barrel life. And from what ive read the velocities are pretty low, most under 3,000?

I think the obvious is the 7-08, great killer, lighter weight. My .257 Wby would work great, but it's too damn heavy.

Have you ever destroyed a big game hunting rifle barrel from shooting it?



When someone speaks of barrel life in a hunting rifle it usually means one of two things. Either they don't kill much or they don't shoot much.

The competition shooter that warns of barrel life hasn't done much killing or he would realize that a barrel chambered in a cartridge that only lasts for a 1,000 rounds in competition will last 99.999999999% of hunters about one year until they get bored and sale it having only shot 1 or 200 rounds at most through it. He also doesn't realize that a barrel that is no longer competitive at 1,000 yards because it starts throwing a round or two every couple of matches out of the 10 inch "10" ring still has probably another 1,000 or 1,500 rounds of hunting accuracy left because is still a consistent sub MOA shooter at 600 yards.


The hunter that talks of barrel life probably doesn't shoot much or he would realize that his needs and use for a barrel are very, very different than that of an F- Class or LR competitor. Where a competitor might shoot 20-40+ rounds in the span of twenty minutes several times a day for an entire week/weekend, a hunter might shot 3 or 5, or 10 rounds in an hour. 40 rounds in a day, once a month is probably on the high side for 99% of hunters.


But lets pretend that it is a fanatical hunter that bought it. So he spends 200 rounds finding a load that shoots well and and then shoots 500 rounds over the next 5 years practicing. That means he still has at least another 1,000 to 1,500 rounds of life in the barrel left. I don't know about you but I don't know all that many people that kill 1,000 big game animals in their lifetime. Or their kids lifetime. Or their grandkids lifetime.


The 1 in a 1,000,000 hunter like Dober, Bob, etc that actually use their BG rifles to practice and train with and shoot several hundred rounds a year out of them..... well they just have another barrel standing in the corner ready to be screwed on. That's just the cost of doing business if you actually shoot and after the cost of 2 or 3k rounds, the $300 for a new barrel is pocket change......

For whatever reason when I think of sheep I think of the 6.5x284 in a ULA/NULA. There is a reason that round dominated 1,000 yard F-Class competition. The 6.5x284 (or any like cartridge) paired with a good bullet is about model perfect for mountain hunting. If that is what you want, get and do not worry about barrel life.

Both of my white sheep were killed with a .243. Both were under 200 yards. My next Dall ram will fall to my GAP .260. Basically .270 Win. ballistics in a short action.

My good friend, Al Klassen from the Yukon has 125 rams under his belt, either guided or shot himself and he swears by the .270 Win.

Klassen with a nice ram he shot on a hunt we shared back in 1991. He used his .270 and 130gr Partitions. If I recall, the shot was about 200 yards. Right where you want them.

There were 21 rams in this bunch, with this ram being the only mature, class IV ram. We were side by side with both rifles on him. Nothing happened for the longest time.....finally I hissed,"When are going to shoot?" Al whispered,"I thought you were going to shoot". I said,"You shoot". About a half second later his .270 went off....we ate good that night.

Taking into acct [/b]all[b] you mentioned, including chambered in a Savage, .270, .308, .30-06, 300 Win Mag. If you are open to other brands -- you should be -- those just mentioned and perhaps one or two others could be added. Those mentioned don't differ as much some here would hold. Add good glass (more important than the rifle within reason), a good bullet (hard not to for sheep), and then YOU are the wild card.

Holding the ram a good friend of mine shot with his .270 at less than 100 yards, after a three hour stalk. He was shooting 150gr Speer bullets if memory serves. We came in from directly above, after circling the mountain to stay out of view. There were nine rams in the bunch with this one being the oldest and largest. He was 10 1/2 years old.

Dall rams are one of the most beautiful big game animals in the entire world....

Scenarshooter,
270 win will suffice for a lot of hunting. Congratulations gorgeous ram's - I envy you.
/J

Classic old cartridge that just keeps getting it done.

Thats all well and good Pat, but what if you run into a Grizzly while toting that little .260?....

Didn't he just do that ? E

Dats why there a winky face there....