Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters This just in, ultimate cartridge

Desertranger,

As you know, I have some acquaintance with that cartridge, and so does Eileen. Below are some of the western big game animals we're taken with it over the decades. The first is a pronghorn buck I got in 1988, taken at around 450 yards with a 100-grain Nosler Partition. Back then we didn't know that you had to use high-BC bullets in 6mm or 6.5mm to shoot antelope at over 250 yards, so I loaded the Partition pretty warmly and used my scope's plex reticle to estimate the range. The bullet landed right where intended, and by some miracle the buck fell over.



I got this mule deer about a month later, using the same rifle with a 120-grain Nosler Solid Base, range about 100 yards--a far more suitable distance for such an antique cartridge.



Eileen got this cow elk a few years ago with a more modern .257, using a more modern bullet, a 100-grain TTSX. It stood quartering away at 123 yards (we had a laser rangefinder), and at the shot dropped, flopped its head a couple times and lay still. It wasn't the biggest elk in that country, but wasn't a calf either/



We've taken a few other animals with the cartridge, some from other rifles, I would guess at least 50.