Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .257 Cal Bullets?

I built my .257 Ackley back in the late '70s primarily for a deer and antelope rifle, and through the years it's made a pile of one shot kills on a varaiety of critters from prairie dogs to elk. My favorite bullet for it has been the 117 grain Sierra GameKing, but I've also had good results with the 120 gr Hornady HPFB, and the Nosler 115 gr BT.

Two of the most impressive kills that I've made with this rifle and 117 gr Sierra bullets were on prairie dogs and on my 2nd largest 6x6 bull elk.

On one eastern Montana antelope hunt, I crossed a prairie dog town walking back to my truck. One mound had 3 prairie dogs standing in a straight line. I layed down prone with all 3 dogs straight away from me. It was a 125 yard shot and the 117 gr Sierra bullet literally exploded the first two and cut the third one in half.

The first year that I hunted in one of Montana's Unlimited bighorn sheep units I backpacked a camp in by myself. By the third morning I hadn't seen any sheep and I was pretty discouraged. Shortly after leaving camp that morning I heard an elk bugling fairly close to me. Each time he bugled, he sounded closer so I just knelt down and waited for him. The portion of that unit that is in the Wilderness Area was also open early for deer and elk and I had an elk tag in my pocket. As he got closer I first saw the ivory tips of his dark brown 6x6 antlers and that ended my ram hunt that year.

When he stopped broadside and bugled about 75 yards from me I put a 117 gr Sierra just behind his right shoulder. He dropped dead right there. My bullet hit a rib going in and pieces of the bullet and rib shredded his lungs, went through his heart, but didn't exit his opposite rib cage.

In the last 45 years I've used that rifle for almost all of my deer and antelope hunting. I also used it in the '80 and '90s on three Unlimited unit bighorn rams and a Dall ram in Canada's Mackenzie Mountains. All of those rams were one shot kills with 117 gr Sierra bullets.

The longest shot was 206 yards on my Dall ram. It was an uphill shot that entered just behind his right shoulder and exited high behind his left shoulder. He also just fell dead where he was standing. The exit hole is just a small dot under his left horn in this picture...