Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What would be your perfect pronghorn rifle?

I love it.
If you like high combs, large palm swells, this is your stock.
Can’t compare it to the classic as I don’t have one.

That's a sweet rig, Tom. Hard to argue against that bad boy for speed goats.

Thanks for specs.

Thanks,
It shoots 105 Amaxs Around 3150fps into teeny weeny clusters.

In my experience, whichever one you shoot well between 200-350 yards in the wind from a field position after crawling a half mile. About 7lbs scoped with something about 6x to maybe 10x seems about right. The country looks easy compared to elk or mulies but I still don't like heavy rifles or big scopes-harder to crawl through the sage with. Also surprises me that the same people who are strong believers in 6x scopes for deer and elk think you need more magnification for antelope at the same distance. They might be a bit smaller but they aren't prairie dogs.
Cartridge itself matters little-no sense beating yourself up with recoil as they are not hard to kill.
A 243 is darn near perfect-has worked 3 times for me. A 6mm Creedmoor might be the new 243. A 25-06 worked fine but not sure that it adds much over the 243 except more powder burnt. I used one for 2 does and nothing wrong with the results except the 9lb rifle and scope combo I have won't be going crawling with me again. It was the first rifle I bought myself so I was committed to taking an antelope with it for nostaligia.
A 270 worked really well and might be my pick for an all-around western cartridge if mulies and elk were also on the menu. Bigger cartridges just seem like more noise and recoil for no appreciable gain.
It's become a bit of a cliche but there is a lot to like about the 6.5 Creedmoor but I haven't used one yet. Of course a 308 would work well and I took one as a backup a couple of times but didn't shoot it.
I have never caught a bullet in an antelope and like to eat them so I like 'controlled expansion'. Ballistic Tips and an Accubond have worked perfectly for me. Even when hitting bone I haven't lost much meat with the cartridges and bullets described.

No doubt here. The non gay .270. Flat and hard hitting on the little guys.

Nice rifle. Great looking pooch. Lot to like about this pic.

I’ve heard an 8 twist 243 flinging 105 hybrids is the real deal.....

These days the .243 and the .260 are washed up ol guys and anything 6 or 6.5 mm is dashit

Shooting a 257 Weatheby by Redhawkrifles with a Mcmillian edge and a 3x15 Zeiss with turrets.Barnes 100 TTSX have worked well out to 650 on mule deer.The 300wsm also knocks them down.

I have killed all of my pronghorn except one with the 270 and it worked great. The one exception was killed with a Ruger #1 in 6mm, the load was a Hornady 87gr hpbt at 3375 fps.

I thing the Ruger #1 in 243, 6mm or 25-06 is a cool and classy way to harvest antelope. That rifle resembles the original Sharps they used back in the day for buffalo when the plains were truly wild and free.

If I could get any rifle I would look hard for a Whitaker Ruger No. 1 in .257 Weatherby. Nice wood 28" barrel and not too heavy. Or if my lotto ticket came through a Dakota 10 and then it would be a tough decision between a 25-06 or the Weatherby 25 but could even go 6.5 x 300 Weatherby if I was really mad at the goats. Ditto for a High Wall which is even more period correct.

What I have used is 22-250, .243, .223, 7RM, .270 Win., 300 Win. No complaints with any of them but the 243 and up would do better in a stiff cross wind but not by much. Somewhere around 7RM and definitely the 300s they are not as nice to shoot prone due to recoil. There is usually too much vegetation to shoot prone so not a big issue.

My favorite for antelope is a Dakota Model 10 in 257 Roberts shooting 110 grain Accubonds with a Swarovski Z3 3-10x42 with a BRH reticle. It's light and slender making it a joy to carry and shoots well too. Plus I just love falling blocks.

The last Pronghorn I shot with a rifle was 20+ years ago and it was with an A-bolt in .280 rem. Since then all my kills have been either with a muzzleloader or a bow and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to centerfire.

There was an article by G.Sitton in one of the hand-me-down magazines I got as a kid that implanted a Dakota model 10 and the 25-06 into my head as a great pronghorn rifle. I'll probably never own one, but it would be on my short list if I won the lottery.

A .338 Lapua of course...never know when you might run into a Cape Buffalo out on the prairie...;)

Any of these four will fill the bill.

Three of them have antelope blood on them. The one on the bottom is still a virgin...

6.5 SAUM
6 Creed
.260
6 Creed

Thanks for weighing in. Your thread in the big Game section had me thinking that green-stocked 6 Creed looked pretty ideal. That 24" #3 Bart isn't too muzzle-heavy in an Edge?

Know a fella from out Cody, WY area that hunts speed goats with a .45 flintlock successfully. He goes by SPG.

Might not be my first choice, but mebbe it would. Call is whether you call yourself a hunter or a shooter.

I would love to use my husky 8mm Mauser with the open sights,but been having trouble drawing a Wyoming tag

Where's your Sako .220 Swift? It had A LOT of blood on it.