Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 6.5 CM for pronghorn

speed goats die easy 6.5Creedmoor will be fine or any other cartridge ,we used to shoot speed goats with a 17 Remington and 223`s, if you can only afford one rifle i would just buy a 223 Remington my reason ammo is cheap,little recoil ,that cartridge is a better varmint fun gun ,your son will use it more. there are a lot of deer shot with 223 every year,i know guys that have shot many-many deer with the 223, sharp shooters that control deer populations in cities at night mostly that`s all they use is a 223.buy a Savage bolt rifle good price range,but buy a decent scope like a leupold.

When I took the opportunity to hunt antelope my son and I both shot nearly identical Remington Model 7 rifles in 7MM08. The shots were taken at distance between 225 and 265 yards and within a few minutes of each other. Both were scored in the mid 70's and both were instant kills. The 7MM08 has long been my go-to rifle for whitetail (and a few other things).
Since then I have taken several good whitetails, a few pigs, coyotes and a 32" 200+ pound Axis with the 6.5 Creedmoor. None of those animals put up any fight after the shot.
Pick the right bullet and it will most definitely do the job.

How many antelope and deer do you shoot with 1 shot and done from 300-500 yds with the 223? The Creed will do that, will your 223 with that cheap ammo? Just asking , bamagun1 said he wanted the gun to serve well and son to not out grow it. If one limits the kids shots to 250 yds and under how does his ability grow with that? He is a kid ,do you expect him to pole vault into a stunt shooter status? Just asking no need to run up you bp, I asked objective questions. MB

Yep, I have both, like both.

If starting over, it would be the Creed, hands down, expecially if I wasn't a handloader. Even a long time handloader could get a tad lazy, pick up a few boxes of excellent factory ammo, make his WT/pronghorn season and never look back.

DF

Buy one, not based on the "hype" that surrounds it, but more so on some of these guys' personal experience as a judge as to how well it performs. I would not hesitate to buy a 6.5 creedmoor for an antelope hunt.

Buy another .25-06.. One kind of ammo, and it shoots flat enough to take antelope to 400 yards without turrets..

My 240 Wby with 100 gr. NPT's will shoot half MOA at 400 yds. and pretty flat. Probably wouldn't need to do much twisting, but it has a turret scope. And, it's spilled some speed goat blood.

I still like the Creed. I'd put a turret scope on one and never look back.

DF

I've shot them with .280AI/150NBT; 300WM/180NBT; 6.5/284/125PT & 120NBT; and the 6mm/284/90gr NBT. I think the 6.5 Creedmoor is an excellent choice, myself. From what I've seen of it, out here, it has become "like a Modern .257 Roberts" in the way it is used. Varmints to elk with targets thrown in too.

6.5 CM would be an excellent choice for antelope. For me the 6.5 CM does what the .308 does with a little less recoil.

One kind of ammo - maybe. There is no guarantee the two will shoot the same ammo equally well. Two of the .30-06 rifles I have have long-throated chambers. The third had to go to the gunsmith to have the throat lengthened so I could shoot identical handloads in all three.

A 25-06 is what I intended to buy when I sold my shot-out Savage .22-250. Was literally leaving the gun show to go to Sportsman's Warehouse to but the .25-06 when I bumped into a guy carrying a like-new .257 Roberts with a Leupold M8-4x scope in the rings. Could not pass it up at $400 out the door and it has been my favorite rifle ever since (15 years).

If it were to do over, I'd be looking at a 6.5CM or 6.5 PRC for the wider and heavier bullet and factory ammo selection. Comparing a a .25-06/115g BT @ 3170fps (Nosler data) to a 6.5CM with a 143g ELD-X @ 2983fps (Hodgdon data) the 6.5 CM has about 9" more drop at 600, with about 60fps less velocity, 140fpe more energy and 2" lest drift.

The two .25-06's may not shoot ammo equally well, but it would be close enough... You could use two different loads, and they still could serve either gun in a pinch..

A large antelope buck might go 120lbs. They are easily taken with 24,25,& 6.5 light weight bullets. A rib cage shot is highly recommend. A hit thru the shoulder or ham can be very destructive to their fragile skeletal frame. . Any 6.5 will handle antelope to elk with the right bullet. You won't go wrong with a 6.5 as it gives you the versatility of much heavier game. Any 6.5 bullet from 85 to say 130 gr will give a flat trajectory over realistic ranges. And for sure mild recoil.

Hitting one is more of a challenge than killing one, IMO.

They pretty easy to kill...

DF

You could always use a 28 Nosler

Yeah. How can a goat be too dead?

DF

Depends on how much of it you want to eat.

Personally, I really like pronghorn meat, so tend to use somewhat less gun, and "harder" bullets, than some other hunters.

Yeah, I agree. Some of these yayhoos thinking basket ball sized exit wounds are great. If it was just about shooting them and killing them and leaving them lay, then yeah who cares. I used to do the same thing to jackrabbits, but I never ate those...

The meat is good. Some call’em “stink goats”, but if the meat is handled right it’s really good.

I remember one NM hunt, we passed by a couple pronghorns hanging from an old front end loader tractor as we entered our ranch. We hunted, killed a couple of goats, had them on ice within half hour. As we left that ranch, those animals were still hanging in nearly 100* weather.

Now, I can guarantee those were stink goats. Our’s weren’t.

DF

Hog don reloading site shows the 143 at 2795 FPS not 2983 as stated above. I just looked because I did not believe that velocity. Ed k

I thought yuck also but it's fabulous I like it better than venison

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