Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best cartridge for Sambar, Nilgi, Aoudad etc 270 or 6.5x55 or 7x57?

Jwp475,

The rifle of choice for the past Game Warden in Sarita Tx, Kenedy county was a Ruger #1 in 220 Swift. He took many a nilgai with it. Way back in the salad days of our youth we both worked at the same gunshop for a while in Austin. He passed several years back from a brain tumor.

Sorry for the loss of your friend. I know that is possible but I'd still use my 416, because I like it and I could shoot less than perfect shot presentations and still make it the the vitals with a bullet of significant diameter

220 Swift reminds me of P. O. Ackley shooting feral donkeys with one. He was impressed with the terminal performance. Check it out.

DF

Ackley used copper bullets in the Swift and took all types of large game.

I don't think P.O. Ackley actually took much game, if any, with the .220 Swift.

He evidently wasn't much of a hunter. Instead he published articles in his books by/about other people shooting various animals with smaller cartridges, from the .17 AI to .220 Swift.

If anybody can provide me with a published work or photo of P.O. Ackley posing with a dead big game animal I would happily admit being wrong.

Good point.

Frank Glaser shot A LOT of animals, mostly Dall Sheep with the .220 Swift and thought it was about perfect for his purposes.

Can't recall ever shooting a Sambar, But i have killed a few Nilgai, and more than a few Aoudad, With a .243, .223, and .308, Never seem to have a bigger gun when i see them. Rio7

Dead is dead.

And knowing how to shoot and where to place the bullet helps…

DF

I have read Glaser's book several times, and having some experience with the .220 Swift on big game was not surprised--especially since North American sheep in general aren't hard to put down--and Dalls are the smallest of the subspecies. But Glaser did sometimes express a different opinion about the Swift and grizzlies.

I also knew an old "game warden" in Montana who's job often included shooting elk at night off rancher's haystacks. That isn't done anymore, but was back then. His favorite round was the .220 Swift.

Like The Office Meme says ... "They're the Same Picture".

GE

I thoroughly enjoyed Glaser’s book.

DF

Me too!!!

My Uncle was a gun guy and he had a Model 64 that was in .219 Zipper. (30-30 necked down to .224) He said it was the perfect deer rifle, ha. I was just a kid and remember it as one neat handling little rifle ( his was carbine length barrel) Never knew what happened to it, his kids ( my older cousins) were grown by the time he died, they took most everything.

Don’t remember anything about copper bullets. What the scoop on those?

And feral donkeys are the only critters I recall him shooting with the .220S.

DF

I probably never will hunt Nilgai or Sambar due to age and bad knees. But, if I'm ever offered the chance it would just take my .35 Whelen with my 225 gr. TSX load and never look back.
Paul B.

That would work.

Mid-bores rock. Check out Cutting Edge and Hammer monos.

I’ve enjoyed working with my .358 Win.

DF

I’ve loved reading about Alaska since I was a little boy and that started my lifelong obsession with the last frontier. Reading Frank Glaser’s book brings me as close to those childhood dreams as I can get without being there. I’ll have to go back and read it again since I learn something new each time I read it. I do know that Frank got into a bind in a box canyon with his dogs and a grizzly that blocked their escape. He put several 30-06 rounds into that bear without the bear acting like the countless others he’d shot in the past. He realized that he grabbed the wrong box of ammo and was using (iirc) 147gr FMJ instead of his usual 220gr soft points.

Frank Glaser is one person that I’d love to spend time with at his Savage River cabin drinking coffee and listening intently to his experiences. I don’t think I’d ever grow tired of listening.

In any case…. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and hope that you’re surrounded by the love of family. John B. thanks for your willingness to answer our questions and share your depth and breadth of knowledge with us. Thanks for responding to us and taking the time to answer the same questions that you’ve answered countless times but doing it with patience and kindness.

You are truly an asset to this forum JB. 👍