Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Flattest shooting, wind defying antelope round

This has been a very interesting thread...

I never realized one needed such heavy duty rounds to drop a 75 to 90 pound antelope... thanks for the education guys...

granted I've only ever really shot one antelope.... and that was in Montana....wasn't hunting them, but a friend and his son we were shooting prairie dogs with had tags and were meat hunting if one showed up...told me if one came by, to shoot it and they would tag it....

Let his son shoot it, who was tagging along with me, since he was recovering from an accident he had been in...

one shot at 250 yds, and the antelope ran about 50 yds and dropped over dead...

Tyler was lucky tho... that 40 grain V Max didn't know it was not suppose to work, out of a 223.. with a charge of 14 grains of Blue Dot..


When I've drawn an Oregon antelope tag, I've just taken a fast twist 22.250 with a load of a 68 gr BTHP doing 2900 fps MV...

Guess it was scary enough... antelope wouldn't get near me.... the few I saw had to have been in the next county over....

but have plenty of opportunity to shoot 90 pound blacktails... I didn't realize an antelope is that tough of an animal...

learn something new every day...

[quote=Seafire]This has been a very interesting thread...

I never realized one needed such heavy duty rounds to drop a 75 to 90 pound antelope... thanks for the education guys...


Oh you devil you! ha I've used a fast twist .224 TTH/75 Scirrocco, .220 Swift, and several 6mms out here. You are right, the antelope doesn't need alot of killing....the god awful wind out on the prairie is the culprit! My first antelope out on the short grass ( read "no wind indicators") I used a 280AI/150NBT/2950fps, and first shot was right at 300yds. I was prone, and the bullet hit dead on...6 feet downwind! ha I missed a total of six (6) nice bucks that day from 300 to 350, wind blowing me and rifle both around. Finally spotted a buck chasing a doe, was able to sneak up to a snow drift fence, wrapped up in it and popped him at 250yds. At no time could I see any indicators either...it disturbs me greatly!

Sounds like you’re just a really bad shot
To miss by six feet at 300 would put the wind at over 100 miles an hour

Pile on big guy, you are such a tease! It looked like six foot to me, anyhow, it may as well have been, ha!

You kids are funny.

I'll just leave this here. 140gr VLD @ 3250fps.

Sorry, John, I don't believe all longer-range shots turn out like this--partly because I remember the video you posted a few years ago of a pronghorn doe you shot at around 600 "for practice." You didn't hit her well, and she lay down, head up, for a while before you finished her off.

Sorry, but just don't believe all such shooting turns out like the present video.

John

What, you never hunted in Wyoming?

The shooting doesn't always turn out well, but the videos sure do.

I would love to hear this story. The pic reminds me of a whitetail and a ruger super blackhawk

As usual the fire has made shooting critters, don't really matter which critter, hard to do,hard to kill,dangerous, to close, to far, to windy, to cold, to hot, no cover, in the timber, guns to heavy, guns to light, right bullet solves all problems, wrong bullet causes all the problems, sounds like your hunting bullet proof Elk, not a critter that's not much bigger than a Jack Rabbit. all this by a bunch that can't hit their ass with both hands, unless they are on the bench or prone with a bag or bipod, what happened to hunting? Rio7

what happened to hunting? Rio7[/quote]

I still hunt...my average range for Pronghorn is 175yds. Mule deer is 75yds, elk is 170yds...over a 32yr period, ha, so yeah, I hear you Tex, just having fun here....BTW, I'm still waiting for an invite to come cull deer with you ( Native Texan here, Liberty County)

yep we get to see the good shots on this forum but what about the bad shoots and lost wounded animals ? long range shots i have taken them too i have been lucky i found everyone but my son is one hell of a in shape good tracker too.i have let some nice animals walk too because i did not think i could make a good shot . my custom 257 Weatherby mag. rifle shooting 100 gr. bullet 3800 fps looking thru a Nightforce scope with a rest is accurate a long ways out but some times we all have limits from weather , distances , the rifle you are using ,what cartridge and the most important thing your ability to hit that animal and kill it. i don`t make videos for money i kinda get upset with these videos when they laugh , jump around , holler and do hand slaps, these dudes just don`t have much respect for that animal . its very shameful real hunters don`t do that crap they just go get the animal and take care of animal with a smile.
>i will mention this too a friend with his wife that had no skills who were with us, he shot a small legal bull in the butt with an arrow and it would have been lost but my son did his magic again. i told my son go find that dam bull and kill it for them 4 or 5 hrs later and a few miles he did they were happy i just shook my head . not everyone have a tracker so your shot has to be a decent shot not just a hope and poke shot. good luck this fall,Pete53

I've never wounded nor lost a antelope. Chasing one down out in the open prairie is one of my nightmares! I am so glad that when I missed, I missed clean!

Just my opinion, but I like this kind of hunting a LOT more.
270 Winchester lever action M95. Open sights, buckhorn and bead. 150 grain handloaded Remington Round Nose.
thirty six yards.

IMG_20190918_192827625 by .com/photos/156296479N08/]Steve Zihn, on [bleep]

A couple others.

M1 2020 Buck 2 by .com/photos/156296479N08/]Steve Zihn, on [bleep]
M1 Garand 150 grain hand load with Nosler BT Hunting bullet.

2018 #1 Ant. Buck by .com/photos/156296479N08/]Steve Zihn, on [bleep]

I don't take a camera and in fact, I didn't own one for most of my life., But these are just a few of them and I have killed many dozens of them. Most over iron sights.
last season I got 2 with an iron sighted Remington M141 in 35 Remington and one with a Savage M9 in 300 Savage with iron sights. The year before I got 3 with two 300 Savage rifles both with iron sights, and one with the 6.5X54 pictures above. Three seasons ago I got 4 with the 6.5 above, the two 300 Savages and one with a M96 Mauser in 9.3X57, again all iron sighted.
The list goes on and one going back about 30 years. I still use scoped rifles now and then, but I NEVER have a need or a want to shoot past 400 and in fact by far, the largest majority of pronghorns I have killed over the last 30 years were killed at ranges UNDER 200 yards with out without scopes.

szihn, I'm with you, I killed a couple of pickup loads of Speed Goats with a 30-30 and 300 Savage, with open sites, before I got a .243 A.I. scoped like it better than my old guns but my old guns ain't broke, if I need them they are still here. Rio7

So did OP get a ballistics calculator so he could figure out what is flattest and most wind-bucking?

Of course they don’t.

Not all closer range shots turn out like that either

What’s your point?

Yup

Your point is valid--but far more closer-range shots turn out well than longer-range shots. Why wouldn't they? The problems of varying range and wind are almost elminated.

Along with a bunch of pronghorns taken in Montana, where my wife and I have typically drawn more than one tag each for decades, we've hunted them in several other states. I also guided for them for several years, while working for an outfitter in one of the best areas for trophy bucks in eastern Montana. This was a decade before even the first hand-held laser rangefinders appeared, but I worked out a range-estimation system with the scope reticle on my "guiding" rifle that came pretty close out to around 500 yards.

The big problem wasn't range, because I generally got them within 300 yards, but clients not believing the range I gave them. They usually shot over, because they "eyeballed" the range as longer. Of course, many of them had never shot even deer beyond 150 yards, so had no clue. But they also often had no clue about how to shoot from prone, much less over a rest from prone. Which is why I eventually gave them each a little tutorial before we went out.

The other problem with shorter-range shots with many natives of pronghorn country is they tend to drive around and shoot at anything they jump, whether at close or long range. Have seen this many times as well.

But just because SOME hunters miss or wound antelope at closer ranges doesn't have anything to do with my point. Both range and, especially, wind tend to make longer shots more prone to error.