Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Antelope Rifles

i'm taking a 243 with 100 grain hornady btsp's, and a 7mm-08 with 140 grain accubombs.
my super accurate 300wsm is going as well for the long shots.

and of course my l1a1 !

My latest was 6.5X55, if I built for that job, 25.06.

I've killed them with:
.243 Win
.257 Roberts
.264 Win Mag
.270 Win
.30-06
and
300 Win Magnum

I've pretty much settled on the .270 and .264. shooting 130 and 140 g bullets respectively. The 270 with 130 SGK and the .264 with either 140g Hornady's or 140g Bergers. The reason mainly is the wind and the fact they don't need a big caliber to bring down. That is unless you wound one. I have seen them run pretty fast and far on 3 legs (not mine).

My shot this year was a lazered 360 yards, but that was one of my farthest if not the farthest. I have shot them at not much over 100 yards out of their beds. It just takes a bit of work usually to get within that range. I new a guy who hunting them with a patched roundball 50 caliber muzzleloader. He just had to get within 100 yards. He was successfull.

300 Remington Ultra Magnum

Shot mine at 200 this year with a 110 TTSX out of a 270 Win. MV 3350. Center of the lungs broadside shot.

Buck ran 40 yards and piled up.

Very happy with the performance.

Buddy shot one lengthwise with same gun at 100 yards. Bullet exited out the back and ran the complete length of the buck.

My family and I love antelope hunting. You can use about anything (with the normal caveats). Here's what we've used over the last couple of years:

.308 Sako Mannlicher 150 gr Sierra 2800 fps 280 and 350 yds
.270 Model 70 130 gr Nosler BT 3000 fps 410 yds
.25-06 Tikka 115gr Nosler Part. 3000 fps 15 and 40 yds (not a misprint--both these bucks over 2 consecutive years couldn't quite figure out what my son was as he was laying prone and he just waited to see how close they would get. Luckiest kid ever.)
.25 WSSM Model 70 115 gr Nosler Part. 2900 fps 250 yds
.300 Wby Sako Hunter 165 gr Scirocco 3300fps 350 yds.
.338-06 AI Custom Sako 200 gr Nosler BT 2900 fps 200 and 275 yds.
.348 Winchester 200 gr Hornady 2450 fps 150 yds.

Next time it will be some combination of these rifles and either a .243 or a .260.

.257 Roberts
7mm RM
.308 win

All worked equally well. One thing for sure, you don't need a lot of gun to kill a speed goat. A .25-06/110g AB is dang near perfect IMHO.

For me its been:

243 Win
25-06
30-06 mostly

The best combo I have used was the 25-06 and some 120 gr. Hornady HP's. At about 250 the buck just collapsed.

A bad option is 125 gr NBT out of a 30-06.

Joseph

I have been mostly using my 25-06 since 1995.

Although I've used 30'06 and 7 rem mag. more often then not it is one of my .270's loaded with 140 accubonds. I'm thinking anything you shoot well from .243 and up will work, but on the smaller calibers I'd choose a heavy bullet as the wind is often a factor....last year I got schooled on wind drift shooting a 30'06 loaded with 168s.

The wind got me a couple years ago also.

The pronghorn(a real nice one) was bedded about 350 yards away. I was setup fairly solid but the wind was blowing about 10-15mph and was switching angles. I didn't feel comfortable as the goat was also slighty quartering away so I didn't shoot.

Watched the herd for a few minutes when suddenly a doe stood up and took off taking the rest of 'em with her. I know they couldn't smell me, pretty sure that old doe had a sixth sense.

I've never made a trip just to hunt antelope. They've always been tacked onto trips after elk and/or mulies and so the rifles I've used have sometimes been excessive as I didn't want to carry extra rifles.
The rifles that have worked the best for me have been the 7-08 with 140gr NPs and the .280 with 150gr Core Lokts. I would think the .260 would be about ideal.
Whatever rifle you're familar with should work. I don't think premium bullets are called for. I know Grand Slams in the larger calibres are a little hard.
You have GOT to have a bi-pod.

you can kill an antelope with a .22 rimfire, but it's probably not the best choice when your shot is around 500yards, and there's a little wind blowing.

Never been but this year I'll be goin with the 25-06 and the wife with a 250AI. That sucks about the no 22-250 thing I was planning on havin it along for the ride.

And don't forget, stock bling for a pronghorn rifle is always a good idea.....(grin)

Shoot what ever you shoot for white tail, put you money toward a good set of binoc's or a range finder.
Years ago you could get like six tags each year, we hunt on Saturday so we had all of Sunday to cut them up.
I've killed them with 243 up to 375 H&H. the cheaper the shells the better.

Shot 2 both with 270s. First was at 100 yards with 150 grain NPT gold. Had a fist sized exit hole, walked about 10 steps and fell over. The second was with my Colt LR with 150 grain NPT at 269 yards on lazer, bang flop.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm probably going to take the Cooper in .280 loaded with either 140gr BT or 140gr Sierra. Going to let my wife carry a .243 loaded with 100 Hornadys.I plan on buying a bipod soon.

SamOlson.. nice stock bling

All I've ever used on antelope is the 25-06 and usually the 120gr Hornady HP. Works REALLY good! Tom

My antelope cartridge/rifle is my elk rifle, my deer, bighorn, goat, and....well you get the picture. 270, in the past a 150gr Sierra Bt, more recently a 150gr Partition.

In the early 90's, in a 7 week span I killed a caribou, a moose, a pronghorn, a elk, and a deer--all of them with a 30-6AI and 200gr Partition. It worked just fine for pronghorns, but was probably a bit o' overkill......

My reloading mentor used a 243 and 100gr Sierras on pronghorns for decades--including one B&C buck.


Casey