Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Nilgai cartridge choice

I have a nilgai hunt booked on the King Ranch in March. What gun should I take: .270, 7mm Rem Mag, .338 win mag or .375 H&H?

Any of those guns would work, although some places will not allow below 300 win mag. A 338 win mag is perfect if you can shoot it well, although a 375 H&H would not be overkill for an adult bull.

EDIT: Although I've seen it done, I would not really suggest the 270.

Whatever you can shoot the best. We "harvested" a number of them with everything from a .243 up to .338 Win Mags. With good bullets and proper placement, they will die. They are not bullet proof. They do have a stout dermal shield over their shoulders and neck (I have skinned them out with over 1/2" thickness of connective tissue), so shoulder shots should be taken with a stout bullet that will penetrate the hide. Anything like a Nosler Partition "or better" will do fine. Any of the cartridges that you listed will do fine with a premium bullet.

I did a hunt on the King (Norias Pasture) several years back and if you get into the bay front sand dunes a longer shot is a real possibility and although 338 WM is not my favorite caliber it should be perfect if matched with a stout 225 gr bullet and you can shoot it accurately of course.

A great experience as you will see a lot of game and many huge witetail if you are hunting before the antlers fall.

You will have a great time.

Whatever you use, save every ounce of meat you can..it is unique in flavor and absolutely excellent..

Ingwe

Nilgai are the reason I quit using partitions and went to Barnes bullets. Had some bad issues with required penetration on iffy shots from 180s out of a 300 wtby. Switch to Barnes and a 180 goes through stem to stern...

My ideal would be the 338 win mag running 210 or 225 ttsx bullets. 375 is NOT overkill.

That being said given the chance to punch the lungs on a relaxed animal I've seen a 308 and 270 dump quite a few.

Meat wise I'd save every ounce also. Coudl that I could afford them I'd shoot a cow every year. But beware we've had some bitter meat if shot after the Juisache greens out for some reason. Go prior to that and its some of the best meat you've ever had.

Good Luck Ben!!!!! I leave next Friday morning for a hunt on a good friend's family ranch where the creatures are known to frequent! Will be using my 9.3 x 57, and will probably take my old trusty commercial Mauser 30-06 for "just in case". Kinda be nice if it would ease up just a bit on the raining, lest we hunt from canoes! I'll try to post pics if successful...

Bob

Welcome to the Fire Ben!

And while I've not shot any nilgai I have worked over some elk. And any of the rounds you mentioned will do just fine for elk, so I gotta think that any of the rounds will do just fine for nilgai..

Dober

I have done some nilgai hunting, usually with large groups of other hunters, so have gotten some data on what works and what doesn't.

One group was about a dozen people who went to the King Ranch several years ago to test the then-new .270 WSM with 140-grain Fail Safe bullets. The guides were NOT enthusiastic about this, since Winchester had also taken some people there a couple of years before to test the .300 WSM (though not entirely with Fail Safe bullets) and the results had been erratic.

By the end of the .270 WSM hunt the guides all agreed opinion that it was one of the best nilgai cartridges ever.
This was based on 24 nilgai being taken, both bulls and cows.

From my experience (not just that hunt) the bullet makes a much bigger difference in nilgai hunting than the cartridge--just as it does when hunting any other fairly large non-dangerous game. The 140 Fail Safes penetrated plenty, so did the job when placed right.

One of the other conclusions the guides came to was that the batch of hunters on the .270 WSM hunt were better shots overall than the hunters on the .300 WSM hunt. That makes a difference too.

I've also decided that one of the reasons nilgai got the reputation of being so hard to kill is that so many are chased around in pickup trucks and shot at long range on the run. A lot of animals are tough to kill when they get shot in the guts and legs. And yes, I have been on one of those so-called nilgai hunts too, and the outfitter not only encouraged those kinds of shots but the way his guides hunted virtually guaranteed them.

In fact most of his guides didn't think it's possible to stalk or still-hunt nilgai--which is BS, because it's done a lot on the King Ranch. Both of the nilgai I took on that hunt (a bull and cow) were still-hunted, and shot at ranges of 75 and 200 yards.

Another reason nilgai often seem tough is the same reason elk seem tough: People have heard they're tough, so they bring big rifles, which often turn out to be rifles they don't shoot very well.

So I agree with Mark, even though he's never hunted nilgai. Take any decent medium-game round with GOOD bullets, and the job will be done neatly if the shooter does his job.

Thanks to everyone for the responses. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Why don't you invite us all for a bbq and tell us then..

Dober

I thank you all for the advice as well!!!!! Thanks again JB, you've helped me again!!! I will be happy just to see one of the animals. And I would be just as happy with a cow as I would a bull. This is a "get the He** out to the woods" weekend for several of us who need it. I'm not shelling out big $$$$ for this as it's an invite hunt, (with the opportunity for future invtes as well). So I don't really have the investment in it that others folks have. But an animal would be nice.

Bob

I had the opportunity to hunt with a friend that leases the Kennedy ranch that is not part of the trust. Took both a 7-08 and 308 using 140gr and 165gr accubonds. Used the 7-08 on a Nilgai bull and the bullet was retreived in the offside hide. Lung shot, he went 30 yards and died.
My brother shot another bull with his 7 mag after we spotted and stalked him and dropped him with a neck shot.
Keep all the meat you can, its good stuff.

My deal, is that with 180 partitions in a 300 wtby at just over 3100 FPS IIRC, a rib cage shot was stopped by the hide on the offside, range appx 125 steps or so... thats a bit scary to me. Bull died though.

I"ve seen 7 Rem Mags stopped to...... I"ve actually never seen a bad shot on a nilgai but would suspect that could be interesting.

OF course above all bullet placement counts the most, but the 338 win mags are easy to shoot, and there isn't anything like overkill IMHO.

That being said I"ve been taking a BIG toll on wild cats and coons at our place recently.... all with a Rem single shot 22 and those 22 rounds that have a primer only for power.... shot placement.... none have walked away including a fair size coon this morning..

Jeff

Nilgai and .338 Win Mag go together like peanut butter and jelly.

What do the Guides at the King Ranch recommend you bring? Just remember bigger is only better if your comfortable shooting it.

Well I have only hunted Nilgai twice, I shot both of mine with a 338 Winchester and 250 gr Nosler Partitions. While on those two hunts I saw several taken. One was with a 375 H+H another with a 30-06 and well 338. These days, your main problem is getting a good shot, they tend to chase them a lot with trucks and such. I shot both of mine on walks after lunch. One next to an water hole was very memorable.

gmsemel, they chased them with trucks? Sounds more like a rodeo or that old John Wayne movie set in Africa where he chased all kinds of stuff around with trucks trying to capture them.

Yup, a guide in the driver's seat, hunter in the passenger seat is how we did it. When you see the nilgai, either stop and take the shot, or if it's running try to cut around it or get close enough for a shot. You have to stop the truck for the shot though.
Ideally you stop the truck and shoot before it sees you, but that doesn't happen real often.
And yes, it is an absolute blast.

Yep, we chased them with high rack trucks on the Kennedy ramch. When you saw them they were usually running. The shot I got we had cover that concealed the truck and the bull stood broadside for a shot at 150 yards. Most of the guys were shooting the 300wsm. My brother had his 7 mag..
I had the least power with my 7-08 and 308. After watching these calibers perform on elk when I lived in Colorado I felt they would be fine. It worked out great and very tasty meat.
My brother killed his bull after we spotted them running and got off the truck and stalked them. I think when we do this again we will spot and stalk only. We were rattling most of the time for whitetails and several times we had Nilgai in range. A fun trip all in all.