7mm bullet for Antelope

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Muddydogs

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Looks like I'm going to WY for Antelope this fall with a new hunter. My buddy doesn’t have a big game type rifle so I will let him borrow the 243 and I will be shooting the 7mm. My load for the 7mm is the Speer 160 grain Grand Slam which does a fine job on elk and deer but I'm thinking it might be a little heavy for speed goats. I have a few options for 7mm bullets that I bought back in the day when the old LoLo sports in Lewiston Idaho sold Speer seconds dirt cheap. I have a number of the 120 grain SP and was thinking of using this for Antelope. I also have 130 and 145 grain Speer BT, 145 grain Speer Grand Slams as well as the 110 grain TnT.

So is the 120 grain SP to much for Antelope out of the 7mm, I like to eat wild game and would like a bite or two left after the shot.
 
7mm what??
For my 7mm08 I prefer 140gr bullets (actually the 139gr Hornady's).

However, for Antelope you'll be hard pressed to beat the 130gr Speer boat-tail soft point. Right behind that I'd suggest the 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tips.

Antelope aren't any different than our s.e.whitetail deer at 110-140lbs. No need for some uber-bonded super duper penetrating bullet.

My second choice would be either the 140gr Sierra GameKing or the Nosler 140gr Ballistic Tip. I'm not real crazy about the 120gr Hornady V-max. Just hasn't shot well for me.

If you mean the 7mmMagnum's, stick with a 150-160gr bullet to prevent excessive meat loss from a lighter bullet. Sierra's are never a bad choice.
 
Sorry I forget about all the want to be's. I'm asking about the one, the only 7mm Remington Mag. Back in the day it was go big or go home know its considered kinda wimpy compared to whats out there but thats all right.
 
FYI American pronghorn is not a member of the antelope family :)
+1 on the Sierras, just keep the impact speeds below 2700fps they can be very messy on small game if they fragment alot.
 
For antelope I would go with just about anything between 120 gr. and 145 gr. and call it good. I've done a good deal of deer hunting with 120 gr Sierra GK's in my 7mm RM's, and they have performed very well. And Speer's 130 gr. BT's also fly very nice, and they would work well on those little bitty Wy. antelope too.

GS
 
For antelope I would go with just about anything between 120 gr. and 145 gr. and call it good. I've done a good deal of deer hunting with 120 gr Sierra GK's in my 7mm RM's, and they have performed very well. And Speer's 130 gr. BT's also fly very nice, and they would work well on those little bitty Wy. antelope too.

GS
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think Sierra makes a 120gr SGK, you might be talking about Pro Hunters.
 
My bad, I did mean Pro Hunters, I don't know why I said GK?

I have had a lot of very good results with a number of bullets in multiple actions just this last deer season alone. I did notice some expansion characteristics about the Speer 130 gr. BT, in that they didn't seem to hold together very well on one mule deer with a shoulder shot. With that bullet on that particular deer, the bullet lodged in the opposite shoulder blade. All the other deer we took this season, the other bullets listed below had through and through wounds and not huge exit wounds, large but not excessively so. All loads were pushing the upper end of the data using RL22.

This last deer season myself, my Sons, and our friends we guide with managed to take quite a few deer using the (#1900) 120 Sierra PH - 130 gr. Speer BT(#1624), - Sierra 140 gr. (#1905) , - Hornady 139 gr. BT both the SST (#28202) & the BTSP (#2825), - and Sierra 140 gr. (#1905). I think we also used the Speer 130 gr. spitzer SP #1623, I see I have some dated 2012 so I know they got used during deer season.

If all your hunting is antelope, personally, I wouldn't be too concerned about penetration or bullet integrity, as much as, I would be fast flat trajectory. Goats often get us into very long shots where trajectory needs to be as flat as can be. 500 yd. shots are not out of the expected norm for antelope, I have taken them with 130's out to 600 plus yds.. And other than running dead after a through and through lung shot, they manage to run another 300 yds. or so before dying while at a full run.

GS
 
Go with what you know, use what you have been using. I would hate to see you overcompensate or use the wrong hold over.....way too much heavy thinkin for me..... antelope backstraps mmmmmm.
 
I'd shoot the 160's you know how they fly and they won't bust up the meat.
^^^^^^^^^
Exactly what skyshot said. Shoot something you are familiar with and shoots accurately. Antelope are rather thin skinned and not heavy, I would say it doesn't take much to kill one but if it is hit in the vitals it will go down.

For what it's worth I used my .243 last year with an 87 gr Hornady Vmax to take two and my buddy used my dads 30-06 with 150 gr Nosler ballistic tips on his Wyoming Antelope. All 3 that were shot were just as dead as the other.
 
I was merely addressing the likely need for a flatter trajectory, being that antelope are the quarry. Considering they have eye sight that is equivalent to that of a 30x spotting scope getting close shots can be very difficult. This is why the .243 is often considered a fine antelpoe gun, 270 win too. But in my book a 7 mag has the potential to work perfect with a 120 gr. bullet leaving the barrel at 3300 fps, or so, for those 500+ yd. shots, ker-plak! But you have to decide what your most comfortable shooting, and also what your rifle likes, cause accuracy is everything when talking long shots on little bitty goats.

I'm envious, I absolutely love hunting those goats! Good luck, and hope you drop a 20"-er to bring home!

GS
 
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