Best Caliber? Modest Recoil for Antelope at 300/400 yards

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Dog Soldier has been there so he knows. I would buy a 7 MM/08 or a .270 and then
you would have an antelope rifle that would also do well with Mule Deer or Whitetails.

Zeke
 
If specifically talking about pronghorn, I would lean towards a .25 cal option, such as the .257 Roberts or .25-06. The Roberts and the .25-06 are plenty of gun for pronghorn and have the reach to go out to 400 yards, which is a long poke on the windy plains. The .25-06 will shoot a bit flatter, overall. Either 100 grain or the 115-120 grain slugs would work just fine. Good luck
 
zb338 said:
Dog Soldier has been there so he knows. I would buy a 7 MM/08 or a .270 and then
you would have an antelope rifle that would also do well with Mule Deer or Whitetails.

Zeke
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dog soldier not only been there he is still there in Wyoming lol
 
Many years ago I had Dale Storey put a quarterbore goat gun together for me using a Rem 700 action with a 28.5" Lilja heavy barrel. He trued it up and bedded it in a McMillan HTG stock. With that barrel length full house 25-06 loads yield nice velocity without pressure issues or accelerated throat wear. Its been a great long distance goat gun over the years. Heavy but that's what they make drag bags for.

I've always enjoyed the long stalk and a long shot finale. Pronghorn are superb prey for such hunters. I also enjoy stalking them in the off season with camera in hand.
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Merry Christmas to y'all.
 
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Dog Soldier said:
Antilocapra, the name of the American Antelope translates. The American Goat. No they are not Antelope or Goats. But Western folks refer to them as "Prairie Goats" it does confuse our Eastern hunters.:D
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/pronghorn.htm
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Close but no cigar.....

Antilocapra Americana translates to American Goat Antelope. They have characteristics of both species.

Directly from the linked article;

"Its Latin name, Antilocapra americana, means "American goat-antelope," but it is not a member of the goat or the antelope family and it is not related to the antelopes found in Africa. The pronghorn is the only surviving member of the Antilocapridae family and it has been in North America for over a million years!"

As far as caliber shoot what you like. The main challenge is range estimation which has long been solved with the laser range finder. If you know you range it is a simple function of knowing your chosen calibers trajectory and then shooting fundamentals.

My two favorite Antelope calibers are the .270 Weatherby and the 6.5-06 though I've killed a pile of pronghorn with a .30-06 and a .308 as well. I am not a fan of the 6mm rounds or .25's as they tend to be affected by wind much more than a high BC .6.5 or .277 round. And it tends to be seriously windy and the shots longer range in good antelope country.
 
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A .243 with premium bullets would seem to be a good choice. A .25/06 or .257 Wby is thought to be an "ideal" pronghorn rifle; ammo for the .25/06 is a bit cheaper and more readily available, the .257 is a little more potent and shoots a little flatter.

But since I already have a .30/06 and find the recoil to be modest . . . I'd just use that.
 
Mr. Holmes, those are lovely photographs of pronghorn. I know how hard it is to get good shots like that. Thanks for posting.
 
Well out here in America we call them "Goats". We live close to them all of our lives. We welcome hunters from around the World to visit Wyoming and try for that one Big wall hanger. :)
 
I knew Dale Storey when he was head of the Rodeo program at Casper College. We used to have coffee at Timberline Sporting Goods with Bill Howell. :)
 
I've taken them with a 375 h&h, which was effective. Then again I've taken several with a 22-250, and they died where they stood.
 
Holmes375 said:
I can understand why the video has comments disabled.

That ass hat does a disservice to those whom practice the art of long range hunting with a bit more discipline and skill.
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Not only that they seemed to enjoy the animal suffering. I had enough of killing animals years ago just shoot paper. I was in Montana met a guy in a gun store he had a 50 BMG went to a wide open spot with a cliff at the end went back 1800 yds and he figured out the hold and fired a tracer round. if you saw how high it was halfway there you would not think it would hit but it hit the big rock he aimed at. that was fun
 
LoonWulf said:

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So shameful... But probably a good video for all the"What rifle/cartridge for 600 yd elk hunting?" type threads that pop up.

The shooter must have been proud of that pathetic performance to include all the pictures at the end and post it up for all the world to see, but for the life of me I can't figure out what there is to be proud of in that video.
 
The .243 Winchester is hard to beat. Where some go wrong with it is using the wrong bullet for the game hunted.

Get the right load/bullet for it and it's about as good of a multi-purpose cartridge as there is. Bullet construction/bullet placement counts the most.

model86
 
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