After a recent, successful antelope hunt in the great state of Wyoming, my companions and I had a long drive back to Michigan. Inevitably, the discussion on the perfect antelope rifle came up. We analyzed our recent hunt's successes and failures, and came up with some criteria to base our decision on for a dedicated antelope rifle.
The wide open spaces of typical antelope country will test your gear and your skill.
Antelope are not large, nor particularly tough, so do not require much to kill them effectively. Wyoming requires a minimum 22 centerfire with at least a 60 grain bullet, and I have used a 64 grain with good success in the past. I have also used my elk rifle, the mighty Dragon Slayer 338 RUM with 210 Swift Scirocco launching at 3,340 fps. Obviously overkill, but hey, dead is dead. So basically any legal round will work, so how do you choose? After more than a dozen years of hunting antelope, I have some pretty sound advice.
6.5 PRC with 143 Bondstrike bullets to take this good buck at 791 yards.
If you want to sneak in and be delicate, pick something in the 22, 24, or 25 caliber realm and have fun with it. 223 Remington, 22-250, 220 Swift, 22 Creedmoor, 243 Win, 6mm Creedmoor, 6 GT, 257 Roberts, 25-06, 257 Weatherby etc, etc. Older cartridge designs and rifles don't have the twist rate to stabilize the current crop of highly efficient bullets, which limits range.
Flat shooting rounds like this 25-06 AI work very well for antelope.
If you want to reach out and take that big buck from the next zip code, that is where things get interesting. For me, it comes down to wind drift. Wind is the hardest thing to judge for myself and most hunters I talk to. High quality laser range finders take the guesswork out of distance, and a simple dial to your elevation knob gets you there. Wind becomes a guessing game. Modern gadgets can read the wind where you are, but it will always be somewhat of a guess between you and the animal. So my solution is to set up shots into or with the wind (12 O'clock and 6 O'clock) and use a bullet that minimizes wind drift as much as possible. The higher the BC to the bullet, the better it will defy wind. Time of flight is the other variable to wind drift, so there is a line where faster bullets with less BC will drift less than higher BC bullets if they are launching too slowly. Picking the highest BC bullets from 6mm, .257, 6.5mm, .277, 7mm, .308 and .338 takes only a few minutes of snooping around. Bullets like Berger Elite Hunter, Hornady A-Tip, Hornady ELDM, Hornady ELDX, Nosler Accubond LR will top the lists. There are also super sleek all copper bullets from Cutting Edge, Badlands and others. One may realize quickly, the selection of .257 and .277 long range bullets is lacking, especially when paired with rifles commonly available to shoot said bullets. To keep this blog from becoming a novel, I am going to eliminate the 25s and 27s. (I know they kill just fine) I am also going to eliminate the 22s and 24s for the same reason. That leaves us with what I refer to as the core 4 calibers. 6.5, 7, 30 and 338.
Lining up for a 628 yard shot with a 28 Nosler. It is important to get the barrel above the grass! Don't forget a rear support.
For sheer long range performance, the 338 will win if you pick a case large enough to launch a 250-300 grain bullet at high enough velocity. I'm talking 338 Lapua, 338 RUM, 338 Edge, 340 Weatherby, 338-378 Weatherby and a host of wildcat and lesser known monsters that launch 300 grain projectiles to savage speeds. Will they work? You bet. Do I want to lug around a huge rifle and get my bell rung every time I pull the trigger, not really. I will remove the 338s from the list for being too much.
Customer choice: 7mm Remington Magnum with 150 Swift Scirocco bullets to make a 670 yard shot.
30 caliber rifles are super popular and will do an excellent job. One customer shoots a 300 RUM at 1 mile for target shooting with the 230 gr A-tip. The round is so long it has to be single fed. Not exactly practical in the field. Other 30s can do a great job. 300 RUM, 300 PRC, 300 Weatherby, 300 Win Mag, 300 Lapua, 300 Norma to name a few. I keep coming back to excessive recoil and rifle weight. All of these cartridges will launch high BC bullets at high velocities to defy the ever present wind. I still feel like the big 30s are too much. They are off the list.
Customer choice: 28 Nosler with 195 Berger Elite Hunter at 600 yards.
The 7mms are the darling of the big game world in my opinion. They do a lot of things really well. Great bullet selection across the board to choose from, enough mass and frontal diameter to tackle about anything in North America, and recoil isn't so fierce, the average shooter can shoot most 7mms just fine. For general purpose, do everything, I like the 7mm Rem Mag and its new twin, the 7 PRC. If you want a nice edge, the 28 Nosler is about perfect for a hunting weight and length rifle. If you want ultra long range, the 7 RUM is tops, but will require an excessively long barrel to capture all that powder. For a long range 7mm antelope rifle, I give the nod to the 28 Nosler launching 180 ELDM, 190 A-tip or 195 Berger EOL. The extra case capacity launches these bullets beyond 3,000 fps from 26" barrels, which will minimize time of flight and the incredible BC helps buck the wind and retain velocity longer.
28 Nosler 150 Swift Scirocco at 628 yards.
The 6.5s have gained great popularity in recent years, and deservingly so. Bullet selection is about as good as the 7mms, and most modern rifles chambered in the 6.5s come with quick enough twist rates to handle the bullets. There are really three standouts. The 6.5 PRC is the easy button. Fast enough, easy on barrels, and plenty of oomph to get the job done at pretty long ranges. Its near twin, the 6.5 SAUM adds a tad bit of velocity. The 26 Nosler is an obvious upgrade and the 6.5-300 Weatherby is the king of the hill. The larger the case, the shorter the barrel life, but the performance gains might just be worth it!
Customer choice: 6.5 PRC with 143 ELDX at 260 yards.
6.5 PRC with 143 Bondstrike bullets at 450 yards.
So in the end, you need to decide how much recoil you can take and how far you want to shoot. If that monster buck walks over the ridge into view, are you ready for the shot? Is your gear up for the task?
Customer choice: 28 Nosler 175 Berger Elite Hunter 425 Yards
Final thoughts: My rifle of choice will be a custom built 26 or 28 caliber, 8 twist, with a 26" barrel, launching high BC bullets at fast speeds. My optic will have a fine crosshair and have 20x magnification or more on the top. I like the 6.5 PRC a lot, but I prefer 130 to 143 bullets to keep the speed up. A 26 Nosler would launch the highest BC bullets better. I really like the 28 Nosler, but my own rifle has a 9 twist barrel and won't shoot the high BC bullets well enough to hunt with. I prefer launch velocities to be over 3,000 fps and 3,200 is better in my opinion. The 28 Nosler will launch the 180s and 190s at those speeds.
At my current skill level, the 6.5 PRC fits well. If I increase my skill, the 28 Nosler will be a better fit. If I feel like lugging around a longer, heavier rifle, I think a 30" barreled 7 RUM launching 190 A-Tips at obscene speeds would be fun to play with.....
